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A Radio New Zealand journalist reported in the last fortnight that other top economists privately shared Eric Crampton’s publicly expressed concerns over Treasury’s economic capability. Yesterday, Treasury’s former deputy chief economist went public on the malaise in the organisation. Read more

New Zealand’s productivity track record is failing us. That was the key message delivered by the Productivity Commission’s new report, Productivity by the numbers: 2019. Read more

The government has largely put the KiwiBuild and capital gains tax fiascos behind it. Next headed for the cold storage might be the recommendations of its Fair Pay Agreement working group. Read more

“Nothing good happens after 3 am,” Auckland’s top-ranking police officer once said. “Facts tend to be overanalysed,” his Wellingtonian counterpart claimed. Read more

If the Canterbury earthquakes taught us anything, it’s that the immediate response to a disaster is a very different thing from the rebuilding that has to follow. Disaster response is about triage, the good-enough, and avoiding substantial further harm. Read more

New Zealand has to slow down. At least, that was the overall message from the NZ Transport Agency’s Mega Maps data released this week. Read more

Remember former finance minister Steven Joyce’s claim that Labour’s fiscal plan for its 2017 general election campaign had an $11.7 billion “hole”? Back then, Labour intended to spend $572 billion in the five years to 2021-22. Read more