This week, The New Zealand Initiative releases its third and final report in the foreign direct investment (FDI) series, Open for Business: Removing the barriers to foreign investment. The report focuses on New Zealand's policies towards inwards overseas investment, the centrepiece of which is the Overseas Investment Act 2005 (OIA). Read more
Openness to foreign trade and capital is fundamental to New Zealand's prosperity. If we get both aspects right, New Zealanders can enjoy the best things the world can offer and great job prospects – without emigrating. Read more
This week we published the last in our series of three reports on New Zealand’s external financial links. Our report, Open for business: Removing the barriers to foreign investment, co-authored by the writer and Research Assistant Khyaati Acharya, examines New Zealand’s Overseas Investment Act 2005 and associated regulations. Read more
When Labour announced its so-called “Monetary Policy Upgrade” this week, their finance spokesperson David Parker was aware of what a radical departure from conventional monetary practice it was. When asked whether one of its key proposals, a compulsory variable savings rate (VSR), was in place anywhere else in the world, Parker had to admit that “nowhere currently” was such a scheme practised. Read more
During the last American presidential election, Mitt Romney bragged that he had created around 100,000 jobs. The Obama campaign claimed Romney had actually destroyed jobs. Read more
You may find Russian President Vladimir Putin’s behaviour in the Ukraine crisis objectionable; you may deplore his blatant disregard of international law and condemn his brutal ruthlessness in the pursuit of Russia’s interests. However, one thing Putin’s behaviour is not: irrational. Read more
Wellington (30 April 2014): If New Zealand does not ease its restrictive foreign direct investment (FDI) regime, the country risks driving away overseas capital that could otherwise be invested to create jobs and contribute to the tax base. This is the message of Open for Business: Removing the barriers to foreign investment, the final report in The New Zealand Initiative’s series on FDI regulation. Read more
New Zealand affords itself the luxury of treating overseas investment as a privilege rather than as a necessary and desirable means of better integrating ourselves with the world, so as to make the most of what it has to offer. That blinkered attitude permeates our regulatory regime, which the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development assesses to be more restrictive than the regimes of 47 other countries out of a total of 53 countries. Read more
Since the Living Wage Aotearoa's campaign launched in March last year, there has been no shortage of talk about the feasibility of its implementation, and how it will affect the business of employers and the livelihood of workers. Last week, Jesse Chalmers - treasurer for the Auckland division of the Green Party - waxed lyrical about the positive impact the living wage allegedly had on her small-to-medium enterprise. Read more
After fighting the weakness of its euro currency for the past five years, the European Central Bank now seemingly has an even more fearsome opponent to tackle: the strength of the euro. At least this is the narrative that the ECB is trying to establish. Read more
Next month, I will be presenting my new book at three functions hosted by The New Zealand Initiative. Democracy in Decline is part lament and part call to arms. It is about the decline of democracy in five of the oldest democracies on earth, countries that, before just about anywhere else, worked out how to count everyone as equal and then let the numbers count as a way to resolve debatable and contested social policy line-drawing disputes. Read more
Consistency is regarded by some as a hallmark of a good politician, so by this logic Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce should be commended for steadfastly fronting the government's apparent commitment to ensuring that expensive recreational pastimes get well-rewarded. The latest beneficiary of the taxpayers’ purse is the New Zealand Open pro-am, an annual golf tournament which takes place at The Hills and Millbrook course in Queenstown. Read more
Incentives are the little magnets that guide human activity. But that doesn’t mean things always go according to plan. Read more
If there was a ranking for the most self-righteous nation in Europe, Germany would have a good chance of topping the list. Sure, without Germany’s support the euro may have already gone under, but the Germans are extremely good at coupling such help to their neighbours with unrequited advice on how to run their countries. Read more