It transpires that property investors and Bill English…

My bad and I humbly apologise if you admit my knowledge of obscure economic stats is clearly superior to yours :-)

Aye. I apologise unreservedly. Will endeavour not to rant at 5am in the future.

Re: Capital productivity, the StatsNZ report suggests a lag effect – capital invested but not…

All KiwiSaver contributions need to be paid through Inland Revenue from 1 July 2007 to 1 October 2007. We will send your contributions on to your scheme provider three months after we receive the first contribution from your employer.…

I could just hope that the private plan sees sense and tries…

Cullen has no idea how to grow personal wealth, company wealth or the wealth of a country. It is growth that is the issue. And individuals can only earn more in aggregate through improvements in productivity.

I quoted Brash to…

On balance, I would probably be a supporter of some kind of mandatory savings scheme as one contribution to improving our growth performance.

Hmmmm.

Cullen has no…

The stuff from Morgan is interesting, but he is also hardly a disinterested party. He is slagging off an entire industry with which he is directly competing. Wise he might be but independent he is not.

He's far from hiding this from what I saw. Whilst cleaning up the industry…

Actually I think Kiwis with kids go and live on the Gold Coast, those without skip Aus altogether and go live in London. Incidentally, nobody I ever met in London ever…

Real National Income per capita has declined. by more than 1% with nothing to suggest things will change for the better

http://www.socialreport.msd.govt.nz/2004/economic-standard-living/market-income-person.html

While its true that too much of New Zealand's GDP leaves our economy in the form of repatriated profits and interest, Cullen's record in this respect (RGNDI) appears…

For anyone with kids, tax is negative up to a much higher level than this. Working for Families benefits more than outweigh tax.

There is, as far as I know, no problem with doing both these things. Personally I like the simplicity of a lower income tax cut, possibly matched…

For anyone with kids, tax is negative up to a much higher level than this. Working for Families benefits more than outweigh tax.

Whilst anyone without (or yet to have) kids is inherently more mobile and on a short flight to Sydney.

Possibly it should also be possible to invest into the Cullen Fund (maybe using Kiwibank as a retailer) allowing individuals to take advantage of the…

Despite this, it is something worth watching, like many indicators there are trade-offs. France for example, has a 30 hour week high unemployment but wins the productivity race.

Real national income per capita" is not even a real statistic!

Gross National Income (GNI) = GDP plus income received from other countries (notably dividends and interest) less such income repatriated to other countries.

It can doubtless be adjusted for inflation. And population. Perhaps giving real national income per capita...

Just someone's way of coping with the traffic and insane house prices, etc?

Yes, Don, it's an Auckland thing called "humour".

Relief. I was beginning to worry :-)

Just to follow up on Keith's response to sagenz, I also heard the other day that despite the high dollar, media hype and F&P moving some production offshore New Zealand is experiencing a manufacturing upturn. Right…

[Cullen's] policies have caused the decline in productivity growth from a positive growth in growth trend 93 to 2000 to almost no productivity growth in last recorded numbers.

What last recorded numbers? *These* last recorded numbers?

He has also been responsible for…

Well, as far as I can tell, Cullen's response is "well, there is no investment that is totally risk-free and anyone who tells you differently is a damn liar". Which is perfectly true — just as there's a real distinction between saying an operation or a medication regime…

He has also been responsible for the decline in the average real income…

I've always wondered why in the ongoing frenzy for tax cuts no-one has talked about mirroring Australia and making the first $5-$10k of income untaxed, thus giving everyone a tax cut and especially helping out the poorest of the poor

I think there was some commentary about this prior to…

Now we can lead the world in deflating wages and salaries... and upskill to manual labour in alleys to make up for it. Excellent.

For someone who reports on IT you sure miss a lot, Juha. Is it an Auckland thing?

Can you show me clearly how you have arrived…

For anyone with kids, tax is negative up to a much higher level than this. Working for Families benefits more than outweigh tax.

This is a big propaganda own goal though, because few understand WfF and the headline tax rates…

Whilst Gareth more than most knows the importance of investing for the future, he…

I guess Cullen or someone important at Treasury…

Particularly the bottom end of the graph is likely to be quite meaningless in the real world. Those on low wages are less likely to be able to reduce their…

Sorry Keith, Rich of Observationz is right here – to assume a priori that Kiwisaver will drive wages down is the good old fashioned determinism that makes everyone else laught at economists and econometricians.

