Analysis of the housing market is difficult, so superficial solutions do not work. Perforce, this column has had to go into more technical detail than usual. It concludes, ‘The lesson is that the mainly neoliberal regime for the housing market since the early 1990s does not work: it has under-supplied quality housing, generated unsustainable house price inflation and excluded many “worthy” people from home ownership (and given a rough time to those who depend upon rental accommodation). That should not surprise any properly trained economist; many of the assumptions which underpin the standard market analysis do not apply to the housing market. The nostrums based upon such simple analyses will continue to fail no matter how plausible they sound.’
Read MoreLabour’s Covid-19 response is losing its sense of urgency, something that’s becoming increasingly clear in the vaccination rollout, testing, immigration and much more
Read MoreAs the new podcast Red Line makes clear, China is changing before our eyes and New Zealand faces some increasingly stark, challenging, and maybe defining, choices
Read MoreIn trying to defend their decision not to make a special extension of the ACC scheme to include victims of the mosque attacks, the government seems to be pushing a narrative that the ACC scheme is about physical injuries. I have two objections to this. First, it’s ahistorical. Second, the physical/mental divide is dubious and problematic.
Read MoreArchitectural designer, Jade Kake, claims that ‘debt is a colonial construct – the implications of which continue to be felt in the colonies’.
Read MoreThe Black Caps won the hearts of a nation this week with one of the great sporting triumphs. Another supposedly proud New Zealand sports team… not so much
Read MoreProviding for the redundantly unemployed is admirable but difficult and expensive to implement.
Read MoreChild Poverty Levels Are only Slowly Coming Down, What Next?
Read MoreWhat was the big change the Treasury saw in its budget 2021 forecasts? (Treasury GDP graph Shown above.)
Read MoreIf you know the answer to how much public debt New Zealand should bear, you do not understand the issue.
Read MoreDo some offshore trends presage the future of New Zealand politics?
Read MoreJoin the dots from 1991 to election night 2020 to today… This is the day that Grant Robertson and Jacinda Ardern entered politics to deliver
Read MoreThe poverty indicators are coming down but, oh, so slowly.
Read MoreMight the drift to the north be resisted?
Read MoreThe proposed health redisorganisation seeks to markedly centralise the health system. Is this grab for power justified; will it work?
Read MoreThe recognition that there is a media problem is correct, but the chosen solution is likely to be disastrous.
Read MoreNanaia Mahuta’s speech on China used some pretty plain language, but the words that resonated were not just about our largest trading partner. Others about some of our oldest allies were just as controversial
Read MoreNow is about the time that the Government is getting its Budget Strategy together
Read MoreWhatever the damage, especially to the British economy, Brexit has done us a service by illustrating the complexity of trade.
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