Posts Tagged ‘economy’

“Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness”. (UBI Series)

Written By: - Date published: 6:04 am, March 14th, 2021 - 49 comments

I believe, as our first Labour Government did, that everyone has the right “to a life” regardless of their perceived ,”value”.

In our country, with its excess of resources and capability, we have no excuse for poverty.

For leaving people behind.

So! You want a “plan”?

Written By: - Date published: 4:36 pm, March 11th, 2021 - 50 comments

Expecting a bit much aren’t you? We haven’t had that since Muldoon. At least he had them. The kind of people now asking for a plan were those who complained about governments that “interfered with the sacred ‘free market’” and screamed about “central planning”, “picking winners”, “protectionism” etc. They prefer just getting cheap labour to give the illusion of economic growth. And build a cycleway!

Austerity – who should pay for the financial crisis?

Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, November 17th, 2019 - 30 comments

Nick Kelly on UK austerity and who should have paid for the financial crisis. 

Too many jobs being created

Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, November 7th, 2018 - 14 comments

The latest unemployment data showing the jobless rate falling to under 4% follows the equally bad 1.0% economic growth in the September quarter and a budget surplus of $5.5b, confirming the economy is going down like Donald Trump, as predicted by the ANZ Bank’s business confidence survey

Ardern and Pelosi.

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, September 9th, 2018 - 65 comments

There is something very wrong with “our” media when it takes a stand-up comedian to alert people to important stuff. But anyway…

The mess that the new government inherits

Written By: - Date published: 11:47 am, October 23rd, 2017 - 51 comments

This post is too long to read. Its purpose is to serve as reference material, a “one stop” snapshot of where we are as a country. The mess that the new government inherits. The consequences of the nine long wasted years of National. The magnitude of the challenge ahead of us.

Uncertainty doesn’t bother “the market” at all

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, October 3rd, 2017 - 57 comments

There is no “strong and stable” government to “lead” us. Maximum uncertainty! No end in sight! According to received wisdom (and all those people in a self-interested rush to ordain the born-to-rule-party) the market should be panicking! In fact…

Oram on Nats’ poor record and why we should vote for change

Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, September 17th, 2017 - 89 comments

Rod Oram at Newsroom: “More of the same won’t deliver for New Zealand. Hopefully, new leaders and policies will.”

National – Delivering no pay rises for NZ

Written By: - Date published: 8:29 am, August 17th, 2017 - 15 comments

Expect plenty of Nat boasting on “the economy” in the election campaign. They’ll be desperate to hide the inconvenient fact that ordinary workers are going backwards.

Labour and National government spending

Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, July 6th, 2017 - 3 comments

Our brilliant economy

Written By: - Date published: 10:49 am, June 16th, 2017 - 51 comments

We need new thinking on the economy – zero emissions, sustainable, a big redistribution from rich to poor. But the list of current economic woe shows that even on their own old conventional terms the Nats are useless economic managers.

Immigration and economic growth

Written By: - Date published: 8:16 am, June 14th, 2017 - 54 comments

English’s scaremongering about Labour’s immigration policy does nothing but highlight the fundamental weakness of our economy. Just how anemic are we after 9 long years?

National’s economic report card fail

Written By: - Date published: 2:52 pm, April 18th, 2017 - 18 comments

Bill English reviews the economy

Though artificially boosted by high immigration and disaster rebuilds, the NZ economy is in the doldrums, and National are a failure even by their own goals and targets. I predict that National will soon abolish all targets, and that this will be “a sign of our success”.

Monbiot on the embedded economy

Written By: - Date published: 11:54 am, April 14th, 2017 - 10 comments

A model for a sustainable economy. Something to ponder on a wet holiday weekend.

Trump and the NZ housing bubble

Written By: - Date published: 7:26 am, November 16th, 2016 - 21 comments

The bright orange trigger for a sharp rise in mortgage interest rates may have just arrived. Our over-indebted home owners are highly vulnerable.

Hickey on debt

Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, October 16th, 2016 - 31 comments

Hickey in The Herald on Sunday: “Our household debt to income ratio of 165 per cent is now about 5 per cent above those previous highs of 2008 and rising quickly as debt rises around twice as fast as incomes.”

Hollowing out the regions

Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, August 28th, 2016 - 44 comments

The closure of 19 mostly rural Westpac branches is indicative of the ongoing hollowing out the regions. Neglecting Northland cost the Nats the last by election. Neglecting regional NZ as a whole might cost them the next general.

Immigration jobs and housing

Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, August 11th, 2016 - 88 comments

Until we sort out our housing and unemployment problems it is surely time to reign in NZ’s currently record levels of immigration.

Reserve bank cuts OCR to record low

Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, August 11th, 2016 - 28 comments

The Reserve Bank just cut the OCR to a historic low of 2%. And no it’s not good (economic) news.

Employers failing Kiwsaver obligations

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, August 5th, 2016 - 35 comments

In a sign of just how stressed our economy is: “Inland Revenue is chasing employers for unpaid KiwiSaver contributions worth tens of millions of dollars.”

Oram – seven warning signs for the economy

Written By: - Date published: 10:07 am, July 24th, 2016 - 23 comments

Rod Oram’s Sunday Star-Times, reprinted on Facebook here, adds yet another voice to the chorous of economic warnings: “Our Road Runner economy is zooming towards the cliff-edge”…

Our zombie economy

Written By: - Date published: 7:04 am, June 22nd, 2016 - 149 comments

It’s basically flat-lining – only partially animated by immigration and a housing bubble.

The Mother Budget

Written By: - Date published: 6:21 pm, May 26th, 2016 - 89 comments

There are budgets and there are budgets. And for all the presence or absence of bright ideas, there’s a budget that threatens to subsume all others…

National the party of economic lunacy

Written By: - Date published: 10:02 am, February 10th, 2016 - 166 comments

A “$17 billion hole in the economy”. An estimated $18 billion lost because National stopped investing in the super fund. A record national debt. And we’re still talking about tax cuts? Lunacy!

Economic doldrums

Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, September 19th, 2015 - 16 comments

Two pieces this week on how National’s mismanagement of the economy has left us in the doldrums.

Away with the economic fairies

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, September 1st, 2015 - 40 comments

The ANZ survey shows business confidence at the lowest levels since the financial crisis. Yesterday John Key insisted that it was “reasonably positive”. He was either completely wrong or lying through his teeth. Either way it’s unacceptable.

Labour is the party of economic competence

Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, August 17th, 2015 - 147 comments

The old myth that National are good managers of the economy should now be well dead and buried. For a recent case study see Robertson vs Joyce on dairy prices…

Oram on the regions

Written By: - Date published: 4:17 pm, July 27th, 2015 - 16 comments

Rod Oram looks at the way the regions are stifled in his Sunday Star Times piece.

Deconstructing the government’s report card

Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, July 7th, 2015 - 11 comments

The government has awarded itself a nice report card. Let’s take a closer look.

There never was a rockstar

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, July 4th, 2015 - 92 comments

We’ve just seen the weakest quarterly growth in two years, and economists are warning of possible recession. The NZ economy needs to be fundamentally reshaped.

As the economy stalls it’s a great time to be a bank!

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, June 24th, 2015 - 34 comments

Ho ho – what am I saying? It’s always a great time to be a bank.

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

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