Michael Cullen, during the prosperous times, has shown glimpses of both traditional conservative and Keynesian approaches to managing the economy.  So it’s hard to pick exactly what he would do if the economy did turn.  Most commentators seem to view Bill English as a traditional conservative and John Key as a neo-conservative.  But other than National’s strong belief that tax cuts will win them votes again it is hard to pick what their approach to economic policy in a recession might be.

Without having seen the Green’s economic package for the election (it’s being worked on) I imagine one key principle that the Greens would apply when dealing with recession would be that those who are most vulnerable to unemployment or poverty should be protected. The second principle would be to take the opportunity to restructure our economy –growing our way out of recession is no value if the growth is unsustainable or harms our communities and environment.  The Greens would protect our economy from global instability by rebuilding the ability to do things for ourselves. That would mean a much stronger focus on small scale local food production and manufacturing.  A Green solution to recession would be about creating jobs and industries that were less reliant on oil.