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Events have rather overtaken last week’s blackout. The outage on the evening of 9 August left 35,000 households in the dark for up to two hours on the coldest night of the year. Read more

Reports about the Government reconsidering the controversial Auckland cycling bridge are welcome. At projected costs of $785 million, the bridge always looked excessively expensive. Read more

In late May, Budget 2021 revealed that work was underway to develop an unemployment insurance scheme. This would see benefits tied to past employment and wages in some way. Read more

KiwiBuild never made any sense and could not work. The reason was simple. Read more

A 500-gram punnet of grapes: $1.89. A 2 litre bottle of Coca-Cola: also $1.89. Read more

One of the finest shows on economic affairs was ‘Clarke and Dawe’. The two satirists collaborated from 1989 until John Clarke’s death 2017. Read more

If you're going to read the Commerce Commission's market study on supermarkets in New Zealand, I'd suggest starting with the first half of Chapter 6 which explains the difficulties facing any potential new entrant. As far as I'm concerned, evidence on margins and such really don't mean much unless there are substantial restrictions against new entry. Read more

Inflation numbers for the June quarter are out. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 3.3% in the year to June. Read more