Yes, If I am on the lookout for a new job and have two offers of…

Shouldn't you be worried then?

Wage and salary growth is far more contingent than you allow for.

With all due respect, you address envelopes and crowds.

Que?

It would have been nice to have a little more intelligent discussion about this — and kudos to Keith for his contribution — but I think this is a little too important to be handing out gold stars for a…

Russell:

With all due respect, you address envelopes and crowds. It would have been nice to have a little more intelligent discussion about…

Unfortunately, if the overseas ownership horse has not already bolted, it is certainly running for the…

Australian Financial Review

Woh. A CMS delivering entirely flash content. Now that's something to laugh about.

Damn straight. Most NZ banks are Aussie owned and yet the bulk of their profits are derrived from NZ, not Australia. They be laughing.

Possibly even louder than, say, Fairfax is laughing about the money it sucks out of NZ to prop up the Australian Financial Review.

Yeah, but as that bloke on NZ Dragons Den said, it would be pretty hard not to make money in this economy

Oh please. Spare me the lucky finance minister story.

As you can see for most of this period NZ's growth has exceeded Australia, USA, UK and Japan. Throw…

(the housing market ) is transferring money from the poor to the rich and from New Zealanders to the shareholders of overseas banks.

Damn straight. Most NZ banks are Aussie owned and yet the bulk of their profits are derrived from NZ, not Australia. They be laughing. Especially when the…

I suppose a standard economic analysis says that in the long run the employer contribution will be borne by employees. Cullen mentioned he expected the cost of Kiwisaver would be factored into wage bargaining, and I suppose this is what he meant.

On the other hand, a…

If you have two part time jobs, can your employers each get up to $20 a week?

Ahh – an intriguing question. I'd say almost certainly yes. But I don't *know*. This isn't to the benefit of the saver (except in so far as it would lower the downward pressure…

He (Cullen) has presided over an economy that has grown by a third in his time, seen unemployment come down to next to nothing and never been into recession. As a business owner I especially like the last bit.

Yeah, but as that bloke on NZ Dragons Den said, it…

Martin: Not really sure how the government contribution applies to [part-time
workers] however. Anybody?

Graeme: The taxpayer will match their savings up to $20 a week, and their employer'c contribution by up to $20 a week – the same as everyone else.

If you have two part time jobs, can…

I'll make a prediction: National will go into the next election promising NOT to scrap "kiwisaver" (but odds-on to "fix" or "improve" it.)

Smart money has got to be on National fixing the employer contribution at 1% or 2% – whatever it happens to be when they get into power.

Keith, you can "cheat" by using a screenshot program to snap the chart, and save it as a JPEG/PNG or whatever.

Or is you want a really geeky hack, and higher resolution, you print the chart, and check the "print to file" box to save a post-script version. Note, you…

Not really sure how the government contribution applies to them, however. Anybody?

The taxpayer will match their savings up to $20 a week, and their employer'c contribution by up to $20 a week – the same as everyone else.

My understanding is that the total is capped at 8%.

Nope (at least not any more). You can put in 8%, your "employer's" matching contribution only need be 4%, however.

Keith – at least some of the problem identified by opponents is this:

Someone employed on $30,000 – three kids,…

This could be…

I'll make a prediction: National will go into the next election promising NOT to scrap "kiwisaver" (but odds-on to "fix" or "improve" it.)

Key was refusing to say this morning exactly what National's policy on KiwiSaver would be, but promised they'd have one before the election. And you're right: they'll…

It makes those Google spreadsheets look like Quattro Pro...

Oh, and all the savings stuff was interesting too, btw.

It will certainly push wages down.
Employers are going to take KiwiSaver contributions into account when setting wages and in considering wage increases.

is not exactly…

Employer contributions to Kiwisaver are being phased in at 1% annually for four years. How this affects wage increases will be determined by many factors.

We just had a 1 week increase in statutory holiday, which equates…

I earn $500,000. I agree with my employer that I will take a 20% pay cut and we will put the $100,000 into kiwisaver tax free at some split between employer and employee contribution

My understanding is that the total is capped at 8%. So the max in this case…

But this is Cullens ignorant economics.

And with that comment you blow any credibility you might have in this debate. He has presided over an economy that has grown by a third in his time, seen unemployment come down to next to nothing and never been into recession. As a…