The Hoon The hoon for the week that was to March 25
TLDR: This week’s news in geopolitics and Aotearoa’s political economy covered on The Kākā included:
* The runs on Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank on the west coast of the United States that forced the US Treasury, FDIC and Federal Reserve to intervene to promise full payouts to depositors, over and above the US$250,000 deposit guarantees legislated for, and lend tens of billions to banks to keep them liquid (Wednesday’s email and podcast);
* The orchestrated rescue and takeover of Credit Suisse last weekend by Swiss authorities working together in a frantic effort with UBS to stop the Swiss banking system from collapsing (Wednesday’s email and podcast);
* Rate hikes in the United States, Britain, Switzerland and Norway, but a softening of market interest rate expectations because of the banking crises (Wednesday’s email and podcast);
* Statistics showing little improvement in Aotearoa’s child poverty rates and a worsening of the stress on renters, even more so than the stress on mortgage payers (Friday’s email and podcast);
* A call from the Consumer Advocacy Council Chair Deborah Hart for an inquiry into bundling by gentailers of deals on broadband and gas, which she said may restrict competition by making it harder for customers to compare and switch providers (Thursday’s email and podcast).
* Reserve Bank (Te Matua Putea) Chief Economist Paul Conway’s fresh warning to firms and workers not to push for higher real wages and profits in anticipation of higher inflation (Friday’s email and podcast);
* Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s casting vote for Auckland Council to pull out of LGNZ (Friday’s email and podcast); and,
* TOP’s launch of a Teal Card and plan to stay out of ministerial roles and not agree to both supply and confidence for either of the main parties (Tuesday’s email and podcast). I also wrote about the Greens’ electoral strategy and performance in Monday’s email and podcast and talk about it with Green MP Julie-Anne Genter in this week’s bonus When The Facts Change podcast episode via The Spinoff.
What we talked about on the ‘hoon’ this week
In this week’s podcast of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers at 5pm on Friday night (which you can find up the top of this post) I talked with co-host Peter Bale and political science professorsRobert Patman from the University of Otago and Bronwyn Hayward from the University of Canterbury about:
* Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin meeting in Moscow, along with the latest news and views of AUKUS’ military aspirations and Aotearoa’s adjacency to those;
* Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and how close Xi actually is (or not) to Putin;
* this week’s UN IPCC report warning climate emissions would need to be cut by almost half by 2030, if warming was to be limited to 1.5°C; and,
* this week’s review of the Emissions Trading Scheme announced by the Ministry for the Environment.
We also talked with Natalia Antelava, the Tblisi-based editor-in-chief and co-founder of Codastory about living in Georgia, a nation trying to exist under the shadow of Russia. She also produces the Undercurrents podcast for Audible here, which is about the struggle between tech, democracy, and dictatorship.
Other places I appeared this week
Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, I’m able to spread the work from my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction around in other public venues.
I produced my weekly When the Facts Change podcast for The Spinoff on how the Government’s policy bonfire blew up the ETS, and there’s that bonus episode above with Julie-Anne Genter.
The Kākā by Bernard Hickey is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Scoops elsewhere this week
Chart of the week
Almost a quarter of NZ renters spend over 40% of income on rent
Quote of the week
‘I’m leaving the team because I’m more important than the rest of you’
“I’ve always felt that if you’re on your own, they (government) have to come and see us. They need us more than we need them.” Mayor Wayne Brown’s justification for voting this week to pull Auckland Council out of LGNZ.
Profundities, spookies, curiousities and feel-goods
Longer reads and listens for the weekend
Here’s a few useful longer reads, scoops and podcasts for paying subscribers for the weekend.