Monetary Justice

The Labour Party’s desperate capital gains tax plan, so far from being bold, will do nothing for the economy or the country. The USA has had a capital gains tax for many decades, but it has not stopped housing bubbles or redistributed the tax burden more fairly. Taxing capital gains is a complicated and costly exercise in futility, a last century concept along with the National Party’s asset sales and other out-dated ideas. What New Zealand needs is a 21st Century tax system that is truly fair and takes advantage of modern technology. There is a growing call for a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), around the world and here in New Zealand. FTT is a tax with no loopholes, so that those high income earners that currently avoid paying tax will at last contribute to Government revenue. FTT is entirely cost-effective. Banking software already exists to collect withholding tax, so there is no need to re-invent the wheel. An effective FTT rate, one that will both slow rampant speculation and...

A relationship counsellor has an article published 12 July 2011 in one of our local Matamata newspapers. The article is great and is certainly worth a read, but his words apply to a wider sphere than just relationships. What he said was: • Just because you have been told something lots of times does not make it true. • Just because you believe something doesn’t necessarily make it true. • Just because you have believed something for a long time also does not make it true. • If you learn something based on information at the time you can unlearn it by getting more information and understanding. • Remember that whatever you believe, you will find evidence to support it, whether it is true or not. We should take heed of these words when we read and watch the media in the lead up to “Election 2011”. For instance: • Just because you hear New Zealand Superannuation is unsustainable and the age of eligibility must be raised to 67, doesn’t make it true. • Just because they say New Zealanders ...

New Zealand Herald 8 July 2011 has the above as the lead headline on page 2. The article continues with " Generous pensions wrong while children are living in poverty, medical trio say". New Zealanders are locked into a "them or us" mentality, instead of a "If we can afford it for them, we can afford it for us as well". Logic suggests that if New Zealanders desire particular outcomes i.e. to provide super to those over 65 years and to spend up on kids health or on any other desired outcome, then the financial system should enable those outcomes to be financially possible - subject only to the availability of people with the necessary skills, technology, resources and that all projects are also environmentally sustainable.

Older workers taking the jobs while youth unemployment rises - currently 27.5% for those aged between 15 to 19 and 13.5% for those 20 to 24. What's going on? I would suggest that we should aim to reverse the process - progressively reduce the retirement age to 55 while increasing the employment rates of the youth. We should be extending the working hours, the life, the productivity and the efficiencies of our technologies and production lines.

Somebody accused Labour of "Walking backwards into the future on the crutch of a new tax" - Must of been one of the other members of their "Tag Team" National who are currently in the ring doing nothing but walking backwards into the future in a wheelchair of new Public Service cuts and the sale of State Assets". While New Zealand's political theatre plays the same old show, the rest of the world is seriously looking at something new - A Financial Transaction Tax, aka Tobin Tax, aka Robin Hood Tax.

The above heading quoted from the New Zealand Herald's BusinessHerald lead article (6 July 2011) just highlights what an absolute mess New Zealand's economic & financial system is in (let's include the world). It's obviously a no win situation - we've had no confidence, no growth, no jobs, no pay increases (so depressing), low interest rates (that part is good) and that's given us lower inflation, and now a climb in confidence, a robust recovery, more jobs, higher pay (so exciting ... not for long), higher prices, higher interest rates (and that is not so good) and that gives us higher inflation. If you've been reading newspapers ( hard copy & online) as long as I have, you'd see that nothing has changed in the world of economics, finance and politics. The problems are the same. The small array of solutions that are offered are the same and as each so called solution is implemented the results are the same ... we all get older and collectivel...

Budget 2011  Tried and Tired Yet another New Zealand Finance Minister, Bill English, has produced a Budget based on the misguided belief that problems can be solved by the same thinking used to create them. What is needed is a new form of economy  monetary reform. Democrats for social credit (DSC) monetary reform will address the deep problems caused by inequality of income, neglect of the environment and the debt slavery that characterises the present unsustainable economic paradigm. Bill English’s budget will have little effect on any of these issues other than making them worse. Core to monetary reform is the New Zealand Monetary Authority (NZMA) that can provide and manage money as a public utility, for the economic, social and environmental benefit of New Zealand and its people. The current inefficient and expensive source of money borrowed from huge banking cartels will be replaced by an extremely efficient source  the NZMA. The burden of compounding debt will be relieved...