More biased crap. NZ has done very well from better access for farm products to a heap of countries - much of this attributable to Mike's work and the removal of tariffs.

And now NZ has a clear understanding of what we do best and need to do more of, and the things we suck at and needed to ditch. That's a good thing to know, surely? Competitive advantage can remain obscure when everything is ring-fenced. We have a far stronger economy now than we had back then, when we were bluffing ourselves.

Speaking of America, isnt great all the good work they are doing in Haiti.

A big hats off also to Israel, they have blood on their hands, because their doctors have been operating on the victims and saving lives.

Cutting the tariffs and import quotas was one of the best things A Labour government has ever done. For all your posturing on the Economy, John, you don't seem to even have a grasp of high school level economics. Please do us all a favour and enrol in an economics course, even if you will make the lecturers life hell by disagreeing with him all the time.

@ Brett Dale #3- Any criticism that John Minto may have of the US and Israel is for their politicians and military, and not of the ordinary citizens who are engaged in humanitarian efforts. Therefore, your sarcastic response is a little empty and it seems you're trying to find fault in his blog without even addressing the issues raised- did you see it as your chance to take a cheap shot at another leftie?. Relevancy is key.

Whilst so many have their blinkers on regarding the 'prosperity' of the 80s, what I recall from that time wasn't a time of excess and wealth for all. My labourer father suffered a drop in wages, lost his overtime and then eventually was made redundant leaving our family in financial dire straits. That Labour government betrayed it's core constituents and Moore was key to the harm inflicted on working people. Further, his appointment to the various positions he has held since reeks of an outdated old boys club.

@ Alfie, come on now! Personally I am getting real tired of you demeaning someone eles's opinions and thoughts, all the while expressing yours!

Be smart Alfie, let others express their views as you are entitled to yours.

@ Brett, loved your comment! Witty, to the point and MORE relevant than both John's and Alfie's.

:)

I happen to agree with JM on this one. I just regard Moore as yet another political time server who in spite of his self promotion has achieved nothing that benefits this country or the people who work here. I am equally sceptical about the value to NZ of a FTA with the USA, especially if Moore is its architect.

If I were a career diplomat with MFAT it would infuriate me the way these political hacks get moved into the plum diplomatic postings. If the government wanted to reward Moore, why not open an embassy in Kabul for him?

Hard to disagree with all you say here this time John. The Govt reforms of the eighties stripped most average Kiwis of any accumulated wealth. Whether from losing the value of there investments, or using all there savings to pay for no or little income. This then went on to send a whole generation into a fairly miserable financial retirement. We have never recovered from the social costs. The percieved right to a benefit, by many, is an overflow, from this period where for them it was the only income there now not required, skill level would allow them to collect. As is the spend up on chattels in the last few years, a delayed reaction, it has taken 20 years before the average Kiwi had the confidence falsely or otherwise to replace all there aging decrepid furniture. We all recall Fay Ritchwite and co sitting on boards, sanctioning in some cases bullying the sale of assets to themselves. Collecting a fee to boot for doing so. All sanctioned by the politicions of the time. Why does Govt think a large majority of the population are only interested in today and tommorow, we have been conditioned, to the fact that through the stroke of a pen, it will be taken off us. Not just Mike Moore, but all the politicions of his era were failures for the average New Zealander. Unfortunately, the remnants of his era and there current clones are aimlessly following old dogma. With no idea let alone a plan to make NZ a better place. As you say John, on the day, Mike Moore puts up what seems to be a plausible case, but reality still hasn't matched his rhetoric, all these years later.

There are three reasons that free-trade is a bad idea

1/ A country that exports computers will be richer than a country that exports bananas.

2/ Shipping raw materials to be processed in another country is environmentally costly.

3/ Free trade rules subvert democracy.

free trade is imperialism by stealth. It needs to be rejected out of hand

New Zealand was a basket case in 1984 - nearly bankrupt - do you remember that too? What bankrupt means for a country is that it cannot get any credit - it has to pay cash for everything, and it pretty much has to accept what prices might be offered - it cannot trade on the normal markets at all. Anyone with a smidgen of common sense must realise that this would be infinitely worse than anything Labour did in the 80's - note that it was also in the 80's that "normal" New Zealanders were borrowing flat out from stock brokers to "buy" shares on spec, that SMP's meant a massive transfer of wealth from taxpayers to farmers, and tarrifs meant a similar transfer from "normal" New Zealanders to those industries that were protected - many of which were overseas owned...... Retaining tariffs would mean that New Zealnders' "real" wages would have decreased by a lot more than the 25% John was bemoaning just a few days ago - think 50-60 or even 75%. farmers are now able to compete on the international market without having to suck money from the taxpayer's teat, and the rest of the country is able to work at what we do well too. One day John will wake up and see how badly the planned economies have done in the last 80 years.....hopefully the shock of being so obviously wrong for so long won't damage him too much.