Confidence in what by whom?
We were told during the election and the government-forming negotiations that business was worred about the Greens getting anywhere near the levers of power.
Then today, more than a month later, we’re told that business confidence is at a 17-year low.
Anyone prepared to offer any explanations?
And while we’re at it, wouldn’t it be nice if we had direct surveys (ie not polls on political parties’ support) of the confidence of other sections of the population on other things deserving attention? I can see the headline now - ‘Environmentalists’ confidence in the future of the planet is at a 150-year low’… 
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November 23rd, 2005 at 1:45 pm
Yeah - short-sighted businesses don’t pay attention until the interest rates start to hurt them. That could be one (obvious) explanation. Yes, other things are surveying, but surveys of business confidence are important, because if they are not feeling confident about the future, they won’t borrow to invest in human and physical capital improvements (which may or may not be environmentally sound in themselves, but that’s another argument).
November 23rd, 2005 at 2:47 pm
I’m an old cynic but …
Sadly it is too often: CONFIDENCE in their ability to make maximum profit in minimum time, using someone else’s labour, and someone else’s money, spoiling someone else’s back yard, and depleting someone else’s non renewable resources … all at minimum financial cost to themselves.
The they move on to bigger and brighter things … to somewhere/anywhere they can repeat the exercise with bigger “profit margins”.
November 23rd, 2005 at 4:02 pm
I get the feeling - from treasury, from John Key, from the “analysts” at all the banks,from granny Herald, and from business - that a lot of these people are simply refusing to accept the elections outcome and are reacting with a tanty and lots of sulking.
What to do with a business sector that so heavily politicised? Its quite clear business desperately wanted a reverse captured National to win. Its a real worry when you have a powerful section of the community wedded to an anti-deomcratic ideology and so out of tune and out of touch with popular opinion.
November 23rd, 2005 at 4:03 pm
And just where do you think the business confidence would be if Keith Locke was minister of Foreign Affairs, Nandor as police minister, sue Bradford as Minister of social welfare, Jeanette as Minister of Energy. Would the business confidence be higher or lower (or lowest ever)
The swing to the extreme left the Greens would have taken the country would have sent business confidence through the floor to the core of the planet.
November 23rd, 2005 at 4:14 pm
I am not sure this is entirely internal to NZ. Business outlooks have to take into account the apparent death of the housing boom in the USA, the distinct possibility of a crunch in the export markets due to a drop in consumption in that area and all the potential follow-ons. These are things that the Reserve Bank, ANZ and the business sector here have absolutely zero control over.
In other words, coincidence. It may be true that they are sulking, but that isn’t the same as not having confidence… and I do think they’d answer the questions honestly.
I have learned something recently in another forum, more economically oriented, which is that destruction and waste is “good” for the economy (employment, demand for goods & services etc, GDP). At least in current terms using the current measures of economic activity (which have no measures of sustainability or longer term costs or damage to the commons). This has some really nasty effects on our ability to control our society and economy overall.
It may be that one of the things we as greens need to do is come up with an alternative measure to Gross Domestic Product or as it is known in the USA, Gross Distorted Product. I don’t doubt we have some folks clever enough to do that.
respectfully
BJ
November 23rd, 2005 at 4:48 pm
petermck:
I often wonder where you (and like minded people) get their knowledge of, and attitiudes to the Greens.
Keith Locke as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nandor Tanczos as Minister of
Police, Sue Bradford as Minister of Social Welfare, Jeanette Fitzsimons as Minister of Energy…
I wish NZ could be so lucky! They are all highly intelligent, hard working, knowledgeable, they have excellent “people skills”, and above all they really care.
I wish NZ could be so lucky!
November 23rd, 2005 at 6:51 pm
It always amazes me that people champion that a free market economy is perfectly rational, and complete privatisation is in the best interest of people and the environment, yet the opposite is completely true! The “market” is a self-fulling prophecy which moves, by definition, based on what people think i.e. if business confidence is low, share prices will tend to drop, when confidence is high prices go up, arrgggh!!!