A race-neutral approach to government health (and welfare) spending would give the same treatment to people in the same circumstances. It would ignore irrelevant matters such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or creed. Read more

We explained in our November research report "Walking the Path to the Next Global Financial Crisis" why concerns about prolonged economic stagnation, or even serious recessions, should be taken seriously. During the 2008-2010 global financial crisis, governments' responses had turned a banking crisis into a public debt crisis. Read more

Fevered with Covid and isolated in a Te Anau motel, I imagined the following interview. Q: Finance Ministers traditionally urge people to be prudent – not to borrow to invest in shares. Read more

Last week, Inland Revenue Minister David Parker gave a speech titled “shining the light on unfairness in the tax system”. His speech defended an Inland Revenue investigation into the “tax paid by the wealthiest New Zealanders relative to their economic income”. Read more

This government is teaching us many things. One is that it and its supporters have no quarrel with governments that steam-roll radical reforms through parliament. Read more

Too many people think that what people get paid should bear some relationship to effort, merit or responsibility. Useless economists think it should have something to do with supply and demand. Read more

There is potential value in having a country’s economic policies reviewed by international organisations. Done well, they provide residents with non-partisan expert perspectives. Read more

Tolerance for legitimate protest is one thing. The current illegal occupation of public and private property around Parliament is another. Read more

Last November we published a report, Walking the Path to the Next Global Financial Crisis. Public debt ratios in many major economies are alarming. Read more

Officially, New Zealand governments welcome overseas investment. In practice, they do much to thwart it, for no good reason. Read more

This is going to be a busy and difficult year for government. It is planning major changes to the health system, tertiary education, local government (the ‘Three Waters’), environmental rules and wage setting arrangements - while also struggling with COVID and the disaster which is housing policy. Read more

It is easy to squander taxpayers’ money if you are a central bank. The losses amount to a few thousand dollars per household, but hardly anyone is aware of it. Read more