Month: October 2017

New Zealand Vol.14 (Ardern administration)

Here are tweets on the new administration, et al. Excerpts are on our own.


https://twitter.com/HelenClarkNZ/status/923148024729260033


Ministerial List for Announcement (for appointment on 26 October 2017) [PDF]


… Last Thursday’s announcement by Winston Peters heralded a new government: a formal coalition between Labour and New Zealand First, supported on confidence-and-supply by the Green Party. …
Ministers outside Cabinet are members of Cabinet committees. Almost all matters for Cabinet are first deliberated in Cabinet committees, before going to Cabinet for ultimate decision. And sometimes Cabinet will also delegate the power to act directly to a Cabinet committee.
Ministers outside Cabinet also regularly attend Cabinet itself for matters relevant to their portfolios. Strictly speaking, ministers outside Cabinet (and parliamentary under-secretaries too) only attend Cabinet at the prerogative of Prime Ministers. But the practice has been that ministers outside Cabinet routinely attend when their matters are up for Cabinet decision, as well as sometimes for other matters of interest to their portfolios.
Thus, the designation of minister outside Cabinet is a bit of smoke and mirrors, perhaps even a misnomer. …
… New Zealand First ministers will not be free to switch hats in order criticise the government outside their portfolios. In other words, dissent is expected to be rare and negotiated on a case-by-case basis.　…
… Green Party ministers will only be bound to support decisions within their respective portfolios, as well as being obliged to vote for matters that raise matters of confidence-and-supply. … Green Party ministers will have more freedom to express their distinctive views and won’t be as tightly bound to publicly back Cabinet decisions. …


New Zealand Vol.13 (Coalition)

Here are articles & tweets on the coalition, et al. Excerpts are on our own.

How the Labour-NZ First-Greens deal compares to previous coalitions (10/21/2017) | Andy Fyers @NZStuff

Who’s in, who’s out? Labour announces Cabinet, ministerial line up (20/10/2017) | @nzherald

Jacinda Ardern: ‘Capitalism has failed New Zealanders’ (10/22/2017) | @australian

Jacinda Ardern is New Zealand’s Next Prime Minister – Winston Peters swings to the Left, saying the country voted for change. (10/19/2017) | Tess McClure @VICE

Winston’s Choice: Jacinda Ardern poised to become prime minister (10/19/2017) | @robhosking @TheNBR
…
– Greens 8 MPs will support the Labour-NZF coalition on confidence and supply
…
– Mr Peters says finance minister is off the table


… Peter Thiel became a citizen of New Zealand, indulging in equal parts his Lord Of The Rings fantasies and bunker style apocalypticism… “New Zealand will grow in size…will quickly become the glory land, and ultimately become one of the safest areas in the entire world.”
The centre-left coalition government, led by Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party, is torn between the past glories of social democracy and a geographical exceptionalism that indulges equal parts ahistoric romantic notions of New Zealand and dread. …
… John Key crafted a unique brand of Third Way Toryism that was relaxed on social issues and augmented its old money and farming base with the so-called “aspirational” middle class drunk on a mid-oughts style property boom. …
… yet it lacks a natural coalition partner. …
Labour’s approach was far more Trudeau than Corbyn, running a likeable personality, Gen Xer and talented candidate with talk of, “values,” and, “positivity,” with a mantra of “Let’s Do This!” There are certainly some policies that would make an American leftist ecstatic…
… Our largest city, Auckland, combines the low density housing of San Francisco, the sprawl of Los Angeles, and a lack of infrastructure and public transport. …
… The party insists this is not racist while also circulating real estate documents highlighting the “Chinese sounding names” of buyers and using Australia’s moral abomination of a migration model as a means to attack the National party government from the right. …
… In the shadow of Trump and the rising fascist right across Europe, Labour is spurning internationalism for a “left” politics that sees its job as portioning out a dwindling social surplus. Labour thinks they are clever here but their modest left politics cannot beat back the demons of nationalism or the darker vision of Thiel and the global super-rich…
… Peters is a skillful politician, economic nationalist, and populist capable of destabilizing the political calculus between National and Labour. … Like a lot of far-right wing political figures in the West, he is obsessed with central bank policy, having railed against monetarism and Chicago economics for as long as I can remember.
Labour’s failure to go even half-Corbyn may create political space for New Zealand First should Peters upstage Labour on the economy, effectively locking in Labour’s anti-immigrant gambit into a new consensus. …


