Comments on: Yay – Herald does a fact check

By: Redbaiter

Redbaiter — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 20:16:47 +0000

Its just one more great Marxist success story Sector7g.

By: Sector 7g

Sector 7g — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 06:39:28 +0000

I agree with DPF on this one. New Zealand is doing so well under a National Government.
It was obvious to me on a recent trip that the cost to live in New Zealand was one of the lowest in the world.
Wages were massive.
Unemployment was unheard of.
Food was so cheap that everyone had cupboards full of food.
Everyone i talked to had so much money they didn’t know what to do with it.
Everyone was so well off that they could fly around the world with their family enjoying the time spent together.

You could tell from the look of the place that companies were making huge profits, so much that nearly everyone i knew that used to just buy houses at inflated costs before selling them for even higher inflated costs were now interested in investing in business and creating jobs. It was obvious to me that the reduction of red tape and taxes had caused this.

Well done DPF and National.

By: tamati

tamati — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 04:32:11 +0000

Th economists also ignore that people are able to change their buying patterns in response to changes in food prices. Thus the CPI and food prices indes generally both OVERestimates the actual cost to consumers.

Eg. Price of Oranges goes up? Buy Apples.

Price of fish to much? Buy chicken.

The two index assume people buy exactly the same food, in practise nobody does this.

By: SPC

SPC — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 03:36:11 +0000

Statistically for existing homeowners the situation is now good – but will worsen dramatically (higher mortgage rates) meaning any recovery will come at a cost for discretionary spending. But none of this anticipated to be large increase in homeownership cost will be accounted for in the official cost of living.

Incorporating property in cost of living statistics is vital to represent the real position of wage earners and families, but the aggregate data reapplied as an average could be misleading – as circumstances will be different (such as levels of equity and debt).

By: SPC

SPC — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 03:28:14 +0000

Anyone note that the economist says that wages typically rise faster than the cost of living, but makes no mention that the biggest cost, buying a property, is not assessed in the cost of living.

By: SPC

SPC — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 03:23:45 +0000

The link Ross 69 used says a 5.8/6% increase in “fruit and vegetable” prices.

Presumably because this was originally a story about lobbying for GST off fruit and vegetables purchases by consumers.

By: David Farrar

David Farrar — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 03:05:57 +0000

Ross – get your facts right. Food prices have in fact risen just 0.8% in the last 12 months.

Fruit and vegetables have increased 5.8% in the last year, but almost no increase for the three years before that. They have increased 8.4% in total over four years.

By: SPC

SPC — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 03:02:12 +0000

The use of the average wage for comparison is the part that is misleading.

The impact of rising costs on people will be different dependent on their spending spread – necessities to discretionary. The high dollar lowers only the impact of the latter (imports).

The main determinant of the average rise was the rise in the MW (less than $5 in 1999) at the bottom and the higher end.

The key number is the median wage – and its increase over the period. Compared to a basket of necessity costs – like food, power and rent or rates/insurance/mortgage.

Of course some around the median have been helped by WFF – but they really needed it because there the rate of increase has not been as much as the average.

By: ross69

ross69 — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 02:44:29 +0000

In fact, food prices have risen almost 6% in the last year. I’m not sure too many wage earners have gotten 6% wage rises. Pity the Herald, and Mr Eaqub didn’t fact check a little better.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10866614

By: greenjacket

greenjacket — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 02:17:34 +0000

Herald journalist fact checks rather than just repeats claims – well there has to be a first time.
Amelia Wade’s colleagues must be looking at her like she has done something strange.

By: nasska

nasska — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:15:52 +0000

Mr Eaqub’s days are numbered. If the commission of enquiry the Greens are bound to call for doesn’t overturn these statistics then they will likely call for jihad. https://www.dropbox.com/s/9xbcqrs167cvi84/lovejoy.png

By: Alan Wilkinson

Alan Wilkinson — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:15:36 +0000

Don’t celebrate. The Herald has now used up its fact checking budget for the year. In fact it was an accident that is unlikely to be repeated. They rang an economist expecting the usual Gareth Morgan top of the head bombast and the bugger checked out the facts instead.

By: Elaycee

Elaycee — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:10:47 +0000

……Herald does a fact check

Wow! Blow me over with a feather….

By: redeye

redeye — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:10:14 +0000

Yeah as a food grower I can confirm, everything is rising faster than our returns.

By: Cunningham

Cunningham — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:06:15 +0000

I almost fell over when I saw this. Amazing and great to see the media actually report both sides of the story.