NZ gets a shake-down

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, October 31st, 2010 - 15 comments
Categories: capitalism - Tags: ,

How poorly have the Nats run the economy? Between 1999 and 2009, the economy grew by $8 billion a year. It’s so bad now the Prime Minister kowtows to foreign capital. Hands over $33 million and our sovereignty because of a hollow threat to take away a movie.

Maybe if they had our economy working we wouldn’t need foreign capital. Making those new railcars would be worth about the same to the economy. Getting people into work would save hundreds of millions in benefits, bring in taxes, cut crime.

A good government would make us independent. Our own economy. Our own capital. Our own laws. Not at the mercy of foreign capitalists.

Maybe if National had an economic plan.

But nah. The Nats are too lazy, too ideological for that.

The world knows Key is a soft target now. Which international corporate will give us the shake down next?

15 comments on “NZ gets a shake-down ”

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  1. freedom 1
    31 October 2010 at 9:30 am

    my guess? The pressure will come from the Federal Reserve lacky in the Secretary of State costume. After the photo-ops and scrapbooking, the doors will shut on the ninth floor and Mrs Clinton/IMF/Trilateral Commission is going to have some very clear instructions for what they want the National Party to do. Naturally we will not be told what that is, we will only be reminded of the pointless need to shuffle behind a Free Trade carrot whilst being strong-armed to promise more deaths under the stars of Afghanistan and other places we have no reason to be.

  2. RedLogix 2
    31 October 2010 at 9:53 am

    Brian Gaynor is more or less saying the same thing:

    This week’s major developments, the Hobbits and the Australian/Singapore sharemarket deal, are further reminders that our political leaders are quick to respond to popular causes but are hopeless at developing a long-term economic strategy for the country.

    Prime Minister John Key has saved The Hobbit by dropping an additional $20 million-plus into the pockets of Time-Warner, a corporate giant with a sharemarket value of US$36.4 billion or about 90 per cent of the total value of all domestic companies listed on the NZX.

    But how does this fit into New Zealand’s overall economic objectives? Have we become cargo cultists who are prepared to drop on our hands and knees when overseas corporates threaten to leave and take their glittering gifts with them?

    I disagree with Gaynor on one point; the NACTs have a long-term agenda alright…but they never articulate it.

    Bill English himself stated the strategy, win peoples confidence with populist short-term ‘feel goods’…then exploit crisis, both real and concocted, to slip in their real agenda…the boot onto the face of ordinary people.

  3. Nick K 3
    31 October 2010 at 10:02 am

    Are you saying the economy grew by $80 billion over the 10-years from 1999-2009?

    You may be right, I don’t know. I’m simply asking.

    • bbfloyd 3.1
      31 October 2010 at 10:44 am

      No Nick,…. he said the economy grew an average of 8 billion a year under labour… that’s nine years….add that up again… and add the reality factor there, as in the first year or so was no more than the start of recovering from the abomination that was the bolger/shipley government…… once more, do the sums properly this time…

  4. M 4
    31 October 2010 at 10:27 am

    Free trade agreement with the US? I would have thought that they’d have nothing left to trade as all their manufacturing has been shipped offshore – will they be trading fry shacks and hair extension salons?

    If the government really wanted to make a difference as Z says they would be investing massively in the rail network and opening new branch lines for those who be stranded in far flung suburbs when they can’t afford to run cars anymore. Projects such as trialling largely fossil free inputs for farming need to be started as soon as possible and people who know their shit literally need to be brought on to the government payroll to show farmers of all kinds there is another way to farm for when things get tight.

    The whole organisation of society needed to re-examined and a return to the fairer society we used to have, minus the racism, needs to occur. I know Douglas, Key and Hide will slag NZ off as being a banana republic in the ’70s but people were kinder to each other and not so quick to look down on others who needed state help. Sometimes I feel as though I’ve woken from a long sleep and have been put in another country, a K Mart version of the US.

    • freedom 4.1
      31 October 2010 at 10:36 am

      you are not wrong M

      as i often say to people
      “this is not the country that i grew up in”

      personally i am sick of the way greed is killing paradise

    • Jim Nald 4.2
      31 October 2010 at 1:11 pm

      And we’re waking up to a Prime Minister which has cynically and shamelessly pitted fellow NZers against fellow NZers.

  5. Draco T Bastard 5
    31 October 2010 at 12:15 pm

    Maybe if they had our economy working we wouldn’t need foreign capital.

    We don’t need it anyway and what the government should be doing is getting our economy working with our resources and within the renewable resource base. This is going to require a major investment in R&D and that is going to have to come from government as we already know that the private sector won’t do it.

    • Colonial Viper 5.1
      31 October 2010 at 6:44 pm

      Government should invest in R&D and hold the IP generated for the good of the country. Not for instance, generate the IP and let some corporate take the lion share of the profits once the most uncertain stages have been taken at taxpayers’ risk.

    • Rex Widerstrom 5.2
      1 November 2010 at 5:20 pm

      Agree entirely right up to the “private sector won’t do it” bit.

      Australia offers a raft of R&D incentives which require that private industry invest alongside government. I’ve personally worked with a few firms (mainly in software development) that are enthusiastic partners in a COMET (commercialising existing technology) program.

      There’s also a Green Building Fund, a Green Car Innovation Fund, and other measures.

      Why should the taxpayer bear the full brunt of R&D costs, which private industry will then go on to develop and profit from? Industry has the people, tooling and some of the knowledge already. Government should be fostering that, not duplicating it.

  6. john 6
    31 October 2010 at 12:33 pm

    Warners’ Walmartization of NZ actors rights to discussion of working conditions and pay. Assisted by our PM Key. Refer link for illustration of NeoLiberal US’s hysterical fear and opposition to workers organising “to have a say” Contrast with the huge PROFITS (the modern god single word mantra) of the same business!”
    http://www.alternet.org/story/148640/what_it%27s_like_to_work_in_walmart_hell/

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