EEconomists wonder about the “New Zealand paradox”, which is that New Zealand under-performs economically given its policies, institutions, natural resources, educated people, and compliance with trade and other multi-lateral agreements. Our economic reforms from the mid-1980s and on were textbook economic theory and yet the real-world results disappointed. However, New Zealand has different policy settings […]
Recovering from New Zealand’s worst ever economic decision: The cancellation of the Kirk Government’s superannuation scheme
Recovering from New Zealand’s worst ever economic decision: The cancellation of the Kirk Government’s superannuation scheme
08 Sep 2024 1 Comment
in economic growth, economic history, fiscal policy, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics
Top notch DomPost op-ed #OTD on bloody cyclists
07 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in environmentalism, politics - New Zealand, transport economics
Why the @NZGreens are beside the point
31 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economic history, entrepreneurship, growth miracles, history of economic thought, human capital, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, technological progress Tags: child poverty, family poverty, The Great Enrichment
Let Candace speak
30 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: conspiracy theorists, The Holocaust
Newsroom reports: The Government should closely scrutinise the visa application of Holocaust denier Candace Owens, the chair of the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand has urged. Owens, an American far-right activist with a history of antisemitic, Islamophobic and homophobic comments, is visiting Auckland in November as part of a speaking tour which will also take […]
Let Candace speak
The child poverty conundrum
30 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, kittens, labour economics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, family poverty
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Child Poverty Report 2024 has just been published. It’s an overview and selected findings, as opposed to a full report which is due in 2025. Poverty can be measured in various ways.
The child poverty conundrum
A tale of two conferences
28 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
A number of readers attended both the recent National Party Annual Conference and the Local Government annual conference. They were struck by the differences between the two. A key factor being that those who attend the National conference pay the cost themselves and those who attend the LG conference have ratepayers pay the cost. National […]
A tale of two conferences
Former Labour PM’s Clark and Ardern wrecked NZ’s Health System: they should be held accountable for the lives that have been lost
28 Aug 2024 1 Comment
in economic history, economics of bureaucracy, health economics, industrial organisation, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, theory of the firm Tags: health insurance
Enough is enough. Former PMs Helen Clark and Jacinda Ardern should come clean about how they were the Chief Architects of the omni-shambles that has become our health system. They should take responsibility for the folks who suffered from long waiting lists and declining health-care quality, some of whom didn’t make it. The person who…
Former Labour PM’s Clark and Ardern wrecked NZ’s Health System: they should be held accountable for the lives that have been lost
Karen Chhour and Moana Maniapoto debate section 7aa of the Oranga Tamari…
27 Aug 2024 1 Comment
in law and economics, politics - New Zealand
Fiscal and monetary policy
27 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, econometerics, economic growth, economic history, financial economics, fiscal policy, history of economic thought, inflation targeting, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: monetary policy
Over the last few years, The Treasury seems to have been toying with bidding for a more significant role for fiscal policy as a countercyclical stabilisation tool It seemed to start when Covid hubris still held sway – didn’t we do well? – and the first we saw of it in public was at a […]
Fiscal and monetary policy
Rowling Reportedly Sued by Olympic Boxer Over Gender Criticism
24 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, economics of media and culture, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, British politics, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
We have previously discussed the cancel campaigns targeting JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series. Rowling was not only the greatest selling author of all time but a wildly popular writer until she publicly opposed certain transgender policies as inimical to the advances in feminism. Now, she is the target of a lawsuit […]
Rowling Reportedly Sued by Olympic Boxer Over Gender Criticism
Guest Post: Criticising Cuba
23 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, economics of crime, growth disasters, history of economic thought, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: Cuba
A guest post by Lucy Rogers: Today (as of the time of writing) I saw Associate Professor Michael Mawson of the theology faculty at Auckland University advertise on Facebook an event hosting Professor Miguel De La Torre, a Cuban academic specialising in liberation theology. The event is to be held at the Maclaurin Chapel at […]
Guest Post: Criticising Cuba
Promised debate at Auckland University on indigenous ways of knowing vs. science fails to materialize
22 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
In 2021, the Listener Letter fracas erupted in New Zealand when seven professors at Auckland University argued that the indigenous “way of knowing,” Mātauranga Māori (MM), while valuable in anthropology and sociology classes, should not be taught, as the government planned, as coequal with modern science. The seven signers were right: while MM does contain […]
Promised debate at Auckland University on indigenous ways of knowing vs. science fails to materialize
More on the decline and fall of science education in New Zealand
22 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, constitutional law, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Skip this if you don’t care about science education in New Zealand, but plenty of scientists there are worried about it. And it’s a harbinger of what may happen to science education in the U.S. as science courses add requirements to teach indigenous “ways of knowing” and the curriculum itself pushes out traditional material to make […]
More on the decline and fall of science education in New Zealand
How Chlöe Swarbrick struggled to accept the PM’s position on sovereignty
21 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic history, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice Tags: constitutional law
Bob Edlin writes – Historian and former Labour Government cabinet minister Michael Bassett, in an article posted here earlier today, said those who spend time on the web examining the Treaty of Waitangi will find claims there are four or even five articles when officially there have never been more than three. Bassett went on […]
How Chlöe Swarbrick struggled to accept the PM’s position on sovereignty
The censored school speech
20 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
This is the speech by Oliver Jull that won him a spot in the speech competition finals, but then his school canceled as it was worried it may offend some people. You don’t have to agree with it, to think he should be allowed to express his beliefs.
The censored school speech
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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