Andrew Dickson
@andrewdickson13.bsky.social
These days mainly I do DIY and chase dogs. I also run a tiny gym with the best view in Aotearoa. Also an academic. Father to a disabled kid so I do the advocacy thing as well. Psychoanalysis; Lacan; MMT.
Drop everything and read this damning observation by Dr Dickson. He just psychoanalysed our CEO PM, and it ain't pretty. The *BEST* substack i've read this year. !Please share far and wide¡ open.substack.com/pub/andrewdi...
Luxon Doesn't Need This Job
A, this, and the neediness of 163,000 other people
open.substack.com
This may explain much. A psychoanalysis by Dr Dickson... open.substack.com/pub/andrewdi...
Luxon Doesn't Need This Job
A, this, and the neediness of 163,000 other people
open.substack.com
In the decade to 2024, borrowing for course fees rose 31%, borrowing for living costs rose 98%: Young NZers are increasingly borrowing to eat while they study. Next time Seymour warns against burdening our children with debt, enjoy the inversion. #nzpol andrewdicksonnz.substack.com/p/sixteen-bi...
Sixteen Billion Dollars of Nothing
A thought experiment for Labour: move the student loan book from one ledger to another and watch what happens.
andrewdicksonnz.substack.com
“When a man does it to a woman, we know exactly what we are looking at. When the state proposes to do it to the poor, we call it welfare reform and put it in a conference speech.”… Great article and thread. #nzpol
Andrew Dickson@andrewdickson13.bsky.social · last mo.1/7 Yet again, David Seymour provides an appalling, evidence-free policy. His new welfare reforms are built on a complete fantasy (shock!) and the machinery he’s designed will reliably break real bodies while completely missing the target. 🧵 andrewdicksonnz.substack.com/p/staining-t...
Seymour continues to be an abusive piece of shit, gleefully living out his neoliberal punishment and control fantasies on our dime #nzpol
Andrew Dickson@andrewdickson13.bsky.social · last mo.1/7 Yet again, David Seymour provides an appalling, evidence-free policy. His new welfare reforms are built on a complete fantasy (shock!) and the machinery he’s designed will reliably break real bodies while completely missing the target. 🧵 andrewdicksonnz.substack.com/p/staining-t...
Worth reading. 6% David doesn’t care. It’s a joke he’s even in power. A plurality of us hate him. All he exists to do is feed BS to ppl while he funnels money to his Atlas masters by destroying society for 80% of us. The RW: “It never worked in the past, so we’re going to do it, again!” #nzpol
Andrew Dickson@andrewdickson13.bsky.social · last mo.1/7 Yet again, David Seymour provides an appalling, evidence-free policy. His new welfare reforms are built on a complete fantasy (shock!) and the machinery he’s designed will reliably break real bodies while completely missing the target. 🧵 andrewdicksonnz.substack.com/p/staining-t...
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Andrew Dickson@andrewdickson13.bsky.social · last mo.1/7 Yet again, David Seymour provides an appalling, evidence-free policy. His new welfare reforms are built on a complete fantasy (shock!) and the machinery he’s designed will reliably break real bodies while completely missing the target. 🧵 andrewdicksonnz.substack.com/p/staining-t...
“Between people, we call this financial abuse and coercive control. When the state does it to the poor, we call it welfare reform.” This is an awful idea.
Andrew Dickson@andrewdickson13.bsky.social · last mo.1/7 Yet again, David Seymour provides an appalling, evidence-free policy. His new welfare reforms are built on a complete fantasy (shock!) and the machinery he’s designed will reliably break real bodies while completely missing the target. 🧵 andrewdicksonnz.substack.com/p/staining-t...
