NZ Centre for Political Research

This week's poll asks:

Do you think the Green Party’s plan to print money is necessary?

*I think the Greens are absolute lunatics and I think they are given to much time on both TV channels and radio live. A good reason not to watch the news. God help NZ if the Labour party, greens and mad maoris, and Winston get it. Weakling Key is bad enough. Chris

*Let us keep the greens off the treasury benches for all our sakes. John

*The question posed is not the simple question it appears to be at first glance. It is distressing to surmise that as the political system starts to accept the last few decades of leadership failure – many politicians and bureaucrats will dodge acceptance of any responsibility associated with the unfolding economic crisis.

The first step is to accept the realities that past economic policy has been economically unsuccessful and no new policy is emerging. Only the “sit on the hands” approach accompanied by “poll leadership.” This type of leadership relies on the Voter to “show the way” thus re-electing any sitting government. But real leadership comes with national interest ideals instead of the tribal politics that exists under MMP. Real leadership has not yet emerged?

Solutions will only surface once there is a general acceptance of policy departure from Basic Democratic Economics Principles that has occurred over an extended period - due to past government strategies. (This problem also exists on a global scale in western democracies)

The term - Basic Democratic Economics – consists of the foundation stones of “Consumption” on the one hand and “Production” on the other. Like many democracies, New Zealand has introduced policy that has destroyed Production and with it the complexities of real GDP (Money) growth. This regression has reduced money growth by the removal of the multiple effects of Primary, Secondary and Peripheral Lines of Business activity. Such activity grows wealth through “money changing hands” in a commercially active sense - related to production.

Over the last few years’ independent economists have recommended many different changes to economic fundamentals. The Greens strategy of printing money could be associated with a basket of other groundbreaking new policies and thus such a course of action would not need to be the total “Quantitative Easing” package that they currently advocate!

Some money printing could conceivably devalue the New Zealand Dollar. (I am sure Dr Brash would agree!!!)

Thus, the fundamental policy changes necessary could be called a “Leadership Basket” and they appear below: -
1. Sufficient “Money Printing” to reduce the reliance on external debt and de-value the New Zealand Dollar.
2. Balance future government budgets to eliminate the amount of Foreign Debt borrowing. In the present, transfer borrowing from the Chinese totalitarian dictatorship to Debt providers of democratic origin.
3. Introduce Anti-Dumping “Defensive” Legislation to prevent China and Asian nations from predatory trading against New Zealand by the Import Dumping of low cost, low quality products. Thus reversing the ongoing demolition of domestic New Zealand manufacturing. Provide security for Private Sector Equity and “Policy Promote” new Start-Up companies that propose to manufacture basic living products on a domestic scale.
4. Provide security for Private Sector/VC Equity aimed at the capitalisation of new private companies in strategic areas of business development using the standard VC risk strategies and due diligence.
5. Maintain ownership of Strategic Assets to preserve and improve government income. Prevent purchase attempts of these assets by any Foreign Sovereign Wealth Fund.
6. Introduce a Tax on Foreign borrowings by State Owned Enterprises in order to prevent the NZD from increasing its value. This would also increase Taxation income.
7. Ban the sale of high value Primary Production Assets to any Sovereign Wealth Fund - period. (Like the Crafar Farms!) This will reduce the Current Account Deficit.
8. Raise the barriers to entry for Foreign Investment and encourage national investment by New Zealand (and Australian Subsidiary) Corporate Investors with fiscal and Tax incentives. This will reduce the Current Account Deficit.
9. Force monetary and fiscal intervention through the Reserve Bank to hold down the value of the NZD. Introduce defensive policy to shield Exporters from current paths to closure or bankruptcy. (Like the Chinese Communist government policy that controls their currency value, gives Tax breaks to government companies and provides subsidies to strategic industries to out-compete the rest of the industrialised World!)
10. Introduce policy to restrict, huge, high risk speculative lending by leading banks.
11. Introduce policy to encourage banks to use New Zealand Investment Funds rather than increase the levels of Foreign Debt held by banks.
12. Introduce policy to force State Owned Enterprises and government departments to source Debt from New Zealand Investment Funds to reduce the current account deficit and reliance on Foreign Debt.
13. Action the cutback of socialist government bodies that make up the “black or parasitic” economy. Such Bodies are not serving the average person or family but are managing their personal social decisions. These bodies are Taxpayer funded and their cost reduces national and international competitiveness and makes society a high-cost, low productivity, based sector in a competitive world.
14. Immigration Policy is migrating Asians into New Zealand to compensate for large-scale migration to Australia by jobless New Zealand residents. This policy is increasing government service costs as few of these migrant families develop enterprises based on increasing production. There is a saturation of food related businesses that are based on small-scale food consumption and Tax avoidance. Immigration policy needs serious change to bring down government social expenditure.
The New Zealand economy is in regression because of the erosion of the Private Sector and its capacity to maintain “Production” and “Real Job” creation roles. Time is of the essence!!!
Doing nothing is not an option – changing the Fundamentals is the only option? Frederick

