rmacculloch

Nov 30, 2022
2 min

Why is the Mainstream Media in cahoots with the Big Bank economists?

I spoke awhile ago with the partner of a former Prime Minister of NZ, who takes an interest in such matters, and they expressed dismay as to why the main-stream media relentlessly asks the Chief Economists at the Big Banks for commentary. First, appearing in the media pretending to give helpful economic advice is simply free advertising for their Big Business employers. Second, their comments are typically biased since, obviously, they come with vested interests. After all, t

rmacculloch

Nov 29, 2022
2 min

Did the PM just tell a Porker on Crime?

Why do people mistrust politicians? Could it be how they play with words? In the wake of awful headlines on violent crime and the murder of the dairy owner in Sandringham in Auckland, the PM had this to say on Radio NZ about how she is not "soft on crime": "We have not lessened the penalties on any individual crime." Hang on a second, only a couple of months ago in August the media reported this headline: Parliament Repeals Three Strikes Law That law said that if you are conv

rmacculloch

Nov 29, 2022
2 min

Five Ways the Kiwi Labour Party has Robbed Low & Middle Income Earners

Seems it is not so much high income earners that are unhappy with the Labour Party, but low and middle income earners whose living standards are declining. So let's list 5 ways Labour turned Robin Hood upside down and robbed low & middle earners to help the rich: ONE: Tax bracket creep caused by high inflation has pushed low & middle earners into higher tax brackets, increasing the share of income they pay in taxes. For example, once you hit $48,000 your tax rate jumps from 1

rmacculloch

Nov 23, 2022
1 min

RBNZ Governor Orr is Factually Wrong to call inflation “nobody’s friend”

“Inflation is nobody’s friend,” Governor Orr told the Reserve Bank press conference this afternoon. Gosh maybe he could find some time to read the thousands of articles about the winners and losers from high inflation. Yes, inflation has vast redistributive effects and is a friend to many, and an enemy to others. Calling it "nobody's friend" is rubbish. Here's a short reading list to get the RBNZ Board and its Senior Leadership Team going: Inflation and the Redistribution of

rmacculloch

Nov 23, 2022
2 min

The Real Reason why the RBNZ did a 75 basis point rise in the Official Cash Rate

So here it is and it's very psychological. The Reserve Bank has been profoundly stung by criticism (see my NZ Herald article) that it didn't react to surging inflation last year and was asleep at the wheel. Now it wants to look tough, talk like it actually does care about inflation and make itself out to be really, really serious about meeting its target of 1 to 3%. Only problem is - this is probably one gigantic mistake. The Bank is best likened to a drunk driver that has go

Isn't it time for Prof. Baker to admit he was wrong?

rmacculloch

Nov 23, 2022
2 min

Isn't it time for Prof. Baker to admit he was wrong?

How many people are there in NZ - given there were 24,068 Covid cases reported last week - who want lockdowns to be implemented with immediate effect, schools to be closed again, borders to be shut down again, overseas Kiwis prevented from returning to their homeland again, masks to be mandated again & nearly every business shuttered, with the government reactivating the wage-subsidy scheme and chalking up a billion bucks of debt a week to pay for it all? I would venture to s

rmacculloch

Nov 22, 2022
1 min

Seems Nobel Laureate Heckman wouldn't agree with our PM saying Luxon has a "simplistic" world view

National leader Christopher Luxon received a blasting from the Prime Minister yesterday for saying to parents, "you chose to have these kids, you have to wake up at 7am, get your kids to school at 8am", in the wake of poor school attendance data. PM Ardern said she didn't agree with Luxon's comments and described them as a "simple view of the world". She said people do need to take responsibility "but just making an argument that that is the solution to every issue that we cu

rmacculloch

Nov 22, 2022
2 min

Do Kiwi Parliamentarians believe in love and family as a way to reduce youth crime? Short answer: no

How many of our Members of Parliament have explained that the best way to reduce youth crime is to implement policies that promote strong family values? Not one that I know of. Maybe this relates to the definition of a politician, namely "a person who gives speeches about the importance of family yet barely spends anytime with theirs". Kiwi right-wing politicians are just as guilty as left-wing ones on this matter. So what are Nobel Prize winning economist James Heckman's vie

rmacculloch

Nov 20, 2022
2 min

I've Been thinking: Media Economist Bagrie is Wrong

Former Labour Minister & ACT President, Richard Prebble's 1996 book, "I've Been Thinking" has such a great title, I can't resist plagiarizing it. On that note, seems to me the AM Show economist Cameron Bagrie maybe wrong to say, "The real litmus test regards getting inflation down is .. you got to get unemployment up .. We're way beyond maximum sustainable employment so, unfortunately .. to get inflation down, you've got to get unemployment back up .. I don't think we're goin

Labour Doesn't Believe in the Kiwi Dream. But Kiwis Do !

rmacculloch

Nov 18, 2022
1 min

Labour Doesn't Believe in the Kiwi Dream. But Kiwis Do !

Yesterday the Nats proposed sending young offenders to military-style boot camps. Labour reacted with anger, slamming the proposal, arguing it would do nothing in terms of rehabilitation. So why do many places, like the US, feature these kinds of schemes? The best explanation is that nations whose citizens believe success is due to hard work (rather than luck & connections) tend to view criminals as folks who chose not to take advantage of the opportunity around them, and ins

rmacculloch

Nov 17, 2022
2 min

The NBR says "Māori are getting poorer despite increased Gov't funds". Newshub says the Opposite.

