We conclude an epic essay from the New Zealand Initiative’s Eric Crampton, exploring what life is like in and out of New Zealand. Today: chapters seven and eight. Read chapters one and two here, chapters three and four here, chapter five here and chapter six here. Chapter 7: For your own good The way [the Nutri-Matic Machine] functioned was very interesting. … Read more
We continue serialising an epic essay from the New Zealand Initiative’s Eric Crampton, exploring what life is like in and out of New Zealand. Today: chapter five, on drinking. Read chapters one and two here, chapters three and four here and chapter five here. Chapter 6: Driving you to drink Trillian did a little research in the ship’s copy of … Read more
We continue serialising an epic essay from the New Zealand Initiative’s Eric Crampton, exploring what life is like in and out of New Zealand. Today: chapter five, on policing. Read chapters one and two here and chapters three and four here. Chapter 5: Policing “So are you going to come quietly,” shouted one of the cops again, “or … Read more
We continue serialising an epic essay from the New Zealand Initiative’s Eric Crampton, exploring what life is like in and out of New Zealand. Today: chapters three and four, covering tax and airport security. Read chapters one and two here. Chapter 3: A sense of proportion: The tax system “He’s spending a year dead for tax … Read more
Living in New Zealand and focusing on our very real social issues, it’s easy to forget that there are many things we do quite well. Or, to put it another way, that things are frequently a lot worse in other countries, even advanced prosperous ones. Over the next couple of weeks we serialise an epic … Read more
With the election shaping up to hinge on the question of tax cuts versus spending, economics expert Brian Fallow crunches the numbers. This story was first published on interest.co.nz Tax cuts versus spending. The divergent fiscal priorities the two main parties will take to the electorate in September have been on display in the budget and the opposition reaction. … Read more
Budget 2017: After a year of taking heavy shots from the opposition, National responded with a 1-2 of their own with today’s budget announcements, writes Ben Thomas. Read all our Budget 2017 coverage here. Steven Joyce, bomaye. Translated from Lingala to internet English, that basically means “Steve Joyce, slay!”. The catchcry was popularised by fans … Read more
Tax cuts, more money for infrastructure, and catch-up spending on a raft of areas where it had previously been frozen. All well and good, says economist Shamubeel Eaqub, but what about housing? Read all our Budget 2017 coverage here. Steven Joyce delivered his first Budget and it was carefully calculated to maximise impact in an … Read more
After a clear decade running one of the country’s best-performing investment funds, and two writing one of its best-read business columns, Brian Gaynor is stepping back from day-to-day fund management. Duncan Greive asks him why. I don’t know when I first started reading Brian Gaynor. It would have been a decade ago at least. Probably … Read more
Great news for young people struggling to buy a house while spending up large on window washers, cat whisperers and feng shui consultants. Inspired by big bank economist Tony Alexander, the Spinoff has one hundred thousand dollars for you. A huge couple of days for li’l New Zealand. Lorde has released a superb new record. … Read more
The amazing truth about reducing child poverty is that we already know what works: regular, no strings attached cash payments. Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw explains the research backing up her call for the government to reinstate the Family Benefit. It was 1985; New Zealand was riding high in the waves of economic deregulation. I was seven … Read more
Adrian Orr’s 23% salary increase has been decried by everyone from the PM down. But Orr is no ordinary public service boss: he’s a savvy corporate investor, responsible for truly remarkable returns. His salary should match that reality, argues Peter Davis. Through the early 2000s both Australia and New Zealand enjoyed good times, thanks to … Read more
New Zealand has had legally-mandated equal pay for women since 1972 but, as the new Treat Her Right campaign makes clear, we still have far to go to reach true pay equality. Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw explains why the economic imbalance between genders is about a lot more than just equal pay for equal work. Last … Read more
Some say the American billionaire isn’t welcome because of his backing for Trump – but that happened four years after he was granted citizenship. And should political support really be a litmus? Eric Crampton writes in defence of Citizen Thiel. Step into my time machine. It’s 2011. Peter Thiel is one of the world’s most … Read more
