Written By:
Marty G - Date published:
12:27 pm, November 19th, 2010 - 15 comments
Categories: bill english, Economy -
Tags: neoliberalism, peak oil, recession
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…
English has failed to grasp the fact, is ideologically incapable of grasping the fact, that this isn’t your ordinary recession. The economy isn’t growing because the growth potential isn’t there.
For an economy to grow it needs more raw resources and more energy to convert those raw resources into more useful items. There aren’t more raw resources to get hold of (apart from all that spare labour, and the minerals in our national parks, and the water they’re giving to their dairying mates). That’s why internationally we’re seeing the prices of food, minerals, metals, and oil skyrocket. These are the building blocks of economic growth and what those rising prices say is that there isn’t enough to go around.
The return to rapid GDP growth we’ve been promised isn’t going to happen and National’s neoliberal ideology has no Plan B. Neoliberalism is such a childish doctrine, so simplified and divorced from reality, that it doesn’t even have the theoretical framework to understand that Plan A might fail.
So, while this government and any successive neoliberal government rules us, and until we get a government that has an economic vision that is more than praying for ever higher GDP, we’ll just keep waiting for the day that never comes. Here’s a song while we wait:
The day that never comes – Metallica
Born to push you around,
Better just stay down.
You pull away,
He hits the flesh,
You hit the ground.
Mouth so full of lies,
Tend to black your eyes.
Just keep them closed,
Keep praying,
Just keep waiting.
(Chorus:)
Waiting for the one!
The day that never comes!
When you stand up and feel the warmth!
But the sunshine never comes!
No the sun shine never comes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcB6SgkG4AE
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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Hey Marty, this is an ok post. But please, spare us the Metallica 🙂
there’s no accounting for taste. Hetfield for PM over Key any day 🙂
Hey, Metallica are okay..
Deb
yep it’s all fucked… but cool song and video. Had given up on Mettalica long ago, nice to see there still doing the chug-chug rythmes 🙂 Can almost forgive them for leading the anti-download mob… almost 🙂
On a similar theme but moving with the times, check MIA’s Born Free:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd2w3j_mia-born-free-video-official-real-a_music
looking forward to her big day out show 🙂
Suppose Ministers of Finance and PMs have to look on the bright side as to admit otherwise would have a loss of confidence. We don’t want that do we!
This is just another example of why we are wasting our time when we listen to Ministers of Finance speaking on the state of the economy. They have a vested interest in making things appear better than they are, and therefore they cannot be trusted for the truthful view.
Listening to English on the state of the economy is like listening to a real estate agent giving a spiel on a house. Nod, nod, nod while quietly rolling the eyes ….
>>English on the state of the economy is like listening to a real estate agent giving a spiel on a house.
Real estate agents have to be registered!!!