WINNERS
Anyone with a car
Farmers
First Home Buyers
Humanity
The Greens
LOSERS
Existing Home Owners
Economy
All of us
ACT
Everybody who’s freaking out

Jacinda Ardern commits to 100-day plan, with one exception (20/10/2017) | Anna Bracewell-Worrall @NewshubNZ
… Ms Ardern wouldn’t confirm which of Labour’s priorities had changed during negotiations with NZ First and the Greens, but said the 100-day plan remains broadly the same. …
Labour’s first 100-days plan
…
– Pass the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill, requiring all rentals to be warm and dry
– Ban overseas speculators from buying existing houses
– Issue an instruction to Housing New Zealand to stop the state house sell-off
– Begin work to establish the Affordable Housing Authority and begin the KiwiBuild programme
– Legislate to pass the Families Package, including the Winter Fuel Payment, Best Start and increases to Paid Parental Leave, to take effect from July 1, 2018
…
– Resume contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund to help safeguard the provision of universal superannuation at age 65
– Introduce legislation to set a child poverty reduction target and to change the Public Finance Act, so the Budget reports progress on reducing child poverty
– Increase the minimum wage to $16.50 an hour, to take effect from April 1, 2018, and introduce legislation to improve fairness in the workplace
…
– Set the zero carbon emissions goal and begin setting up the independent Climate Commission

NZ First gets four posts in Cabinet and one undersecretary as Jacinda Ardern leads new coalition government (19/10/2017) | @1NewsNZ

New Zealand PM-elect Jacinda Ardern focuses on final touches of coalition deal (19/10/2017) | CHARLOTTE GREENFIELD @globeandmail

@jacindaardern

Jacinda Ardern | @guardian

#JacindaArdern | @GlblCtzn

https://twitter.com/waikato/status/921113337940779009

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern: The world reacts (20/10/2017) | Matt Burrows @NewshubNZ

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s Sudden Star, Gets Set to Govern (10/20/2017) | CHARLOTTE GRAHAM @nytimes

New Zealand Labour’s Jacinda Ardern To Be Next Prime Minister (19/10/2017) | Luke Cooper @HuffPostAU

Jacinda Ardern picks Labour, Greens, NZ First cabinet (10/20/2017) | @australian

Jacinda Ardern to become NZ prime minister following coalition announcement (10/19/2017) | Richard Shaw (@MasseyUni) @ConversationEDU

Meet Jacinda Ardern, 37, New Zealand’s Next Prime Minister (10/19/2017) | @laurelwamsley @npr

Meet NZ’s new Prime Minister: Jacinda Ardern clinches victory giving hope to progressives everywhere (10/18/2017) | smelly pirate @dailykos

New Zealand’s most powerful young woman is now Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (10/19/2017) | @reuters @theheraldsun
… Those plans contrast with French President Macron’s announcement that he would look into opening migrant processing centres in Libya, to avoid a dangerous trip for asylum seekers across the Mediterranean Sea.
Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, meanwhile, has positioned himself as an alternative figure to U.S. President Donald Trump by touting Canadian immigration as a success story. …
New Zealand’s annual net migration of 72,300 is at record levels in a country of just 4.7 million people, ahead of both Britain and the United States on a per capita basis. …
… “Our concern is that our immigration settings haven’t been dynamic enough to differentiate between the skills gap that might exist in regional New Zealand that doesn’t exist in Auckland,” …
Her conservative rival dismissed Ardern’s appeal as “stardust”, claiming she would squander the economic gains achieved under National. …

New Zealand just elected its youngest prime minister in 150 years (20/10/2017) | Ashitha Nagesh @MetroUK

New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern left Mormon church to support LGBT rights (22/10/2017) | Lydia Smith @independent


… Peters is 72 and not expected to contest the next election as leader, but he clearly wants the party he created in 1993 to outlast him. By hitching his team to a new government with a young leader, Peters clearly believes there will be a greater long-term electoral dividend than simply backing a fourth and likely final term for National. …


… New Zealand First leader Winston Peters split from the National party in 1993 to form his party in opposition to National’s neoliberal economics. …


https://twitter.com/NewsroomNZ/status/921262253428690945

New Zealand election: Jacinda Ardern’s campaign rollercoaster ride (24/09/2017) | Josh Bavas @radioaustralia
… Associate Professor Grant Duncan from Auckland’s Massey University said it was a well-seized opportunity. “She assured the New Zealand public that our relationship with Australia is a solid one and it’s never going to be questioned,” …
“I’m not willing to do politics as usual ? I do bring a different approach, I favour being able to collaborate where I can.” …