When President Donald J Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a number of New Zealand’s trade cards flew into the air – including a possible bilateral deal with “America first”. Trade advocate Stephen Jacobi reviews the options. The apparent demise of the TPP is is not … Read more
Is Alan Greenspan the demon author of the GFC, or a true immortal of central banking? A monumental new biography persuasively argues he was neither – but that his latter-day critics have got him wrong, writes Duncan Greive. There are two Alan Greenspans in popular mythology, each in direct contradiction to the other. The first … Read more
We wanted to better understand the changing New Zealand economy, and who better to explain it than superstar economist Shamubeel Eaqub. Below, the second of six short videos featuring Shamubeel giving it to us straight while sitting comfortably in a classic Kiwi chair. In this episode: a tour through New Zealand’s tumultuous economic history. First published … Read more
We wanted to better understand the changing New Zealand economy, and who better to explain it than superstar economist Shamubeel Eaqub. This is the fifth of six short videos featuring Shamubeel giving it to us straight while sitting comfortably in a classic Kiwi chair. In this video Shamubeel explains how tax has changed and why … Read more
Things might be very bleak internationally, but as we close out 2016 there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about our own economic future, as Sam Stubbs explains. In spite of recent earthquakes, real and political, I’m as bullish on New Zealand’s economic future as I’ve ever been. Setting aside the deeply troubling social … Read more
He wants to be a tax-raising and lowering, eat-the-rich Trump-but-not-like-that of the political centre. Duncan Greive heads to Parnell for the Gareth Morgan party’s very odd first policy launch. “Make New Zealand fair again,” says Gareth Morgan, more than once for emphasis, on a street in a suburb which has always and only and accurately … Read more
Over the past month, buried in the finance and markets pages of the Herald and elsewhere, there’s been a war brewing over KiwiSaver. The cause is the arrival and quick success of Simplicity, a not-for-profit Kiwisaver scheme. Simplicity’s Sam Stubbs responds to the latest, most aggressive attack from the sector. Something strange is happening to … Read more
We wanted to better understand the changing New Zealand economy, and who better to explain it than superstar economist Shamubeel Eaqub. This is the fourth of six short videos featuring Shamubeel giving it to us straight while sitting comfortably in a classic Kiwi chair. This time he responds to the ever-present fear that technology will … Read more
We wanted to better understand the changing New Zealand economy, and who better to explain it than superstar economist Shamubeel Eaqub. Below, the third of six short videos featuring Shamubeel giving it to us straight while sitting comfortably in a classic Kiwi chair. This time he’s explaining the changing way New Zealanders work while perched … Read more
Tax cuts and big state spending on infrastructure in pursuit of growth? Donald Trump’s economic promises make him sound a lot like the famed British economist – and Keynesians won’t know whether to laugh or cry, writes Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy. There is a theory in political economy which states that necessary changes must come from the least … Read more
Further reading and links to the data used in this comic can be found here.
New Zealand’s greatest reality show doesn’t only offer a window into the lives of the rich and shameless, says Max Rashbrooke. It’s also a perfect distillation of how the country’s wealth is increasingly being concentrated at the top. In the first episode of Real Housewives of Auckland, Louise Wallace introduces herself with the immortal line, … Read more
The problem with the living costs loan isn’t just that it’s too low, says university student Jack Close. It’s how it unfairly advantages those who need the help least. It’s been nearly three years since I awkwardly navigated the StudyLink website for the first time. Moving to Dunedin from my middle-class home in Wellington, I … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Sophie Roberts, artistic director of Auckland’s Silo Theatre, about putting on their new all-female play Boys Will be Boys and being a tough bitch in a male-dominated industry. Let’s start with the show Boys Will be Boys – what’s it all about? Boys Will Be Boys is set in the world of … Read more
Internationally renowned UK economist Ann Pettifor talks global finance, property speculation and debt forgiveness ahead of her upcoming public lecture series in New Zealand. Ann Pettifor is an international expert on sovereign debt. She is well known for correctly predicting the Global Financial Crisis and was a leader in the Jubilee 2000 debt campaign which … Read more