“[Economist Cameron] Bagrie’s central diagnosis is that New Zealand’s form of capitalism has become fundamentally unproductive, addicted to an asset class that creates the illusion of wealth without generating real economic value. As he bluntly puts it, 'You do not get wealthy selling more expensive houses to each other'."
#BryceEdwards, 2025
https://theintegrityinstitute.substack.com/p/integrity-briefing-are-business-leaders
Jane Kelsey was making essentially the same point a decade ago in her 2015 book The FIRE Economy;
https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/the-fire-economy
FIRE here stands for Finance, Insurance and Real Estate. Kelsey argued that the vast majority of economic activity in post-Rogernomics Aotearoa consists of financing purchases people can't really afford, insuring the assets of those lucky enough to have any, and playing a game of Monopoly with the housing stock, and commercial property.
"Auckland University economist Robert MacCulloch has identified the country’s business leaders — particularly those at the helm of large, incumbent firms — as the real drag on New Zealand and the primary “source of our malaise”. His research presents a stunning picture of corporate failure that cannot be blamed on government policy or market headwinds."
#BryceEdwards, 2025
https://theintegrityinstitute.substack.com/p/integrity-briefing-are-business-leaders
"Such poor performance leads MacCulloch to ask a provocative and essential question: how is it possible that these executives are 'so incompetently useless they can’t make a buck even when they have no competition?'. He notes that it is difficult to find another developed country where multiple virtual monopolies are effectively 'run at a loss' in terms of shareholder value ..."
#BryceEdwards, 2025
https://theintegrityinstitute.substack.com/p/integrity-briefing-are-business-leaders
(1/2)
Worth noting that a lack of return on capital in publicly-owned industries, through the 1970s and early 80s, was the justification given by Rogernomes and Ruthenistas for corporatising them all. Imposing rigidly top-down managerialism, laying off huge numbers of workers, asset-stripping the resources that had been reserved for future development, and ultimately, selling a bunch of them off.
Now we see "private sector" monopolies doing just as badly, but without any public oversight. Hmm.
(2/2)
"Economist Cameron Bagrie puts it bluntly: after New Zealand’s bold pro-competition reforms of the 1980s, 'it feels like [we have] gone 360 degrees'. Many industries reconsolidated into powerful duopolies, oligopolies and cartels. Bagrie warns that 'Weak competition just inhibits innovation and drives complacency'. And that is exactly what we now face."
#BryceEdwards, 2025
https://theintegrityinstitute.substack.com/p/integrity-briefing-how-crony-capitalism
The myth of "pro-competition reforms" is as persistent as gorse in paddocks and just as unhelpful
"Ironically, the very parties that should be fixing New Zealand’s rigged markets are hampered by their own ideological blind spots and elite alignments. The result is a government that talks a big game about change, but in practice shrinks from challenging the powerful vested interests behind our dysfunctional economy."
#BryceEdwards, 2025
https://theintegrityinstitute.substack.com/p/integrity-briefing-nationals-crony
Edwards is describing the current coalition parties here, but he could just as easily be describing the 2017 Labour coalition.
"In effect, NZ First today provides a nationalist, reactionary outlet for public anger that leaves corporate power structures unthreatened. It is easier to inflame passions over language, ethnicity, and gender policies than to take on billionaire donors or tighten the screws on corporate monopolies. The culture war is not a separate front; it is the smokescreen that enables the real work of rewarding their allies to proceed with minimal scrutiny."
#BryceEdwards, 2025
https://theintegrityinstitute.substack.com/p/integrity-briefing-will-nz-first
"... NZ's Labour and Green parties will need to break out of their cautious mindset and actually fight for transformative change. That means making our next political battles about the “big guys” – the profiteering banks, the supermarket duopoly, the housing speculators – and about delivering tangible gains to the public. It means having the courage to propose taxing wealth, curbing corporate excess, and rebuilding a fairer economy ..."
#BryceEdwards, 2025
https://theintegrityinstitute.substack.com/p/integrity-briefing-the-nz-left-need
(1/2)
I don't know where Edwards is getting this phantom image of an economically "cautious" Green party. Perhaps he just can't see the actual party? Stuck as they are behind the rusting hulk of Labour?
If he actually looked at either Green policy or their media releases, he'd easily see that they've been doing exactly what he's calling on them to do. Since well before the last election. Although perhaps this has been obscured by their weakness for being pulled into Culture War mud wrestling.
(2/2)
Strypey
