For some light relief and comedy, take a look at Finance Minister Willis Pre-Budget Speech. She sets up her party clown theme by saying, "For today though, I’m going to switch out of my Economic Growth hat and into my Minister of Finance hat and focus my remarks on this year’s Budget". What's with these hats?
Shouldn't a Finance Minister have a single goal - to design economic policies to raise aggregate welfare in the nation? Is she saying her other "hat" conflicts with that aim? But wait. It turns out that the theme of her Speech is, "I can confirm today there will be no lolly scramble in Budget 2025". So are government budgets in NZ typically lolly scrambles, where politicians commandeer Kiwis hard earned dollars and throw them to their mates? Since times are tough, has that tradition been put on hold this year? She says "according to the latest numbers I've seen, this smaller operating allowance means we will continue to forecast a surplus in 2029". According to the latest NZ Treasury and IMF figures I've seen, NZ has one of the largest budget deficits in the developed world and is forecast to have exploding public debt levels kicking in around 2030.
We know Willis' gig now. She's doing the bidding to push up the cost-of-living on behalf of the Big Banks, Big Supermarkets, Air NZ, Big Construction, and Big Energy. She's helping the Big Banks loosen the capital requirements that they don't like so next time they get in trouble they will come running to the tax-payer for a bail-out; she approves of stripping the rights of Bank customers to sue for overcharging by making legislation retrospective; she sat on the NZ Initiative Board, which has representatives of both Foodstuffs and Woolworths on it; and she is the 51% public owner representative of Air NZ that is doing rip-off monopoly pricing on domestic routes. Her entire Pre Budget 2025 Speech could have been written by Former Finance Minister Bill English. In fact, I believe that the speech writer was in fact Bill English's speech writer. Its a different world since back then. Willis is an economic dinosaur.
We know Willis' gig now. She's doing the bidding to push up the cost-of-living on behalf of the Big Banks, Big Supermarkets, Air NZ, Big Construction, and Big Energy. She's helping the Big Banks loosen the capital requirements that they don't like so next time they get in trouble they will come running to the tax-payer for a bail-out; she approves of stripping the rights of Bank customers to sue for overcharging by making legislation retrospective; she sat on the NZ Initiative Board, which has representatives of both Foodstuffs and Woolworths on it; and she is the 51% public owner representative of Air NZ that is doing rip-off monopoly pricing on domestic routes. Her entire Pre Budget 2025 Speech could have been written by Former Finance Minister Bill English. In fact, I believe that the speech writer was in fact Bill English's speech writer. Its a different world since back then. Willis is an economic dinosaur.
Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.
7 comments:
I wish this guy would lighten up on the never ending attacks on Willis and the coalition government. We all know she’s not perfect, but the alternative would be a full scale disaster. This kind of non stop rhetoric only plays into the hands of the opposition. This is the problem when you give an academic a bullhorn.
This is not the point. There are National MPs with solid economics/finance profiles - who could do the job with experience. Why is Luxon not using this expertise?
You may be right about the comments, but at least he is prepared to put his name to them. In any case, what makes you think the opposition actually reads this stuff? I'd actually like to see some evidence that the comments made on Breaking Views actually influence anyone but those of us who agree with most of them.
Maybe, Anon @ 5.40, accepting second-best, not trying for excellence and making excuses for poor performance is the reason NZ is the economic basket case it now is. You can't deny that this government is still spending us into bankruptcy so why should we let them off the hook?
I think Robert brings us valuable information that is hard to find anywhere else.
What you (Anon) should be doing is stop cheering mediocrity and using your bullhorn, if you have one, to let people know that it's not good enough. And help to find alternatives for better governance. MC
Allen Heath, being into quantitative stuff I'd love to be able to answer your implied question about the effectiveness of sites like this one other than as echo chambers where the already converted gather. Getting the requisite data would, however, be a very difficult (impossible?) task.
There are people who surf the internet looking at sites they haven't come across before. Some of them, those of a more conservative disposition, may be influenced by what they read here.
If any readers fall into this category, please tell us your story!
Noted. In the case of Willis, she is a bright, articulate PR lady - and will be 100% loyal to her party masters (Luxon, Key and co) who have facilitated her rise. So she has the main credentials for a political context. But in a real economic crisis she will not weather the storm.
What I do Barend, in the apparent absence of any data from readers, as you comment, is to notify all my friends and colleagues of the existence of Breaking Views. I hesitate to use the initials BV as you may get more publicity than you want!
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