Posts Tagged ‘neoliberalism’

Will the real David Shearer please stand up?

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, December 28th, 2012 - 104 comments

Many want Shearer to break with neoliberalism, clearly state his politics and a new political direction.   He became leader with a compelling, but worryingly selective, back-story.  Party members want democratic participation. What of consensus-building, coercion, public services, social security, TPP, PPPs, state assets, sustainability?

What is neoliberalism?

Written By: - Date published: 1:17 pm, April 23rd, 2012 - 190 comments

KJT offers a welcome refresher on the dominant economic/political ideology of our time. The one that has lead us to where we are today: Neo-Liberalism is a moral and intellectual justification for greed. A way for those few who accumulate wealth, by impoverishing many, to justify themselves, and keep those they are stealing from docile and compliant.

The Rena disaster and response: a study in neoliberalism’s failures

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, October 26th, 2011 - 24 comments

KJT looks at how the neoliberal fly-by-night attitude set the grounds for the Rena disaster and the inadequate response.

NRT: The effects of NeoLiberalism

Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, September 6th, 2011 - 15 comments

The New York Times has a graphic comparing the outcomes of economic policy in the US, specifically comparing the broadly social democratic policies prevalent between 1847 and 1979, and the NeoLiberal policies since 1980. The differences are astounding.

Institute for New Economic Thinking

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, December 23rd, 2010 - 3 comments

All those who think Keynes is dead (and those who merely wondered what happened to him) should check out the website of George Soros’s Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET). A remarkable range of economic luminaries are presented on video and powerpoint, most or all of them arguing for a radical Keynesian solution to the financial crisis.

The luck of the Irish

Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, November 24th, 2010 - 11 comments

In Question Time yesterday, Bill English said Ireland is an example of how bad the recession might have gone in New Zealand. That triggered a memory of John Key three years ago saying we should follow the Irish economic model. I guess we can just be thankful Key wasn’t in power at the time to put that crazy ‘aspiration’ in effect.

The day that never comes

Written By: - Date published: 12:27 pm, November 19th, 2010 - 15 comments

National Bank has joined NZIER in estimating the economy shrank 0.2% in the September Quarter and all the projections say it’ll go backwards this quarter too. Bill English now admits John Key’s ‘rapid recovery’ isn’t happening. But he insists it’s coming – tomorrow, no, the day after for sure. We’ve just got to keep waiting…

Why ‘focusing on growth’?

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, November 6th, 2010 - 21 comments

The title of Don Brash’s latest exercise in making John Key appear moderate second 2025 Taskforce report is “Focusing on Growth”. Why should we be myopically focused on growth? Neoliberalism treats growth as an end in itself. That reduces us to mere cogs in the machine of ‘New Zealand Inc’. A healthy society is more than its GDP growth rate.

Neoliberal dominoes

Written By: - Date published: 9:55 am, November 6th, 2010 - 51 comments

According to some, the very definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.  In economic terms the world, and NZ, have been doing the same neoliberal economic agenda over and over for the last 30 years.  It hasn’t worked.  It’s time for a change…

Treasury: peering into the dark with a broken torch

Written By: - Date published: 12:09 am, November 2nd, 2010 - 55 comments

I saw Labour’s press release yesterday about the latest Treasury monthly statements. Basically, Treasury says ‘the economy’s a whole lot worse than we expected but we stand by our growth forecasts in the Budget’. Odd, because the Budget forecast 1.6% growth so far this year and it has actually been 0.7%. How good is Treasury at forecasting?

CTU’s Alternative Economic Strategy

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, October 12th, 2010 - 17 comments

The CTU has just released its Alternative Economic Strategy. Well, they call it ‘alternative’ but it’s not like the Nats have one beyond Key smiling and waving. Anyway, the CTU’s Economic Strategy is an extremely impressive document. It goes through the current problems and suggests 100 reforms for a more successful, fair economy and country.

The weak neolib defence of asset sales

Written By: - Date published: 9:16 am, June 1st, 2010 - 23 comments

The neoliberal dinosaurs at Anti-dismal have presented their defence of National’s privatisation agenda by responding to my post “Privatisation: the facts”. Their responses offer an insight into the neoliberal mind – asset stripping is good, it’s fine to get ripped off when selling assets, and who cares that the ‘mums and dads’ line is bollocks, the rich deserve the assets more.

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