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Media release: New Zealand on dangerous path to higher public debt and unprecedented money printing, new report warns

Wellington, 12 June 2020 - New Zealand is now on a dangerous path to higher public debt and unprecedented money printing with no credible plan for unwinding the situation before the next crisis, warns a new report by The New Zealand Initiative. Covid-19 and the various types of lockdown responses have caused many governments to go even more heavily into debt and print money to sustain asset prices with borrowed money. Read more

Media release

12 June, 2020

Artificial Intelligence and the 'truth virus'

Ten weeks later, the coronavirus has revealed the government’s tightrope of managing the deeper changes happening to New Zealand’s economy. Crises always show the cracks. Read more

NZ Herald

10 June, 2020

Prudent debt

A government is not a household and reasoning from wrong assumptions can lead to errors. In the last recourse, households cannot print their own currency. Read more

Dr Eric Crampton

Newsroom

9 June, 2020

Six Nations down under? How NZ could better use Covid-free status

Making the most of our Covid-free status could open the way for New Zealand to host sports events such as the Six Nations rugby tournament. The Government could let in more athletes, film crews, and university students under a well-managed re-opening of our borders. Read more

Roger Partridge

Mike Hosking Breakfast - Newstalk ZB

8 June, 2020

Local Experience

An Overseas Experience is almost a rite of passage for Kiwis. Unfortunately, Covid-19 is likely to keep borders mostly shut for another year or two. Read more

Insights Newsletter

5 June, 2020

No sign of strategic thinking

With Alert Level 1 approaching, there are few signs the Government has shifted its thinking towards capitalising on New Zealand’s coronavirus-free status. On Wednesday, Minister for Economic Development Phil Twyford fielded yet more criticism, this time for refusing to let an overseas fishing vessel undergo repairs at a Nelson shipyard. Read more

Roger Partridge

Insights Newsletter

5 June, 2020

Taking carbon – and housing – seriously

Minister for Climate Change James Shaw this week announced substantial strengthening of New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Total emissions will be capped, and carbon prices allowed to increase to help reduce New Zealand’s overall greenhouse gas emissions. Read more

Dr Eric Crampton

Insights Newsletter

5 June, 2020

Podcast #12: Oliver Hartwich explains why NZ’s economic institutions must be protected now

The Covid-19 crisis has quickly evolved from a health issue into an economic threat. The science was largely clear about what should be done to combat a pandemic, although historians will be the judge of those decisions, but there are plenty of competing ideas now about how to protect the economy after a pandemic. Read more

Dr Oliver Hartwich

Podcast

4 June, 2020

Nothing stops the march of European integration

To understand the mindset of European elites, it is worth going back to the words of the founding godfather or European integration, Jean Monnet: “Europe will be forged in crises and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises." Monnet’s spirit of integration was alive in last week’s proposal to create a €750 billion fund to deal with the fallout of the coronavirus crisis. It is a gutsy move which pushes European fiscal integration to a new level. Read more

Dr Oliver Hartwich

Newsroom

3 June, 2020