I’m not sure praying for another natural disaster to rebuild from is much of a ‘rockstar economy’, it’s more a ‘shitty pub karaoke economy’.
As I’ve pointed out at the beginning of the month…
Economic Growth – Higher economic turnover is being underwritten by foreign external debt. That means less gross national profit will stay in NZ and will flow out of the country in foreign dividends and interest. Praying for a natural disaster to rebuild from is not an economic plan.
Unemployment – For you to be considered as ‘employed’ for the quarterly household survey, you just have to work one hour per week. That’s hardly a ringing endorsement of economic prosperity is it? So what the National Party might actually be saying is that 53,700 NZers are now working one hour per week. Well thank the little baby Jesus, let’s all jet off to Hawaii for the holidays if such good times are here.
Average wages – These are terribly distorted because of the mega pay of the exceptionally wealthy who distort the pittance minimum wage gives those on the bottom of NZ society. Paying the richest NZers billions in tax cuts will make these ‘Avaerage’ wages look spectacular while minimizing true poverty.
Government finances – What is the point of a surplus when social services are starved and the Government continues to sell asset revenue streams? It looks nice on paper, but the social damage these cut backs create cost us far more in the long run and the billions that National has borrowed for corporate welfare and tax cuts provides nothing but an illusion of economic well being.
…for those with, 2014 will continue giving, for those without 2014 will continue to haemorrhage. Rebuilding from a devastating earthquake, degrading our environment for more milk powder to China and drilling for more oil are not sustainable economic plans that will benefit all New Zealanders.
If NZs economy were a ‘rockstar’ it would be a Nickleback and Creed hybrid playing music no one wanted to listen to.
It would be Millie Vanillie (sp?) lip-synching US corporates.
A “rock star economy” on stereoids, one can also say.
Indeed, already last night the news on TV One (Yeah, gasp, a “reality check” on there!?) they reported and quoted an expert from a leading accounting firm, that the “dairy boom” may well slow down substantially this year. New Zealand only enjoyed top dairy prices for many commodities due to production elsewhere on the globe not keeping up with demand. That is changing fast, and the competitors are not asleep.
Even Mainland China is boosting it’s own dairy production:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-05/31/c_132423178.htm
http://topics.bloomberg.com/dairy-industry/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-01/china-modern-dairy-considers-paying-first-dividend-next-year.html
Yes, even tiny producers like Costa Rica are boosting production for China:
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/828386.shtml
As a smart buyer and imprter, China also encourages it’s companies to diversify, and to acquire needed resources from various places, thus minimising dependence on a few. They also make own investments in many countries.
http://theglobaldairy.com/noticias/china-boosts-investments-in-europe-for-high-quality-milk-whey-and-powder-12198/
New Zealand business leaders, apart from a few, tend to belong to the “gold rush” mentality members. We saw this with the Kiwifruit and can also see this with wine and some other commodities, or even manufacturing ideas. Also the apartment building boom in the 1990s and early 2000s, same as other economic adventures show this. The quick buck and short sighted plans are the rule for most, so they maximise and then go into a bust, when the competitors, often operating more smartly, take them out of business.
So it will be with dairy. Indeed New Zealanders are teaching the Chinese and other competitors how to do things better, and one day they will therefore dig their own graves.
John Key is the poster boy of the “gold digger” minded idiots that run and largely populate this place, and while they still cheer him and his government on for their successes, the day of reckoning may be just around the corner. But the ones like Key do not care, same as Fay, Richwhite, Brierley, Robert Jones, G. Hart and others also did not care, and took their wealth and privileges with themselves overseas.
Leave the mess for the dumb people to sort out, that is the way they deal with the success fading.
As for the Christchurch rebuild we see another face of a section of NZ business operating in disgusting manner again. We have First Union report of the first cases of serious exploitation of Filipino workers.
That rebuild is just restoring infrastructure and services to what is needed, and such rebuilds lift GDP, but are only temporary “achievements”, that do not add economic activity and benefits for the longer term.
So yes, indeed, this “rock star” economy is a bit of a made up and well presented “fake economy”. We continue to export low value added “manufacturing” goods like milk powder, baby formula, raw logs, raw fish, fruits and vegetables, some oil, coal and gold, but little else.
Under this government there is NO proper plan for a lasting better future, no plan for a smart economy and no plan for better, safer, more secure and sustainable economic activity that would benefit most or even all.
With so much business activity and finance also being foreign owned, the billions that flow off hardly benefit any of us.
But of course, the guilty are the “failures”, not “rolling up their sleeves”, those “lazy” beneficiary bludgers, to they get hammered and persecuted, as they are nothing but a “burden” to society. When things go wrong, expect yet more of that, and Bennett will clad herself in full leather gear, to lash the whips, in good old SM style.
Don’t be too sure Bomber .
Any NZ Government who lets agriculture have it’s head will experience significant economic growth . After all , that’s what built NZ and nothing’s changed . People still need to eat .
The reason ‘milk’ is so popular as a product is because the process of extracting milk from a cow is as close to industrializing/production lining farm land as you can get . Very low employment to profit ratio and a high level of mechanization means massive profits for a handful of Queen Street Cockies . The maddening thing is that those scum sucking fuck bags in that circus we assume is our government are making all that look like they created a miracle economy out of their Ministerial Office rootings and late night piss ups .
They did not .
Rural NZ has always produced a surfeit of goods , mostly because they had to since ‘ slowing down or stopping ‘ farm land production is an impossibility . Especially after the Banks forced Farmers into ever higher levels of out-put to keep up with the interest payments they were lied to , to shoulder . When the sheep are pregnant , when the crops are in , when the bulls are out there’s nothing else to do but work no matter how much profit is in there for the farmer .