*Wouldn't ask them the time in a room full of clocks, they are a joke. Where are they kicking up a fuss regards Chemtrails. Wayne

*You're no better off, Germany did, prices only go up to match, better subsidise production for export and increase out put for overseas funds, But the present Govt., keep borrowing and spending because they have the greatest to free access to to money =Taxpayers. Robert

*The only printing they should be able to do is for one way tickets for themselves out of this country. Gary

*That concept has no merit I agree. However, the State does need to take every measure open to it to reduce the exchange rate. We are borrowing hundreds of millions offshore every week because we have this imbalance between income and expenditure.The RB Governor indicates increasing public savings will help. Then incentivize them to do so! Kiwisaver was a great step in that direction for 2 reasons, stimulate savings and also encourage people to provide for their retirement. The other elephant in the room! Constant fiddling with that scheme have resulted in a drop in interest by people to participate in it. Hugh

This week's poll asks:

Do you think the Green Party’s plan to print money is necessary?

*The Greens should print themselves so that we can then use the print to fire our Power Stations. Geoff

*Look what is happening to countries that do print money without actually having the reserves to back the printed money up!!! Lloyd

*The Greens should stick to hugging trees. Peter

*One of the most stupid ideas to come from any politician in years. Bill

*Those who remember the Muldoon years of high inflation will be against printing more money. It is the threat of high inflation that has caused NZers to be non-savers and invest their money in property. To increase personal savings we need a stable economy, no inflation and reasonable interest rates. The proposals put forward by the opposition parties will not achieve this. Bernie

*And I don't think the Green Party is necessary either. How much of the expense created by "Resource Consents" has resulted from Green policies? Maurice

*This would be economic suicide for NZ; and would hurt those who are most vulnerable to the economic swings of the Globe. Bob

*Dummies. Keith

*This suggestion is the type of nonsense we should expect from these loonies. Chris

*Trust the Greens to come up with such a loony idea. They are nothing but a bunch of incompetent amateurs. Frank

*Dr Brash's view that we need policies to increase domestic savings is 'on the money'. The simplest way to do this, which all Finance Ministers have failed to grasp, is to eliminate Tax on interest earned. Perhaps not at the speculator level, but for the average family/child, zero percent on the first $10,000 saved. Vic

*Dumb. Stuart

*Naive Nonsense. Jim

*It would make things worse. Fay

*One can always trust a Marxist .... to be a Marxist. The green Party is really the Watermelon Party - a thin layer of green on the outside and bright red through the middle. The Green's monetary policy has been tried by Robert Mugabe. All it does is cause rampant inflation. I don;t see the Greens rushing off to Mugabe's paradise! (More's the pity!) Sadly Winston First is silly enough to believe its own propaganda and clichés. Labour is just plain cynical. Duncan

*The Green Party needs to learn a bit of basic economics. Trevor

*It is an absolutely ridiculous idea promoted by an idiot who does not merit a seat in the NZ Parliament. Peter

*I believe that everything the green party say is a joke. But the media seem to be on their side and are giving them lots of press, even though most of what they say is rubbish. Pretty scary with an election on the horizon. Neil

*They have no idea about what makes an economy function. Roy

*The Greens live in a fools paradise. They travel in cars & aircraft which need materials mined from the earth.
If they were true to their type they would walk as horses usually have shoes made of steel, another mined products. Their houses have nails & other products which are all mined, how can anyone take them seriously. They should be living in caves rubbing sticks to light a fire. Ian

