market Archive

  • Jeanette Fitzsimons

    Fiddling the electricity market, while consumers burn



    Once again the government is fiddling with the electricity market to try to make it do two contradictory things. Once again it will fail. The Minister of Energy is gradually drip feeding results of the Electricity Market Review,  which is to be considered by Cabinet this morning. It seems it will abolish the Electricity Commission, set [...] read more
    August 10, 2009 11:49 am - 9 Comments
  • frog

    ECNZ: gold plated or robust?



    One of the biggest arguments in favour of our failed electricity market reforms was the assertion that it was run by bureaucrats and engineers, and was thus gold plated. Flowing from that was the assertion that thus, we were paying far too much for our energy and that breaking it all up and letting business [...] read more
    February 5, 2009 10:18 am - 52 Comments
  • frog

    The efficient market



    This poster says all that needs to be said about just how efficient “free” markets are at separating hard working taxpayers from their money: The efficiency with which the financial markets (and now the real economy) are fleecing the taxpayers to pay for their own excesses is astounding. Now our government is saying that in order [...] read more
    December 10, 2008 3:15 pm - 44 Comments
  • frog

    Electric Cars and Behaviour Change



    While I fully support the government’s vision to move New Zealand to an electric vehicle fleet, at least in principle, I have often wondered what kind of behaviour changes this would require of the citizenry. I have also enquired how much more electricity generation we would need to make the switch. The off the record [...] read more
    March 18, 2008 9:16 am - 23 Comments
  • frog

    The greed of the few harms all our futures



    That is the title of Will Hutton’s editorial in the Guardian Weekly. He states: Never in human affairs have so few been allowed to make so much money by so many for so little wider benefit. Across the globe, societies and governments have been hoodwinked by a collection of self-confident chancers in the guise of investment [...] read more
    February 20, 2008 12:46 pm - 66 Comments