Posts Tagged ‘capitalism’

NZ election 2020: Labour win is a watershed moment in the country’s history

Written By: - Date published: 12:27 am, October 20th, 2020 - 47 comments

The 2020 election was more than just a victory for Labour and more than a crushing defeat for the National Party (New Zealand’s main centre-right political party). This result marks a significant watershed in New Zealand politics which will likely have implications long after this parliamentary term.

Should Parents and Teachers Defy the Government?

Written By: - Date published: 4:02 pm, May 16th, 2020 - 66 comments

School’s back on Monday, but the medical community is still struggling to understand covid 19

The future of Capitalism

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, December 23rd, 2019 - 128 comments

2019 has been a remarkable year for those wanting social, economic, and environmental renewal. The level of protest remains high, the idealism as strong as ever, but the ferment is not generating progressive wins, is weakening democratic reflexiveness to challenge, and is weakening pan-national institutions. It’s not that easy to get on the shelves here, […]

Can we have a future, with capitalism?

Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, February 25th, 2019 - 192 comments

The concentration of wealth and power insufficiently regulated capitalism has caused, now works against the survival of human civilisation. With the wealthy opposing any attempts to limit the damage which affects their wealth.

A Thousand Words

Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, August 11th, 2018 - 139 comments

…in a single graph.

A right, Left problem

Written By: - Date published: 1:17 pm, July 24th, 2018 - 78 comments

A post suggesting that the traditional descriptive lens of “left and right” isn’t up to capturing current political realities.

Smile!

Written By: - Date published: 4:45 pm, July 7th, 2018 - 98 comments

The extent and limits of current politics.

Deep Trawling.

Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, May 24th, 2018 - 21 comments

Is NZ’s fishing industry just a domestic version of the tobacco companies? And how much would that really matter?

Buttered Bread

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, February 6th, 2018 - 84 comments

What side’s yours buttered on?

Let’s stop kidding ourselves.

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, December 18th, 2017 - 131 comments

The “Adapting to Climate Change in NZ” report.

Jacinda Ardern’s speech

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, October 20th, 2017 - 25 comments

If you missed it last night – Jacinda Ardern’s first speech as PM elect is everything that we could want and expect. But the take-home line of the drama belongs to Winston Peters.

Professor Mark Blyth on…

Written By: - Date published: 11:26 am, October 18th, 2017 - 22 comments

…the past 70 years of economic theory and practice. (h/t Adam)

Do you want to keep me in poverty?

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, September 15th, 2017 - 148 comments

If you want to know exactly how, then read on.

Incrementalists ‘Brick It’

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, July 16th, 2017 - 11 comments

Meet Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and original negotiator behind the Paris Agreement. She’s co-signed an article, published in Nature and signed by over 60 scientists as well as business leaders and other ‘pillars of the global community’ that headlines – “Three years to safeguard our climate”

Free market efficiency in health – not

Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, March 15th, 2017 - 37 comments

The idea of free market efficiency is not nearly as powerful or universal as its (often fanatical) proponents would have us believe. The sorry state of the USA’s health system is yet another compelling example of its limitations.

The Ray White – China deal

Written By: - Date published: 7:32 am, July 30th, 2016 - 87 comments

Real Estate agent Ray White has formed a partnership with China’s Lianjia to market NZ houses to about 260 million Chinese buyers. They say it’s the government’s problem – and they’re right.

Dead Hands

Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, August 20th, 2015 - 11 comments

Time worn patterns and predictable decisions.

State of Nations

Written By: - Date published: 6:11 pm, January 29th, 2014 - 25 comments

This post isn’t a ‘contrast and compare’ piece on the policy announcements of National, the Greens and Labour. Enough to say that National are pursuing privatisation while both Labour and Green are at least trying to do good things.

Shame about the reality of the bigger picture then.

Halting Dynamics and Shifting Inertias

Written By: - Date published: 5:20 pm, January 7th, 2013 - 43 comments

Like many, I’ve been somewhat bemused and not a little angered that austerity is touted as a pathway to economic recovery. Like many, I’ve come to view both austerity and bail outs simply as means to put public monies and the control of public institutions into private hands – all the while diminishing the power of citizens on both an individual and collective basis.

But why consciously destroy or abandon real economic activity in a quest for power? Why not continue to build on whatever ‘real economy’ bases of power you posses? Idle speculation might suggest a lust for power, y’know… power for power’s sake. Or a reaction to, or recognition of impending peak resources in a world of growing population.

Waltzing at the Doomsday Ball

Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, July 10th, 2010 - 52 comments

This guy writes what I would aspire to write if I had the time and the cojones. For a lazy Saturday morning rant, read on.