*Absolutely stupid. The Greens have now lost ALL credibility! Hugh

*The greenies idea's are all wacko's. Nigel

*Couldn't bear to watch the passionless R. Norman on The Nation last weekend. It is a nonsense that TV3 even give him air time instead of dealing with real issues like the Constitutional Review. Monica

*As ever, idiocy writ large! Government spending must be reduced;it's the only solution. That also includes local government spending. Just cannot afford to have the "nice-to-haves" in these economic conditions, nor the UN-promulgated "niceties" like the ETS,"Indigenous Rights", ad nauseum. We must end the Treaty gravy train. Dave

This week's poll asks:

Do you think the Green Party’s plan to print money is necessary?

*No, the Greens have absolutely no idea about economics. Bruce

*They probably want more paper to keep their fires going in their caves. Max

*Wish we could get rid of these crackpots. Les

*Dangerous to just print new money. Desmond

*The reserve bank would do well to follow some of the central banks overseas by looking to buy gold - while it is still possible to do so. For the last couple of thousand of years economic instability has always been the end result of fiat currency without a gold backing.History just repeats itself and is strewn with "economic experts" destroying economic stability. Julie

*Definitely NOT, it's the way to economic disaster! Nick

*There are other alternatives available ie further reduction in OCR before resorting to the desperate measures of Anglo American govts. What gets up my nose is why politicians forget history and promote ideas that do not work but feather their own goals of retaining power rather than what's the overall good of the country., Warren

*Not only unnecessary but just plain dopey. Sadly all the opposition party more or less agree with this stupidity, these retards must never be let near the Treasury benches. Michael

*Very frightening to think that people with higher education can be so utterly blind to reality. Alec

*I much prefer to rely upon the expertise of Don Brash and RSBNZ personnel than the likes of Peters or Norman. Murray

*Madness. Dave

*In fact it is outrageously stupid. Rob

*You should have asked if the Green Party itself was necessary Surely we have enough left-wing, socialist/communist parties disguised as something acceptable to moderate and/or stupid masses. Gary

*It will drive the devaluation of the Kiwi $ and has an inflationary effect as well.
Instead of getting to the cause of our economical problems the Greens and every other political party in this country try desperately to tinker with the symptoms. By doing this they patch up problems for a short term only ( if they are lucky) and create more problems for the future as they go along.(And this is happening on a global scale.)Our country is in effect suffering not only from a massive redistribution of wealth into all these Treaty settlements, propping up a Welfare system which has supplied generations of non productive people with vast sums of money ( as a whole over the decades) and opening up the country to China in Free Trade Agreements which has destroyed a lot of small and medium businesses ( because of this I lost my business after 25 years of operation in 2010)Another prime example is the railway carriages ordered by the Government .The railway yards in Dunedin wanted to have this 600M$ contract to build these in country.They said NO : we can get it 20% cheaper overseas and that will save the taxpayer a lot of money. Now: 600M$ in our economy do create jobs, enable people to buy things, people have to pay PAYE, GST and that goes back to the coffers.And that would bring back more than a 20 % initial 'saving' would it not??What we need is not a pea brained Greeny wanting to print more money -- what we need are hard professionals who know what they are doing. It is high time to get rid of people in Government who have no qualifications or experience to make decisions like these. Michael

*An absolutely ludicrous idea. Fraser

*It is neither required or effective. Also, only agricultural and forestry based industries could benefit from a lower dollar, almost all other manufacturing requires imported raw materials, often in excess of 50% of total cost. It is only improved productivity that gives any competitive advantage in world markets, and our record is very poor in this area compared with our major competitors. John

*I can not see any reason to "PRINT MORE MONEY". Look and implement other matters that strengthen our economic situation, a situation that motivates many New Zealanders to feel more comfortable. At almost half my age I had to learn financial matters quickly to change an insolvent company to break even in 12 months. John

*INTRODUCING Bruce Beetham...AKA RUSSELL FROM THE PENAL COLONY...Printing money does not solve financial problems and you can only believe this if you are a complete imbecile...But, I suppose that, if the cap fits, RUSSELL should go ahead and wear it. Go SOCIAL CREDIT!!!!!! Mark

This week's poll asks:

Do you think the Green Party’s plan to print money is necessary?

