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In mid-2019, the Reserve Bank signalled it was considering unconventional monetary policy such as quantitative easing (QE), vulgo: money printing. Back then, Eric Crampton, Robert MacCulloch and I wrote a short paper called The Unreserved Bank of New Zealand: Why unorthodox monetary policy needs boundaries. Read more

Persistence looks set to pay off with one of Labour’s 2017 election manifesto promises: to reintroduce compulsory sector-wide collective bargaining across the country. Dubbed “Fair Pay Agreements,” the Government’s plan is to take New Zealand back to the system of awards that dominated industrial relations for most of the 20th century. Read more

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

As American historian and philosopher Will Durant observed, "Civilisation is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew." That is a more polite way of saying that humans make mistakes, cause damage, then repair the mess. . Read more

Last week’s government budget reinforced the sense of fiscal fantasy that arises when one contemplates the unprecedented deficit spending funded by central bank credit creation occurring here and elsewhere. The government plans to borrow around $30 billion net in the coming fiscal year. Read more

As economics Nobel laureate Paul Krugman once put it, “Productivity isn’t everything, but, in the long run, it is almost everything.” Which makes you wonder what Krugman would think of yesterday’s Budget. Hidden behind headlines of benefit increases, spending initiatives and a new unemployment insurance scheme lies a worrying small detail. Read more