Alex Greig, Laurence's campaign manager with one of the billboards
Laurence has put up billboards in Wellington
3
Author Archives: Deirdre
Kim Hill interview with Raf Manji
You can listen to this excellent fifteen minute interview on the money system here.
This is a very clear exposition of the monetary system and fractional reserve banking.
He also touches on timebanking and other form of alternative currencies as well as the Occupy movement
Raf Manji is a former London investment banker who moved to Christchurch and founded the independent policy development space, the Sustento Institute .
The Sky is really Falling, says candidate
Media Statement
11 November 11
The Sky is Really Falling, says candidate
The sky is falling and nobody is planning for what New Zealand would do in the case of a full economic meltdown, said Laurence Boomert, Wellington Central candidate for the New Economics Party.
“Here we have Italy now in deep trouble, and the New Zealand politicians are blithely promising bright and happy days”, he said. “There isn’t a country in the world that will be untouched by this debt crisis. Next it will be Spain, France and USA. Because we are all tightly linked, what happens overseas is very much our election issue,” he said.
“It is time to think outside the square and work to invent an economic system not dependent on growth. If it wants to create jobs, Government needs to focus on supporting small and medium sized businesses that want to introduce healthy innovations. Small and medium sized businesses create most of the jobs not the Telecoms of the world”, he said.
Boomert said it is time to work on alternative complementary currencies that work at all levels including at a national level. When small businesses join barter networks, Government should allow their GST and income tax to be paid in their currency.
He said government should be actively involved to support our business sector in designing and implementing business-to-business currencies such as ones operating in Uruguay, Switzerland and Austria.
For further comment phone Laurence Boomert 027 258 8807
European debt crisis and oil affordability
Well it looks as though it wouldn’t be much fun being the next Prime Minister of either Greece or Italy right now. It is a poisoned chalice. Who wants to introduce austerity measures and remain electable? Any concerned citizen can see what is coming for New Zealand when our trading partners are in this sort of trouble.
Richard Douthwaite, the green economist from Ireland, has written the most amazing chapter in FEASTA’s book Fleeing Vesuvius. He explains the connection between declining oil supplies and the trend of rich countries to run deficits. 
Taking Ireland as an example, he lists the cost of mineral fuel imports, the value of exports and then works out the fuel cost as a percentage of export earnings. It rose from 2.4% in 2001 to 7.6% in 2008. Exports are the only means by which the country can earn the money it needs to pay the interest on its overseas borrowings.
He explains that a country that runs a deficit on its trade in goods and services for several years will find that its firms and people get heavily in debt because a dense web of debt has to be created within that country to get the purchasing power, lost as a result of the deficit, back into everyone’s hands.
After a careful explanation, one of his conclusions is that it is dangerous and destabilising for any country, firm or individual to borrow overseas and net capital movements between countries should be prohibited. This is rather startling, but when you think about it foreign capital creates problems when it enters a country and when it leaves the country. When it comes in it boosts the exchange rate, thus hurting firms producing for the home market by making imports cheaper. It also hurts the exporters, reducing their overseas earnings when they convert them into national currency. As a result, when the loan has to be repaid, the country is in a weaker position to do so than it was when it took the loan on. And managing borders obeys one of the laws of Nature.
The late Rod Donald, former co-leader of the Greens, used to go on and on about the balance of payments in New Zealand and I can see why. Both the National Party and the Labour Party seem to be taking our country into more and more debt. We have borrowed around $40 billion in the last three years.
Someone should work out our trend over the last few years. We need to find a list of the fuel cost as a percentage of export earnings and the ratio of total external debt to exports.
Minister should release military reports on oil supply disruption plans
Reduce oil dependence for National Security, says candidate
8 Nov, 2011
The New Economics Party has sent in an Official Information request to the Minister of Defence to ask him to release relevant military reports advising us to reduce oil use for security reasons. The candidate for Wellington Central, Laurence Boomert, said have now been major military reports on oil in both Germany and USA.
A report was released a week ago to Senate by a prestigious Military Advisory Board In Virginia, USA. The report for CNA (cna.org/news/releases/) calls for a 30 percent reduction in US oil use over ten years to reduce ‘grave national security risks.’
Boomert said the report advised that even a small interruption of the daily oil supply impacts our nation’s economic engine, but a sustained disruption would alter every aspect of our lives – from food costs and distribution to what or if we eat, to manufacturing goods and services to freedom of movement.
