The email from the 9th floor telling ministers to ‘dismiss’ interview requests about thousands of pages of Covid-19 related decisions wasn’t just bad for government transparency, it was politically stupid
Read MoreIt is too easy to stick to conventional thinking when we are in a totally new economic environment. Thinking about distributional issues allows us to think deeper.
Read MoreHow the little country that could somehow did it again
Read MoreIsolation and PPE in 1918
I have been asked what my book, Not in Narrow Seas: The Economic History of Aotearoa New Zealand, out this month, says about the Covid Crisis. The short answer is nothing ... and everything.
Read MoreIt may be some time before we can truly count the cost of the Covid-19 decisions. But whatever approach we take and whatever new normal we build, there will be a cost
Read MoreThe Ministry of Health proposed closing New Zealand’s borders to returning New Zealand citizens. It really shouldn’t have done that.
Read MoreAn uncertain attempt to explain what is going on in the economy. If you confidently know the answers to any of these questions, you have not been following closely enough.
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New Zealand media were in trouble before Covid-19. But in a matter of weeks the situation has become much worse. Getting the media through the crisis will not be enough. Change is required.
Read MoreAfrican communities in countries such as Sweden as being hard hit by Covid-19, in part due to cultural traditions. The government would do well to reach out to ethnic communities here to minimise risks here
Read MoreWhile we cannot eliminate the impending unemployment; we have to flatten the curve.
Read MoreNew Zealanders are due to elect a Government in September. Will it be the way the Covid-19 crisis was handled or the creation of a new normal that will determine who wins?
Read MoreThe outcome will be Level Three or Level Four, but the decision itself is not a simple binary. The government has to balance many factors, not least the public’s state of mind
Read MoreA short, sharp curtailment of freedom might be better than a protracted, dull one.
Read MoreI kind of miss the days when Matthew Hooton was the designated bogeyman.
Read MoreThe economy may not follow any of the just released Treasury scenarios, but they provide a basis for a discussion on our economic track. (The graph above is from the Treasury report.)
Read MoreThis is going to suck
Read MoreTo pull our society from the brink, we will need unprecedented economic change.
Read MoreThe indirect costs of the lockdown are seldom discussed in New Zealand. You will not hear the Government talk about it much. These costs need to be weighed against the benefits of a strict Level 4 lockdown.
Read MoreThis paper demonstrates the truism that for every financial liability is matched by an asset. A fiscal deficit creates a liability of the government. Somewhere outside government – somewhere in the private sector – there is a private asset matching this public liability.
Read MoreCOVID-19 has exposed Trump as not up to the job and America as a failing state. None of this is good for America or the world. Bob Dylan’s Murder Most Foul captures the mood of the times.
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