THE WRITING ON THE WALL?
By
WHIM WHAM
New Zealand will probably have nil productivity growth in the 1974-1979 period . . . substantial deterioration in comparative living standards . . . unemployment rising . . . continued high net migration outflow . . . Mr L. C. Bayliss, chief economist of the Bank of New Zealand. Arrest that Man! The one with the unlicensed Grin on his Face, Charge him with offensively cheerful Behaviour In a Public Place. Doesn't he know he's doomed? The only Policies He knows are wrong ones, And the only silly Faces allowed in the Street Are the long ones. And the Longest are the ones the professional Economists pull, Discovering the Menace with which the Nation s Future is full — Compared with Them, the Undertaker’s Features Positively beam With Joy, and your worst Paranoid Nightmare Is a sweet Dream. They scold Us, they stuff Us with Forebodings, Their Figures frighten, Which is good for Us, I suppose, but do they Really enlighten? Do you ever catch Yourself enjoying Yourself In spite of it All? You appal me. Sir! and, as you know, I don't Easily appal. Remember Belshazzar's Feast, and that fateful Writing on the Wall? This is not Babylon, and there is no Daniel In the House, to translate. Only an Economist with his probable productivity Nil growth Rate — See the Book of Daniel, chapter 5, verses 26-28! £ Shall we spare a Thought for the Kingdom of Belshazzar, And the King’s Fate? ♦
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Press, 2 December 1978, Page 12
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237THE WRITING ON THE WALL? Press, 2 December 1978, Page 12
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