In February, New Zealand’s PCR Covid testing system fell apart. The Ministry of Health, the Director-General of Health, and the Ministers should have known it would happen. Read more
Democracy Action engaged Professor James Allan to review the He Puapua Report. The result of Professor Allan’s analysis - "The Report of Professor James Allan on He Puapua: The Radical Prescription for Undermining Democracy and the Rule of Law". Read more
Eric Crampton talks to Heather Du Plessis Allan, Newstalk ZB about why we should care that Labour gave NZTA officials less than 24 hours to come up with policy on the petrol excise duty discount.
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Oliver Hartwich talks with Eric Crampton about the Government's rushed policy making for a fuel tax and Road User Charge holiday. To listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more
In this week's Initiative podcast, Chief Economist Dr Eric Crampton discusses with statistician Len Cook about concern to changes being made to the legislation governing New Zealand's statistics agency. To listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more
This month, Central Banking, the journal for the world’s monetary policy experts, hosted its virtual Summers Meetings. With inflation returning, the onset of a new European debt crisis, and the implications of geopolitical conflicts, central bankers have enough reasons to be worried right now. Read more
Just before 3 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon, about a dozen NZTA and Ministry of Transport officials received a weekend-ruining email. Subject: “Cabinet paper: Urgent”. Read more
Bryce Wilkinson talks to Tim Dower, Newstalk ZB Early Edition about the 0.2 per cent shrink in New Zealand's economy in the first quarter of the year. Read more
Pick your favourite bit of bad economic news. How about a 10 percent hike in food prices? Read more
On 4 June, The Dominion Post published a lengthy and disturbing article highlighting the woes and dilemmas of earthquake safety regulation in Wellington. It highlighted the arbitrariness of current building standards and decisions. Read more
On 31 July 2022, New Zealand's borders will fully reopen. This will be a welcome development for education providers, especially those in the tertiary sector. Read more
Oliver Hartwich discusses the biggest economic issues of the week with Eric Crampton and Bryce Wilkinson: How transitory is inflation? Will we ever see the return of supply-side economics? Read more
Amanda Boyd talks to Oliver Hartwich about his latest article in Newsroom about the future of European monetary policy and the parallels between Mexico 1982 and Italy 2022. To listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more
The moderate increases in the European Central Bank’s interest rates are far from being brutal but the writing is on the wall that Europe’s monetary party is about to end, and Southern Europe has remarkable parallels to Mexico and Latin America in the 1980s. Of all the places in history, Mexico in 1982 could give us a hint about the future of European monetary policy. Read more
Bring on the bondholders. New Zealand’s proposed Three Waters Reforms, which would force the amalgamation of council water services into four large providers under convoluted governance arrangements, is an attempted solution to a real problem. Read more