Last week’s post-Covid fiscal and monetary policy workshop, hosted jointly by the Reserve Bank and Treasury, seemed designed to warm the policy economics community to higher levels of public debt. While low interest rates mean investment projects that might not normally make the grade can now stack up, stacking up debt builds its own fragility. Read more

This week, a strong majority of Australian economists came out in support of a policy measure to encourage electric vehicle adoption on their side of the Tasman. But they did not support subsidies for electric vehicles. Read more

The vehicle feebate scheme announced Sunday might result in more electric vehicles, but it cannot affect net carbon emissions. Transport is covered by the Emissions Trading Scheme’s binding cap on net emissions. Read more

A movie about the Prime Minister’s response to the Christchurch mosque attacks looks less likely by the day. That is for the best. Read more

Anyone who’s gone through strategic planning reviews at places of business under financial distress knows they’re often a prelude to redundancies. Too often, reviews look to see what might be cut, and what can be made of what is left, rather than building toward new opportunities. Read more

The New Zealand government’s approach to border management, contrary to popular belief, is not terrified of risk. It is far worse than that. Read more

Emissions pricing and congestion pricing have a lot in common. The economics of both are straightforward. Read more

The biggest risk to New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme isn’t technical issues in how the scheme is run or in its accounting. The biggest risk instead is politics. Read more