Sam Uffindell’s confession to being a bully is admirable, but it creates some major political problems for National and will raise questions for victims of bullying, including me
Read MoreToo many commentators on current price pressures have not understood that this time it is very different from the 1970s. Their prescriptions may accelerate inflation.
Read MoreAndrea Vance’s ‘Blue Blood: The Inside Story of the National Party in Crisis’ provides broader insights about how Parliament works than just National’s troubles.
Read MoreAre We Keeping Up With the Changing Global Trade Patterns?
Read MoreA stunning day of testimony at the January 6 committee hearings in Washington DC has corroborated the key, but under-reported, part of Cassidy Hutchinson’s damning evidence against Donald Trump
Read MoreThe ongoing decline in market income inequality stopped in the 1980s. Since then it has been stable, while 1990 public policy actively increased disposable income inequality.
Read MoreWe cannot be sure, but the answer matters even in the short term.
Read MoreNew alliances are cropping up in the Pacific, but in whose interests? Are New Zealand and its partners willing to walk the walk required to achieve genuine peace and development or will we fail to learn lessons from elsewhere?
Read MoreBehavioural economics challenges our assumptions about the relevance of rational economic man.
Read MoreToday’s US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade is a lesson to non-American’s that abortion remains the deepest, most divisive, most defining issue in US politics. And its impact will be felt far beyond the realm of reproductive rights
Read MoreThe takeaways from the just released data are:
1. Any estimate of GDP is subject to error.
2. The 0.2 percent decrease in the March 2022 quarter is not precise and will be revised, with the mild likelihood that it will eventually be higher.
3. New Zealand has no ‘official' definition of a recession.
4. The New Zealand economy seems to be stagnating. Whether we are in a recession (or going into one) or it is something more structural we cannot yet tell.
Read MoreThe outlook does not look that promising.
Read MoreJacinda Ardern has turned necessity into an opportunity, as she starts to reset the look of Labour’s leadership for a new chapter. Her biggest weaknesses are dealt with as she looks for more from new faces
Read MorePerhaps we are reaching the stage of the 1870s, the 1930s and the 1970s of growing unease about the state of the New Zealand economy. It is not stagnating, but it is not obviously going anywhere either. Will we have another ‘Think Big’ and if so, what will be the balance between the private and public involvement?
Read More‘Dark Towers’, a book on Deutsche Bank, throws light on a long running economic dispute.
Read MoreBudget 2022: What does Treasury think is happening to the economy whose evolution underpins the budget policies?
Read MoreThe informed discussion on the next steps in tax policy is about improving the income tax base, not about taxing wealth directly.
Read MoreWhile the new fiscal rules may not be contentious, what they mean for macroeconomic management is not explained.
Read MorePopulation growth has some effect on economic growth, but it is complicated especially where infrastructure is involved. We need to think more about it.
Read MoreReductions in effective productivity, largely as a result of events overseas, require reductions in real incomes. Ignore that and you cannot defeat inflation.
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