*The Green Party is shooting itself in the foot with this vacuous demand. Ken

*A nut case policy from a nut case party. Lee

*A reckless idea. Jim

*It's dopey!! David

*Muriel's article is spot-on. David

*The looney Greens - a group of people far more dangerous than they appear, especially when they are anywhere near the levers of power. Heaven forbid that they should get any more power than what they already have. If they have such an insatiable desire to live an agrarian poverty-minded foot-sandled dope-smoking existence, I suggest they move to Western China, Tibet, Mongolia or Vietnam. Or get a time machine and go back to the 50's to enjoy the wonders of Mao's "great leap forward" in person... Peter

*Like most ideas of the greens it is a no go. Noela

*N.Z. is doing well enough and the Green's plan would do nothing to help the economy. Murray

*It's not a realistic solution. Bob

*Social credit was going to do it and look where they now. Brian

*Cut all retired and serving policies pay and travel allowances and that would help. Richard

*I think the Green (Watermelon) Party is hell bent on destroying our economy completely so that they can reconstruct NZ as an extreme left left, communist, country. Deport Norman back to OZ forthwith and I say!! Jim

*It is a crazy 'off the wall' idea that just makes no sense; unless of course, one is in love with increasing inflation. The Greens a very quick to criticize Government but are very slow to come up with viable alternatives. Arthur

*In case the Green party ever got their way then we really need:" GOD to defend New Zealand" EJ

*Astonishingly stupid to think that NZ can get out of its financial problems by printing money! Inflation would follow to devastate labour voters. Mike

*I had a sort of email "conversation" with Russell Norman about this - I assume he was "in the house" and bored to tears as it went on for a couple of hours. He's quite an expert at avoiding the issue - clearly doesn't know much about finance. I imagine he thinks it grows on trees. Auntie Podes

*But if NZ's terms of trade are further eroded by Bernanke's "unlimited QE3+" stunt on the internationally accepted Reserve currency,$US, NZ may have to join the club of fools. Simply put no one will be able to, or want to buy our exports. If the Yanks keep printing trillions of dollars, and all other countries are forced to keep parity, and trade in $US which they will, NZ has no choice if they want to trade internationally and pay our import bills.This is not Green Party reasoning but they could cash in by default on the international collapse of the current fiscal and monetary system. Greens are only trying to gain the political mileage of a slow motion train crash....that may or may not happen! Cedric

*How nuttier can nuts get - and what about the desperate fruitcakes who vote for them - the mind boggles! William

*It is better that the RBNZ prints money debt and interest free than that the private Banks print it as interest bearing debt. Dennis

This week's poll asks:

Do you think the Green Party’s plan to print money is necessary?

*Cloud cookcoo stuff. Tim

*It would make us like Zimbabwe. Since Mr Norman made his comments public and public opinion responded, its interesting to see he has gone to ground. He must realise he got it wrong and showed NZ what a dreamer he is! Geoff

*Without something solid to back your money I dont see how printing more would work as its only paper. You must have something to back it. Cyril

*Only as a last resort! We are far from that resort yet.... Terry

*Printing money only increases inflation, it hurts jobs long term..slighty higher interest will help to rebalance the economy by encouraging deleraging from debt whilst spurring saving. Caroline

*They are playing on the public's naivety. Remember their leader is a communist. Willy

*Absolutely NOT. Christine

*Hasn't worked anywhere else, especially Zimbabwe. Ron

*It is absolute lunacy! It will lead to massive job destruction and poverty. Peter

*Let the Greens have their way and NZ is history. Clark

*What do they think they are doing? Elsa

*They are dangerous!! Don

*They are loonies. Keith

*Who needs the hyper-inflation that the printing of additional money could create. The US has printed a few trillion dollars that are being bought up by the Chinese investors. It does nothing to increase the productivity of the US economy or reduce the unemployment level. Neil

*Neither necessary nor advisable. This policy is a last resort for banks in desperate straits. NZ is far from that. Keith

*How can that idea possibly make sense? The only way to reduce debt is to stop spending and concentrate on making more that is saleable overseas. Mary

*Shades of social credit policy. Rodger

*Look at the inflation in 3rd world countries.You need a wheel barrow of printed money to buy an apple. Brian

*Greens are loopy nutters. Murray

*Typical of the Greens. Intellectual madness. No brownie points for the media coverage of the Greens' policies. By reporting them so widely the Greens are achieving their goals of free advertising. Victor

*It ranks equally with the Govt's asset sales - flogging off to us what we already own, and is just as fraudulent. Edgar

*It is a silly approach from people who do not understand the fundamentals of economics. What is being taught in our schools and tertiary institutions that we have intelligent people holding such fundamentally unsound views? Peter

This week's poll asks:

Do you think the Green Party’s plan to print money is necessary?