And they know that .
Those same scum sucking fuck bag politicians know that only too well . Mostly because some of those old school scum sucking fuck bag politicians used to be farmers who figured out an easier way to make money than to work for it . You just become a politician , change a few laws and bingo ! Legal swindling .
If you don’t like that idea you’d best emigrate because nothing is going to change . Certainly not in the short term . The moment humans don’t need to consume foods to sustain themselves , that’s the moment we can stop relying on farmers .
On a dying planet already showing dire warning signs of future food shortages and mass extinctions of essential natural infrastructure like bees , pollens and seeds not tainted by the devils at monsanto combined with an ever increasing population of consumer-ready bipeds champing at the bit with a pocket fulls of money and an eye to the bigger wide screen , we kiwis are ideally , and accidentally , future proofed .
The real problem facing Kiwis is the graphic lack of wealth distribution via taxation . Particularly when one considers that poorer people pay significantly higher tax rates per taxable dollar than their rich cuzzies who are by and large nothing more than just plain lucky . I love this from a poem by William Blake .
” Some are born to sweet delight and some are born to endless night . ”
I could add my bit and say
‘ and some steal away with the sweet delight of others for fun and profit and so far seem to be getting away with it . ”
It doesn’t rhyme but it works for me .
Truthfully I’m amazed and perplexed that you , and your TDB’er colleagues are so reluctant to discuss this most odd anomaly . The hated and despised farmer being the only real export earning sector in NZ and equally exploited as any poor , or over worked middle class city person .
I heard that little weasel coin the phrase ‘ Rock Star ‘ economy on RNZ or National Radio or what ever the fuck it’s called . He had the simpering whine of the rich and smug .
While not wanting to go anywhere near a rant , I have to say ; the arrogant swindling liars who concoct such abstract financial figures are those whom need imprisoning . I can’t say shooting , garroting , hanging , stabbing , run over , run down , run out of town after a decent tar and feathering , boiled in oil , boiled alive , skinned , scalped and generally fucked up because I don’t want to attract the attention of Da Po-lice .
New Zealand Dairy will be just fine.
We have established a premium New Zealand brand which can not be replicated by any other player in the market. There will be demand to high value New Zealand dairy products no matter how many competitors enter the market.
Buckle up folks. 2014 is going to be a great year for New Zealand.
2014 will be a great year if we make it the year we begin to take our country back. If we continue to lie to ourselves and say that our dairy products have a better brand than any others, it’ll be a shocking year. While the difference between a Mercedes and a Trabant is pretty obvious, what is the obvious difference between premium Kiwi dairy and something from Argentina? Dairy will be sold on price and to keep selling, the farmers will keep importing cheap labour, while their mortgages go up and Aussie banks cream it. Now that’s high quality dairy right there!
“New Zealand Dairy will be just fine. We have established a premium New Zealand brand which can not be replicated by any other player in the market.”
Yeah right! While New Zealand is quite successful at exporting and still enjoys a rather good reputation, you seem to be living in a “cloud nine” state of mind, which sadly many also do, not knowing what really goes on in the rest of the world.
For instance do your reality check by reading this:
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/dairying-and-dairy-products/page-11
http://www.mynewsdesk.com/arla-foods/news/triple-triumph-for-arla-at-global-dairy-innovation-awards-63381
http://cheeseloverca.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/lankaaster-aged-crowned-best-cheese-in-the-world/
http://manthestove.com/2007/butter-whats-the-best-in-the-world/
http://www.dairyfoods.com/articles/world-dairy-expo-championship-announces-grand-champion-winners
http://www.fil-idf.org/Public/ColumnsPage.php?ID=23077
http://www.ampi.com/newsrelease.asp?nrid=30
This is an overview of some international competition. But of course, New Zealand is leading exporter in dairy, and for a small country this size it does rather well.
What is lacking is innovation in some processed consumer products like for instance cheeses. Go to Continental Europe and you can find hundreds of specialty cheeses there, same as excellent, top butter, from Denmark, Ireland, Holland and other places. The US will have their own diversity and local production, and being somewhat egocentric, they seem to view the “world” as being the 50 US states. Nevertheless there is much variety in various dairy products.
Go to a New Zealand supermarket, and what do we get, the typical various brands of unsalted or salted butters, the traditional (bland) mild, medium and tasty cheddars, poor quality Edam cheese, and little else. Yes, over the last 5 to 10 years some new and good camemberts and bries have come onto the market, but much would not compete with quality found in Europe.
My point is, Fonterra and others tend to produce more of the same, focus more on bulk, than on quality and diversification. Hence to break into existing markets overseas, more needs to be done to produce better quality products with a distinctly NZ flavour and touch. Such high end products would sell for better prices and earn more. Rather than just expanding dairy production and produce more and more per hectare, do more with what can be produced sustainably. Smart production must come before bulk production.
So no, do not sit on your laurels, but keep working on getting better!
Well, with 5-6 billion on hand from plundering state assets, the government is cashed up and ready to pretend to govern. Frankly however, given the pitiful mess they’ve made of things so far, I’ll believe it if and when I see it.
The interest rate rises that have been signalled will push the dollar up even further, to the point that NZ dairy may not be competitive without the kind of trust premium the botulism scare has largely compromised.
Rock star economists eh. We’ve heard it all before. Muldoon economic miracle, Roger Douglas economic miracle, Key asset bubble – all the same thing. Hot air and electioneering.
Economists who really reform economies successfully, Solon, Meiji, Gandhi, Kie-Hong, Keynes, and to a lesser extent Mahathir, go about it in a very different way.
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