No wonder the mainstream media is driving us nuts. The National Business Review stated today that "Māori households are getting poorer". Newshub "helpfully" states the opposite, "Māori economy thriving, growth largely driven by increasing number of Māori women owning own business, new report finds ... The Māori economy is currently worth $70 billion and with it steadily growing at 5 percent per annum, it's expected to reach $100 billion in assets by 2030". Yesterday the NZ He

rmacculloch

Nov 16, 2022
1 min

To Mark the Re-appointment of the RBNZ Governor, let's repeat his 2021 econ lecture on inflation

As we noted several months ago, the world was treated to words of economic wisdom from our Kiwi monetary authorities in 2021, as reported by Bloomberg News in the United States: "Inflation is a very different beast today than it was in the 1970s .. The fear of the 70s, the 80s, stagflation, it is such a different world .... Central banks today are ... more confident that we have stable inflation expectations, we have a much more flexible set of pricing, we have less of that g

rmacculloch

Nov 16, 2022
2 min

Does Health Minister Andrew Little have a Clue about Health Economics?

Business Desk is running a series on our health-care sector. In my opinion, comments from Health Minister Andrew Little reveal why he is unfit to be in that job. Should folks from other countries who are experts in health economics be reading them, they will be rolling their eye-balls. It's embarrassing. He starts off the interview with the line: “Instinctively, I don't like the idea of people's ill-health being the source of profit to others.” It seems Minister Little's inst

rmacculloch

Nov 15, 2022
3 min

Kiwi Economic Strategy is at a Cross-Roads

Intro: As beliefs in this country fall into three increasingly equal sized and competing parts, building a unifying system is set to become a battle. What kind of economic system is best for us? Once there was a time when capitalism, tempered by a comprehensive, European-style social safety net, was the only thing on our menu. However, times have changed - many Kiwis now favor taking an indigenous approach. Others prefer how the fast-growing Asian economies are organized. Sta

rmacculloch

Nov 14, 2022
1 min

A Story about the NZ Herald that will not appear in the NZ Herald

I just submitted an "Opinion Piece" to the Herald - it describes the fragmentation of beliefs in Kiwi society which is going to make reaching a political consensus on the major issues confronting our nation increasingly difficult. Although they accepted the article for publication this week, the Herald has told me that I cannot see the final draft, which they have reserved the right to alter, nor can I see the title, which they reserve the right to choose. They will not let m

rmacculloch

Nov 10, 2022
1 min

Why is RBNZ Board Chair Neil Quigley Still There?

I say that because awhile ago I had an email exchange with Quigley in early 2020 over the fact that the Reserve Bank repeatedly stated that it had an employment target (as well as an inflation target) when no such target exists, nor has ever existed. When I pointed this serious issue out to Quigley that the RBNZ appeared not to understand its own mandate, he replied as follows: "Thank you for pointing out the loose language used in that statement by the MPC. You are of cours

rmacculloch

Nov 10, 2022
2 min

Sadly, the Private Sector Falls Morally Short and is Shameful in the PM's "New" New Zealand

The Herald is running a series about how to rebuild a "New" New Zealand, post-pandemic. So where's it currently headed? Here's a list of industries you should probably avoid, since doing so suggests you're fundamentally morally inadequate, at least according to leading members of the Labour Party, including the PM & her Finance Minister: 1. Banking & Finance. That industry is a real no-no. It's profits are "wrong", according to the PM, and raise questions about its' "social l

rmacculloch

Nov 8, 2022
1 min

Grant Robertson's Legacy will be the Destruction of the Reserve Bank of NZ's Independence

How do we know that the Finance Minister has shredded the reputation of the RBNZ? By the fact the headlines today say that the Opposition is "appalled" by Orr's reappointment. Yes, the leaders of both the National & ACT parties are bitterly opposed. What that means is that the RBNZ has officially become an instrument of politics - the Kiwi right now view it as a leftist institution. Even in the US, often regarded as strongly divided on partisan lines, former Federal Reserve C

rmacculloch

Nov 8, 2022
1 min

The PM threatens the Banks - but it is Labour which handed them billions of bucks in profits

The PM says that big bank profits raise questions about their "social license to operate". However, it was her Central Bank that purchased over $50 billion of government bonds from private financial institutions. Where has all of the cash from those Central Bank "Large Scale Asset Purchases" gone? Into the private banks' settlement accounts at the RBNZ. Here is the amount currently sitting there, straight from the RBNZ's accounts: September 2022 Settlement Cash Balance $44,

rmacculloch

Nov 8, 2022
1 min

DownToEarth Kiwi told you the RBNZ Governor would be reappointed first and also the reasons why

Before the main stream media knew about it, DownToEarth Kiwi told you a couple of days ago that Finance Minister Grant Robertson would renew the RBNZ Governor, Adrian Orr's contract, together with the reason why. https://www.downtoearth.kiwi/post/will-the-rbnz-governor-have-his-contract-renewed The decision will almost certainly lead to the defeat of the Labour Government at the next election, since it proves that sworn official agreements, like the Robertson-Orr one to keep

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Robert MacCulloch

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