Rogernomics Round II

Sir Roger Douglas comments that instead of simply identifying that we have a problem, Minister of Finance Bill English should take some serious action...

"Having managed New Zealand through difficult times, I understand how important confidence is. Consistency of policy is the only thing that leads to credibility in the Government. In turn, this creates the kind of confidence that New Zealanders need to get through this pain.

Governments must be consistent to ensure that the market can predict what the Government will do. All this talk of bailouts and the like undermine certainty. It suggests to business that the Government may begin to actively pick winners and losers...

...the Government is stuck in the past; wedded to the idea that Governments can actually deliver these services through the monopolies they have set up. To put us back on the path to growth, we need to make several quick changes in policy.

1) We need to immediately abolish those departments that deliver no social benefits. Who has ever heard of an earth-shattering report from the Families Commission? What does the Charities Commission even do? Why do we need a Ministry of Economic Development when we did alright without one until the fifth Labour Government - and that's without even looking at the political correctness that has led to the Ministry of Youth Development or the Ministry of Women's Affairs...

...It is not about whether we have a duty to the poor - ACT agrees that we do. It's about how we make good on that duty."
- Press Release, ACT Party, 26 March 2009

It's good to have Sir Roger back in Parliament.

The Party's Over

writes Pat Buchanan at Yahoo News. Below are a few excerpts from his excellent article - well worth reading.

"The Crash of 2008, which is now wiping out trillions of dollars of our people's wealth, is, like the Crash of 1929, likely to mark the end of one era and the onset of another.

The new era will see a more sober and much diminished America. The "Omnipower" and "Indispensable Nation" we heard about in all the hubris and braggadocio following our Cold War victory is history...

..."Government must save us!" cries the left, as ever. Yet, who got us into this mess if not the government — the Fed with its easy money, Bush with his profligate spending, and Congress and the SEC by liberating Wall Street and failing to step in and stop the drunken orgy?...

...Yet, still, the promises of the politicians come. Barack Obama will give us national health insurance and tax cuts for all but that 2 percent of the nation that already carries 50 percent of the federal income tax load.

John McCain is going to cut taxes, expand the military, move NATO into Georgia and Ukraine, confront Russia and force Iran to stop enriching uranium or "bomb, bomb, bomb," with Joe Lieberman as wartime consigliere.

Who are we kidding?

What we are witnessing today is how empires end."