*Unfortunately the "Green Party" have hi-jacked the word 'green' and turned it into the 'PC pandering to maori, attack the workers and rich, pro beneficiaries who don't want to work, nut case' Party. I am a green person but would never vote for those lunatics. Derek

*Advisable? Almost certainly not. Necessary? They've go to be kidding!! David

*When an individual resorts to printing bank notes it is a crime, when Government start printing money ie (“quantitative easing”) it is a financial policy dictated by circumstances! Both are same and both are a crime, the word for both is theft.
Desperation breeds strange ideas, none so strange as causing inflation by printing money. Yet for some obscure reason beyond logic all our Political Parties are loathed to look beyond this temporary device.
Why are the majority of manufacturing firms in New Zealand uneconomic in World terms, and unable to reduce our private and governmental debt? One is obvious lack of thru put, which generates lower output per worker and therefore a greater cost. (Hence our inability to sell profitably on overseas markets, the outstanding exception being agriculture)
The first is beyond any Government to cure, the second is as much social as it is a work ethic. After all there is always a safety blanket to fall into!!!
Still the one which ALL political parties are able to cure is the huge ever increasing local and government bureaucracy which expensively curtails, and clogs up our country in a mass of hypocritical red tape. Organised, designed, and multiplied by those already in the system, to employ more staff, and further the growth of a cancerous bureaucracy day by day.
If Political Parties had any logic (a scarce commodity I grant) they would reduce our amount of government and let most systems be run more by private enterprise. However the indoctrination over the last five decades in our schools would never allow this to happen. Especially so with the advent of MMP and the very visual fact that we are now burdened with four socialistic political parties: National, Labour, Greens & NZ First.
The status quo is far more acceptable, and far more likely to give them all a safe job, and a safe pension, a case of:-
“Areana Imperil”? Brian

*Printing money is ridiculous, all they need to do is pour eco friendly fertilizer on the money trees at the bottom of their gardens, after all isn’t that where they believe money comes from? John

*It's nuts. John

*Absolutely NOT. The news media are doing New Zealand a gross disservice by presenting hare-brained schemes from the Greens, Maori, Mana etc. as realistic and worthy of consideration. At the same time they give little space to the more fiscally mature views of properly qualified economic commentators like Don Brash. Scandalous - and potentially ruinous. John

*D Brash and the Nats should take example from Swiss govt. they are devaluing their currency so the exports would be competitive and not affect the tourism. We cannot ignore what ALL exporters are telling us: for only 4mill people, we are a "village" and should take care of every exporting business who creates jobs. We have a small oil exploration co. and we suffer!and cannot hire. Mihaela

*The Green party and its supporters should be admitted to the nearest psychiatric hospital. Oh, dear, there aren't any. They've all been closed ... John

*This suggestion from the Green Party is just stupid! John

*The Green party just seem to latch on ideas that any real thinker would reject!! Cedric

This week's poll asks:

Do you think the Green Party’s plan to print money is necessary?

*I think when we achieve kicking out the Maori Party and Mana Party and get rid of the Waitangi Tribunal - we should throw the Green Party out with it all! As far as I can make out, the Green's are a bunch nutters that are too susceptible to flights of group hysteria to be anywhere near Government! Trina

*The Greens are not only mad but dangerous. Jim

*The media are having a "love affair" with the Greens. They do not challenge their views in the same way that they do other people. So their mad ideas gain traction because the implications have never been exposed through good journalism. Where is the 4th Estate when you need them! Peter

*The thought of a government made up of the Greens and Labour is frightening. With the Greens on the rise they will do huge damage to the country - far worse than Helen Clark did. Barb

*When will people who care about the environment wake up and realise the Greens are communists in disguise. Not only that but they are champions of Maori sovereignty as well - the worst of all worlds. Steve