Written By: notices and features - Date published: 10:14 am, October 16th, 2011 - 88 comments
Two weeks ago I thought that Goff and Labour did not have a chance in this election. National’s lead in the polls seemed too big, the country still seemed to be in love with John Key and Goff just was not getting the media cut through necessary to change hearts and minds. Then something happened. The wheels started to fall off National’s well honed machine.
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:44 am, October 4th, 2011 - 54 comments
The credit rating downgrades have been quite a political earthquake, and the aftershocks are going to continue for some time.
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:39 am, October 2nd, 2011 - 56 comments
The weeks of the RWC were supposed to be a politics-free zone. Bread and circuses. It hasn’t turned out that way, as both Armstrong and O’Sullivan point out in weekend opinion pieces. The credit downgrades have dropped a bomb in the middle of the political landscape. But I think that both are wrong in expecting any action from the Nats.
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:39 am, October 1st, 2011 - 17 comments
The Nats have indulged in a long series of boastful posturings and dire warnings about the risks of a credit downgrade, many of them as recently as August 10th. Now that they have suffered not one, but two separate credit downgrades, Mr Smile and Wave has some explaining to do.
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:41 am, November 23rd, 2010 - 69 comments
Standard and Poor’s shock move to downgrade our credit rating caused markets to plunge late yesterday. Bill English’s reaction, predictably, is to pretend nothing is wrong. John Key says it’s about debt, even as he borrows for tax cuts. But let’s look at what S&P says is wrong with us:
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 3:00 am, July 17th, 2009 - 49 comments
So, Fitch, the third of the big three sovereign credit ratings agencies, has moved the Government’s rating from a stable outlook to a negative outlook. Does this mean that John Key will be admitting that he has delivered a credit downgrade, like he was boasting of an upgrade when S&P (another of the big 3) moved us […]
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:02 pm, July 6th, 2009 - 72 comments
Well, we told you so. The Nats lied for weeks that a credit rating downgrade would be imposed on us if we didn’t cut contributions to the SuperFund. We didn’t fall for that for a minute. Even before the Budget, we pointed out that, except for the extraordinary conditions of the last two years, managed […]
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:27 am, June 5th, 2009 - 12 comments
From The Independent: No lasting harm from airport credit downgrade. Analysts and management of Auckland International Airport are unconcerned at Standard & Poor’s downgrading of the airport’s corporate credit and debt rating from A to A-minus. The downgrade will add less than $1 million to the airport’s overall interest bill of around $80 million. If […]
Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:32 pm, June 2nd, 2009 - 16 comments
You’ve done your job as a spin doctor when journalists start repeating your spin sub-consciously. The credit downgrade ‘issue’ is a great example. There was never any threat of a downgrade, as long as the tax cuts were dropped. The journalists all acted like there was a huge threat. They parroted the government’s line that […]
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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