"A machine designed to catch people who are faking it is calibrated exactly backwards. It is built for the man who is enjoying himself, and it will land, every time, on the woman who is suffering." Great analysis of the fatal flaw in ACT's new welfare policy. Thank you, @andrewdickson13.bsky.social
Andrew Dickson@andrewdickson13.bsky.social · last mo.1/7 Yet again, David Seymour provides an appalling, evidence-free policy. His new welfare reforms are built on a complete fantasy (shock!) and the machinery he’s designed will reliably break real bodies while completely missing the target. 🧵 andrewdicksonnz.substack.com/p/staining-t...
Aside from everything you’ve noted, I find it highly ironic that the man who’s constantly said “less government interference in our lives” is wanting to control every aspect of it.
1/7 Yet again, David Seymour provides an appalling, evidence-free policy. His new welfare reforms are built on a complete fantasy (shock!) and the machinery he’s designed will reliably break real bodies while completely missing the target. 🧵 andrewdicksonnz.substack.com/p/staining-t...
Staining the Poor: The Cruelty and Coercive Control of Seymour's New Card
ACT’s cashless welfare card ignores years of failed evidence to do something far worse: treat state-sponsored financial abuse as public policy.
andrewdicksonnz.substack.com
Jonathan Milne's Newsroom piece on the Opportunity Party is good political commentary. It's also a textbook case of a discourse that can't see its own premises. A Lacanian thread. #nzpol 🧵 1/
Jonathan Milne's Newsroom piece on the Opportunity Party is good political commentary. It's also a textbook case of a discourse that can't see its own premises. A Lacanian thread. #nzpol 🧵 1/
Shane Jones commented on Nicola Willis's body to undermine her politics. @chrishipkins.bsky.social made an uncharitable remark about her behaviour in the House. These are not the same thing. Most of the coverage has treated them as if they are. A thread. 🧵 #nzpol /1
Because you really needed to read a detailed Lacanian analysis of the Government’s announcement of a review into the pandemic era covid response of the Reserve Bank. #nzpol
The Review That Reviews Itself
Let's Learn why the government's Reserve Bank inquiry is a masterclass in saying nothing while looking busy
open.substack.com
Bank reckonomists are making happy GDP predictions. No increase in real wages / employment in 2025 Q4 so any GDP bump will be from higher profits - thanks to businesses facing lower debt-servicing costs and mortgagors having a few extra dollars to give to shareholders. Great work everyone.
The November data might have just been a blip - but if the trend settles at this relatively depressed level, then we will be sliding sideways for some time. The reckonomists will celebrate near-meaningless changes in business survey results, but the real economy will be remain firmly meh. [Ends]
Hmmm. Little hint of a stall here. New bank lending is like fuel for our economy - banks create brand new shiny money, people spend it, stuff gets bought, wages get paid, profits get made etc. What's going on? [🧵 1/n]
Tax revenue is sagging badly, and Govt is throwing money into mostly low value capital projects as it attempts to get the economy moving... while, you know, appearing to be frugal. Govt deficit spend is well above 2nd cvid lockdown levels. Funny that. [2/2]
RBNZ/Treasury still pulling $ out of the economy (net) as cvid era QE gets undone. See how bond sales (red) are way higher than needed to soak up Govt deficit spending (pink)? This is discussed quite a bit in countries with a functional economics commentariat. Worth a look at Govt deficits... [1/2]
Bookmark this, screen shot it, share it & air drop it to your drunk uncle this Xmas when you have him cornered around the dining table with sane people.
Jennifer Lang@actuarialeye.bsky.social · 8mo agoWorldwide mortality experience since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2024) shows excess deaths over that period in almost every country measured. Australia (+6%) was below average, and New Zealand (+0.1%) the lowest we measured.
Another Monetary Policy Statement, another 'whoopsie we over-cooked the whole job crushing thingy'. Forecast GDP still falling away (bye). What else? [1/n]
I'm writing a book at the moment, here's a beauty of a quote: “Phallic jouissance is the obstacle owing to which man does not come... to enjoy a woman’s body, precisely because what he enjoys is the jouissance of the organ.” — Jacques Lacan (making things awkward since 1901).