“USA get their oil through the same shipping routes as we do – through the Strait of Hormuz. They have analysed what would happen in the event of a complete shutdown of a strategic chokepoint like the Strait of Hormuz, the international passageway for 33 percent of the world’s seaborne oil shipments.”
“If Iran pre-empted an attack on their nuclear plants by shutting off oil supply lines, New Zealand would be affected too”, said Boomert. The report calls for immediate, swift and aggressive action over the next decade to achieve the 30 percent reduction in U.S. oil consumption.
He said oil shocks are immediate and far-reaching, but at today’s level of consumption, a sustained disruption would be devastating. Worldwide demand for oil is increasing at an alarming rate.”
The report calls on national leaders to increase efficiency, diversify supply sources, develop alternatives and develop a national, cogent, dedicated and sustained energy roadmap that rises above partisan politics.
Boomert has previously worked on regional energy descent plans with Transition Towns and, as a Living Economies trustee, recently co-published Fleeing Vesuvius a comprehensive handbook for contingency planning in the face of energy, economic and environmental shocks to our system.
His party the New Economics Party has an oil reduction plan as part of its manifesto (https://neweconomics.net.nz) calling for a 4-6% per annum reduction plan for this country.
The German report said that by 2014 increasing prices of oil due to decline in supply would bring an end to our growth- based economic model, leading to widespread social unrest.
“We have entered treacherous waters but there is no one steering our ship”, laments Boomert
For further comment phone Laurence Boomert 03 525 8229 or 027 258 8807
Thoughts on the Occupy Movement and Bank Transfer Day
I have just read the most wonderful piece of prose on the Occupy Movement by Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics. And today I have been interviewed for Planet FM on the world’s Problems so I am thinking about the Occupy Movement.
I think they will eventually win and suspect it will take years. It was so inspiring to read the Dominion this morning and see that St Paul’s Cathedral in London was letting the protesters camp there and that the Anglican church is launching a fierce attack on greedy bankers, accusing them of having “slipped their moral moorings.”
Nov 5th was Bank Transfer day, the day people are called on by the Occupy movement to transfer their bank accounts to a credit union. Credit unions didn’t go down in the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and have excellent facilities for changing automatic payments. They have ATM machines round the country. A good choice if you don’t mind going without a credit card. They are financial co-operatives where the customers own the bank so you can go to their AGM and stand for their board. They don’t deal in derivatives.
Very recently the PSIS has managed to acquire bank status with the Reserve Bank and is now rebranded as the Co-operative Bank. Up to now their cheque books had to have the Bank of New Zealand them, presumably because BNZ did their credit clearing overnight. So you can change your account to them, but remember to keep a close watch on how they change. Will they deal in derivatives? They have the right to. Will they deal in shares and bonds and their derivatives? Will they get into insurance or wealth management services? They shouldn’t. Banks should be prohibited by law from doing anything but banking (the Glass Steigel Act in USA) and we had a similar prohibition before Roger Douglas deregulated the banks in the 1980s. Yes old fashioned banks were doing what old fashioned banks did best – taking in deposits and lending them out.
Plan for 4-6% less oil every year
Media Statement
6 November, 2011
Plan for less 4-6% less oil every year, says candidate
The New Economics Party believes that Government should involve the public in planning for a 4-6% reduction in oil use every year.
Laurence Boomert, the party’s candidate for Wellington Central, says we have to do this because the alternative is growing national debt, food riots and severe recession.
“The public needs to help decide how we are to adjust to a world with less oil every year. We need to do this as the world production of oil starts to decline relentlessly. We also need to do it to address climate change. It may be the people opt for petrol rationing, a lower speed limit on the road, to introduce a ‘cash for clunkers’ scheme or to voluntarily reduce air travel, he said.
“It is going to be painful, we will all have to sacrifice, but if we go on as we are the alternative is much worse. “
Boomert said growing national debt is a big worry. The Pre-election Fiscal Update assumed the price of oil would only rise to $93 by June 2016, but Treasury must be in la-la land.
Our oil exports cost a record $7.7 billion last year, an increase of 22%. If it keeps going at this rate our annual oil import bill will cost us soar to $25 billion by 2017. This is more than double what we currently spend on education. If we don’t watch our debt we will be another Greece.
Boomert said Britain’s former chief scientist has attacked politicians and industry experts who have their “heads in the sand” over dwindling oil supplies and the same could be said for our politicians.
The longer we delay, the harder the brakes will have to be put on, he said.
For further information phone Laurence Boomert 03 525 8229 or 027 258 8807