Have Recruiter Salaries Stagnated? (08/31/2017) | JONATHAN RICE @NZRice

Taking stock of Jacinda Ardern’s stocktake (08/02/2017) | Sam Sachdeva @NewsroomNZ

“I have no intention to be a career politician” – Jacinda Ardern (Voice; 02/08/2017) | @RadioNZLIVE


Netherlands Vol.4 (Coalition)

Excerpts are on our own.


https://twitter.com/EUwatchers/status/917764955759407105
https://twitter.com/Electograph/status/916743236923854850

People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (@VVD)
Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA; @cdavandaag)
Democrats 66 (@D66)
ChristianUnion (@christenunie)

The polarised nature of the Dutch party system and the volatility of the electorate ensure that any ‘victory for the centre’ is likely to be short-lived.

Dutch parties agree coalition government after a record 208 days (09/10/2017) | Jon Henley @guardian

Dutch coalition partners agree on government deal, seek party backing (09/10/2017) | Cynthia Kroet @politico

Dutch coalition government formed after seven months of talks (10/10/2017) | @rte

NEW DUTCH GOV’T AGREEMENT “AMBITIOUS AND BALANCED”: PM RUTTE (10/10/2017) | Janene Pieters @NL_Times

Rutte forms Dutch government 208 days after election (10/10/2017) | Mehreen Khan @ft
… likely to side with Germany in many aspects of eurozone reform, in a blow to French …
… will shift rightward after Dutch Labour, a previous coalition partner …
… support for a eurozone budget …

Dutch Move Closer to New Government After Longest Coalition Talks Since WWII (10/10/2017) | Joost Akkermans @bpolitics

Trust in the future: the coalition agreement main points


Income
… cutting the number of tax bands from four to two from 2019
… earning 40,000 by 1,200 a year, but middle and high earners will benefit most. …
… 37% on earnings up to ?68,000 and 49.5% for all income above that. …
Work and benefits
… Freelancers will have to earn at least ?15-?18 an hour to be classed as self-employed …
Paid paternity leave to be extended from two to five days in 2019 …
Child benefits will go up by a total of 1bn …
Mortgages
… will be reduced in four stages of 3%, so that by 2023, home owners will be limited to a 37% deduction. …
… Home owners who still have a mortgage to pay an extra tax (eigenwoningforfait) every year …
Asset tax
… increasing the tax-free limit from ?25,000 to ?30,000. …
Other taxes
Employers
… cut the basic rates of corporation tax from 25% to 21% while a tax rate of 16% will be levied over the first 200,000 in profits …
Employers with up to 25 members of staff will only have to pay one year of sick pay, rather than two, as at present …
The 15% tax paid by firms on the dividends they pay out to shareholders will go in an effort to make the Netherlands more attractive to foreign firms …
Refugees
Education
Healthcare
Crime
Climate
Other measures

Dutch Tax Reform: Reduction in Corporate Tax Rate and Abolishment of Dividend Tax (13/10/2017) | Wouter Paardekooper @bakermckenzie @lexology

Highlights from Dutch Parties’ Coalition Agreement

The new coalition loves him, so just who is the ‘normal, ordinary Dutchman’? (13/10/2017) | @Expatica

The Dutch government confirms plan to ban new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 (10/10/2017) | @FredericLambert @ElectrekCo

Netherlands announces pension reform that would move country to a DC system (11/10/2017) | PAULINA PIELICHATA @pensionsnews

After 200 Days of Negotiations, Netherlands Forms Government But Excludes Populist Wilders (11/10/2017) | Chris Tomlinson @BreitbartNews

Are drawn-out Dutch coalition talks a harbinger of tough days ahead for Germany? (28/09/2017) | @thelocalgermany
… Rutte’s business-friendly Liberal VVD, the progressive D66 and two Christian parties, the pragmatic CDA and more conservative Christian Union.
Formed in the swinging 1960s, D66 is pro-abortion, pro-gay and lesbian rights and wants the country’s euthanasia programme to be extended so all people – not just the terminally ill – can decide to end their lives.
The Christian Union bases its policies on the Bible and opposes abortion, same-sex marriages and euthanasia. …

