Dec 22, 2021
3 min

Legal Threats over the Americas Cup and some Sports Economics

It has been reported that, "A retired appellate judge .. has put Royal NZ Yacht Squadron on notice that he will sue it if it allows the America's Cup defence to be taken offshore. Sir Edmund Thomas, who briefly served as a judge on the Supreme Court, also indicated he could use the discovery process to examine the relationship between the squadron, Team New Zealand and its chief executive, Grant Dalton". The Herald reports that "While the next venue for the America's Cup is y

rmacculloch

Dec 20, 2021
5 min

Is the Government supporting Nature or ... itself?

The NZ Herald ran an article over the weekend about the government's Jobs for Nature program, under the heading, "Jobs for Nature creates just one tenth of promised jobs to date". That is a kind headline. The program may well have not created a single new job. The article quotes us, starting out with the line, "An economist has roasted Jobs for Nature as "a total failure" of job creation". An ecologist has since written to me, saying much of the money has been given to large

rmacculloch

Dec 19, 2021
2 min

Why the Relentless Partisan Bias at Newsroom?

Newsroom are featuring an article today which states, "When Christopher Luxon, leader of the National Party, asserts that, in order to protect businesses against further losses, New Zealand should be emerging from social restrictions much faster than the Government is permitting, he is joining Bloomberg in valuing big business over the lives of people at risk of dying of Covid". Now that is a very strong statement, which accuses the Leader of the Opposition of putting money -

rmacculloch

Dec 16, 2021
3 min

Oops! The (Intellectually) Bankrupt Reserve Bank just went and did it again

The RBNZ has featured in the news on the issue of staff turnover, which became a line of questioning at yesterday's Finance & Expenditure Select Committee. Questions by Shadow Finance Spokesman, Simon Bridges, and Leader of the ACT Party, David Seymour, on this topic were rebuffed by the Governor. We have already blogged on the dwindling pool of talented economists who work at the Bank. Gone are the days when the likes of Dr (now Professor) Arthur Grimes (PhD & Masters with D

rmacculloch

Dec 15, 2021
2 min

Hang on TVNZ's Campbell Show. You misreported the Leader of the Opposition on inequality

In an interview with John Campbell, mostly on the topic of inequality, National Party Leader Chris Luxon said his way of helping everyone, regardless of background, to achieve the "Kiwi Dream", was to bring back Sir Bill English's "social investment approach". That approach is related, although not the same, as "cost-benefit-analysis", which is the subject of many economics textbooks. Whereas cost-benefit analysis tries to put a value on all of the social costs & benefits of

rmacculloch

Dec 14, 2021
4 min

The Road to Hell (Wealth Taxes for Kiwis) is paved with Good Intentions

My column for the National Business Review is out and can be read at https://www.nbr.co.nz/node/232661 or below. The NZ Treasury recently released its Long Term Fiscal Statement. Interpreting what it means for each Kiwi’s future, as well as our country’s future, requires some detective work. First and foremost, the Statement shows how NZ has no chance of funding future health-care and pension costs over coming decades, partly due to our ageing population, given existing polic

rmacculloch

Dec 13, 2021
3 min

Shaun Hendy vs The Productivity Commission: DownToEarth.Kiwi is on the Commission's Side

Outstanding NZ Herald Investigative Journalist, Kate McNamara, has done some digging & picked up on a story-line that we blogged about back in August in a post titled, "My toy model is better than your toy model". In that post, we noted how Newshub reported that, "A scientist [Professor Shaun Hendy] .. has criticized a report which suggested lengthening the time spent in level 4 cost a fortune, while providing few health benefits". That report was by the Productivity Commissi

rmacculloch

Dec 7, 2021
3 min

Isn't being able to distinguish "disinformation" from "opinion" the exception rather than the rule?

Yesterday Stuff News reported on a Kiwi-based Centre's "Disinformation Project", which has been "monitoring misinformation & disinformation about Covid-19 and the vaccine since February 2020". Stuff ran the headline, "It's a hellscape: The age of misinformation is here - can government close the rabbit hole? " The Centre's Working Paper on the issue (see below) says, "The ecologies & spread of mis- and disinformation point to a broader threat: that Covid-19 & vaccination are

rmacculloch

Dec 6, 2021
2 min

Meet PM Ardern's twin sister: Finland's PM Sanna Marin

In economics, we like to try to draw similarities and differences between countries and their policies to understand them better. So on that note, lets meet the leaders of NZ and Finland. The Kiwi PM, Jacinda Ardern, is 41 years old. The Finnish PM is 36. Both preside over two of the world's "happiest" countries, as measured by subjective surveys of well-being like the World Happiness Report. So here's a test: (a) Which one of the two said her country 'was committed to prese

rmacculloch

Dec 3, 2021
3 min

The Tall Poppy Syndrome Strikes Again: The Fourth Estate tries to bring out the worst in Kiwis

Whatever one's views of National's new leader, Chris Luxon, the NZ Herald, Newshub & Stuff turned out in force to throw mud at him for being .. oh no .. hard working & successful! Yes, the green eyed monster of envy rises again. Newshub ran the line, "National Leader with Seven Properties Wouldn't want to see house prices fall dramatically". Are they for real? Are they seriously inferring that owning some real-estate has given the Leader of the Opposition a vested interest in

rmacculloch

Dec 2, 2021
2 min

State computers running on AI emptied private bank accounts in Aussie

It's easy to give the Reserve Bank of NZ a hard time on so many fronts, so let's give them some credit for trying to defend the use of cash which is being threatened as banks close branches, pull out ATMs, more shops refuse to accept it and the public continue to switch to making digital payments. So the RBNZ is now working on a blueprint to save cash. “We're worried that if we don’t act soon, the cash system won’t be able to perform the roles required of it,” said Christian

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Robert MacCulloch

rmacculloch1@gmail.com

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