The line is "in New Zealand, services inflation had also continued to build even as the global inflation pulse starts to fade; domestically generated inflation and our super tight labour market will keep the pressure on the Reserve Bank to remain tough on inflation."
Services inflation, by the way, is rents, housekeeping and servicing your car - all the stuff you pay for regularly and are watching go up every time a bill arrives.
That is driven partly by the fact that we seem to have got ourselves stuck in this rut, whereby when we see the bills going up, we go ask someone for more money and, more often than not, they give it to us.
And that is driven largely by the fact the Government won't let enough people into the country.
When you are faced with paying more or losing workers, you pay.
When you pay, you look to recoup it back from whatever you sell, and so it goes.
Here is the great fear - unlike other countries that, at least in part, believe the worst of their inflation crisis is over, ours isn't.
Even if it has peaked, and that’s still open to some debate, it is still going to be higher for longer. And the longer it is higher, the more we pay to live.
It is a sign of a sick economy.
We can't help the weather. Some of that will add to inflation, but we can help a lot of other stuff.
Although it is in the rear vision mirror, the lending and printing this Government indulged in is now very clearly a massive part of the problem and we should not forget that.
The fact the Government refuses to let labour into the country in the numbers we so desperately need is another part of the problem, and we should not forget that either.
We should also be asking whether our image is, in some cases, hurting us as well.
The minimum wage and migrant wage moves are a massive part of the problem. We are doing a lot of shooting ourselves in the foot here.
It doesn’t have to be as big of a mess as it is.
Then there is the question of recession - if inflation globally has peaked and easing and soft landings look increasingly possible, if not likely, ask yourself - how come we missed the boat?
How come we are worse off than so many others?
Grant Robertson likes to suggest it's not a contest.
And yet he only suggests that when we look like we blew it.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings.
And that is driven largely by the fact the Government won't let enough people into the country.
When you are faced with paying more or losing workers, you pay.
When you pay, you look to recoup it back from whatever you sell, and so it goes.
Here is the great fear - unlike other countries that, at least in part, believe the worst of their inflation crisis is over, ours isn't.
Even if it has peaked, and that’s still open to some debate, it is still going to be higher for longer. And the longer it is higher, the more we pay to live.
It is a sign of a sick economy.
We can't help the weather. Some of that will add to inflation, but we can help a lot of other stuff.
Although it is in the rear vision mirror, the lending and printing this Government indulged in is now very clearly a massive part of the problem and we should not forget that.
The fact the Government refuses to let labour into the country in the numbers we so desperately need is another part of the problem, and we should not forget that either.
We should also be asking whether our image is, in some cases, hurting us as well.
The minimum wage and migrant wage moves are a massive part of the problem. We are doing a lot of shooting ourselves in the foot here.
It doesn’t have to be as big of a mess as it is.
Then there is the question of recession - if inflation globally has peaked and easing and soft landings look increasingly possible, if not likely, ask yourself - how come we missed the boat?
How come we are worse off than so many others?
Grant Robertson likes to suggest it's not a contest.
And yet he only suggests that when we look like we blew it.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings.
2 comments:
Most certainly shooting ourselves in the foot; the added problem is that we are taking aim first.
Flooding the country with modest IQ modest skill immigrants with different cultures and ethics, residency, and the right to bring hangers on, is not in long term interest. We somehow have to find ways to employ them forever. If we must import we need high IQ to counter the fast breeding locals with moderate or worse IQ and industriousness. With concern about CO2 our agriculture export industries and tourism should decline. We are left to build secure infrastructure and ever more houses to create employmen, neither of which activity contributes much to national income. Maori can be relied upon to maintain the demand for houses without importing more persons.
The energy of some immigrants is commendable; reminiscent of the early colonists. But immigrants used to working for near slave conditions under slack regulations are not likely to lift the NZ standard of living or ethics generally for all.
The public has to take reverses on the chin, not be born just by some unfortunate businessmen and the middle classes and savers. We cannot forever maintain or improve the highest standard of living ever reached. Indexing of everything to everything else is absurd; the inflationary cycle is thereby stoked and cannot be broken.
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