Dutch coalition talks have not yet touched on the future of Europe

DUTCH VOTERS SHOW LITTLE ENTHUSIASM FOR STILL-FORMING NEW DUTCH GOVT: STUDY (19/09/2017) | Janene Pieters @NL_Times

Dutch coalition talks collapse again (24/05/2017) | PETER TEFFER @euobs

Why the Dutch need three months to form a government (30/03/2017) | Nik Martin @dw
… Since World War II, Dutch governments have taken an average of 72 days to be decided, compared to four to six weeks for a typical German coalition. The Dutch record is nearly seven months in 1977…
… environmental concerns, income inequality and a more humane refugee policy.
GreenLeft is likely to be offered the ministry of environment portfolio and could win extra cash for green innovation, said Koole. But its would-be coalition partners are unlikely to concede on the latter two issues, having spent the election campaign trying to outdo Wilders’ hard-line on immigration, along with promises to reduce public spending.
“If GreenLeft enters a coalition with the right-wing parties, it could meet the same fate as the Labour party, which lost enormously in this election because voters saw it participating with a mainly right-wing government,” Koole said. …

Dutch election results at a glance (16/03/2017) | @JuliaRampenMM @NewStatesman

3 biggest Dutch election myths (13/03/2017) | NAOMI O’LEARY @POLITICOEurope

What’s at stake in the Netherlands’ elections? (13/03/2017) | Jan van der Made @RFI

What to expect from the Dutch elections in six charts (10/02/2017) | Aleksandra Wisniewska & Billy Ehrenberg-Shannon @ft

Too many parties and not enough influence spotlighted in political system report

cf.
Going Dutch (11/10/2017) | Darrell Delamaide @handelsblatt
… Belgium, managed to go 541 days without a new government after the 2010 election. …

Dutch mayors don’t like the idea of being chosen by public vote (04/10/2017) | @Expatica

King’s speech forecasts ‘flourishing economy’ for the Netherlands (19/09/2017) | @BelTel

Interview – Shell Netherlands CEO: More large wind projects wanted (05/10/2017) | Toby Sterling & Stefano Berra @reuters


Spain Vol.2 (Catalunya Vol.2)

SpainSpain-Cataloniacatalunya.FH10


UK Vol.100 (Post-EUref #Brexit Vol.25)


Free papers, reports, et al. Vol.21 (Professor Richard H. Thaler – 2017 Nobel Economics Prize laureate – Vol.1)

Here are tweets which include videos, podcasts, articles, papers, et al. on *Professor Thaler’s winning the 2017 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
* the Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business


https://twitter.com/canbizn/status/917364090217074688


UK Vol.99 (Northern Ireland Vol.4)

Antrim and Newtownabbey


cf.
COUNTY ANTRIM and BELFAST – Mineral Resource Map of Northern Ireland (PDF) | @BritGeoSurvey @daera_ni @Economy_NI

Belfast


niBelfast1niBelfast3
cf.
Department for the Economy @nidirect
Belfast strongest UK city for economic growth in 2015 (15/12/2016) | John Campbell @BBC
Belfast Tourism continues to drive the NI visitor economy (07/07/2017) | @VisitBelfastOrg
Boeing/Bombardier trade war could have ramifications for Belfast economy (w Video; 09/27/2017) | @globalnews
Northern Ireland on target for 80,000 Knowledge Economy jobs by 2030 | @CatalystIncHQ
A new kind of trouble – With the guns mostly silent, Ulster can begin to deal with its lamentable economy (01/22/2015) | @economist
Competitive economy | @belfastcc
Belfast City Report (PDF; 2007) | Jorg Ploger @CASE_LSE
THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST ON THE NORTHERN IRELAND ECONOMY (PDF; 2015) | @UniversitiesUK
THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY IN NORTHERN IRELAND (PDF; 2015) | @UlsterUni @OxfordEconomics
Economic expert Esmond Birnie leaving PwC to take up Ulster University post (09/28/2016) | Margaret Canning @BelTel
The Economic Impact of International Students on Northern Ireland (PDF; 27/11/2015) | Eoin Murphy @niassembly
How is the Belfast economy performing, and what are the key policy issues facing the city? | @CentreforCities
The History of Economic Development in Ireland, North and South (PDF; 1999) | John Bradley @britac_news
Queen’s University Centre for Economic History – QUCEH Working Paper Series | IDEAS @stlouisfed