The National party seems to be softening us up for the budget next week; all the attention is focussed on the deficit, which is about 8% of GDP (apparently 6% would be better) and the level of Government borrowing which is reported as being some $350 million per week. I wonder whether this is a gross figure or net after loan repayments. I suspect it is the gross figure; the aim being to make it sound as bad as possible so we start agreeing that “something needs to be done”.
And right on time, the IMF brings out a report which suggests NZ is living beyond its means and needs to consider policies to limit its borrowing requirements. Strangely for the IMF (tongue firmly in cheek) they suggest the Government should consider selling off some of its assets. Do I detect the dead hand of Treasury behind all this?
One would have thought they might have reconsidered the efficacy of this policy after the disastrous asset sales programme and the giveaway prices achieved when Roger Douglas ruled the roost. Perhaps they should read “The Gods that Failed” by Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson, which according to the web site http://www.thegodsthatfailed.co.uk advises that the authors “argue that we need a new system: instead of an increasingly risk-prone, privatised, profit-driven economic model overseen by a largely unaccountable and speculation-obsessed elite, we need an economy that is run and regulated in the interests of ordinary people.”
WorkinWords 