rmacculloch

Feb 28
3 min

Our Great Economic Blame Game

The Herald ran my critique of National's Five Point Plan for our economy - and then turned around and rejected the one I wrote about Labour to balance the debate. Here's a slightly condensed version of the rejected one for the Blog: Prime Minister Chris Hipkins blames those in power 40 years ago for NZ's more recent woes. It was the Rogernomics reforms of the 1980s that saw the creation of "huge divides", he said in his maiden speech in Parliament. “We live with the legacy of

rmacculloch

Feb 27
1 min

Newsflash: PM Hipkins announces how to pay for the hurricane - Tax the Poor

PM Hipkins must have had a brain wave the past week - he stumbled in his dreams on a way to help pay for the hurricane which he announced today. It's a Special Lotto Draw !? So who buys lottery tickets? Mostly those from lower income families. The Otago Daily Times reported at the end of last year that "Nearly 70 percent of Lotto shop sales are made in the poorest half of the community". It's not technically a tax, since its "voluntary". Well, not really - many of those who g

rmacculloch

Feb 27
1 min

The NZ Herald published my economics critique of National and refused to publish the one of Labour

Last month, I sent an article to the NZ Herald, checked over by the University's media team, critiquing National Leader Luxon's five point plan for the economy, arguing it was similar to Labour's policies. It was promptly published. It was not liked by National Party MPs. To promote balanced debate - and a quest for the truth that lies at the centre of academic endeavor - I penned a companion article about how Labour Leader Hipkins has not provided any solutions to address th

rmacculloch

Feb 22
1 min

Welcome Back to the Reserve Bank OCR Comedy Show

In the aftermath of the Christchurch Earthquake, the RBNZ went and cut the OCR by 50 basis points in early 2011. Here's why: “We have acted pre-emptively in reducing the OCR to lessen the economic impact of the earthquake and to guard against the risk of this impact becoming especially severe,” Bollard told reporters in Wellington. “While it is difficult to know exactly how large or long-lasting these effects will be, it is clear that economic activity, most certainly in Chri

rmacculloch

Feb 20
1 min

Message to Chris Luxon: Do you know the difference between unemployment insurance & wage subsidies?

To help those suffering from Cyclone Gabriel's impact, National's Leader Chris Luxon "backs a wage subsidy as well as looser immigration settings & emergency legislative powers" according to Newshub. The wage subsidy scheme was used during the Covid lockdowns. Is this the same Chris Luxon who attacked the government's proposed Unemployment Insurance (UI) scheme as an awful piece of legislation? He called it a "job tax". So what is the difference between the wage subsidy schem

rmacculloch

Feb 20
2 min

Labour want YOUR vote for Disasters (viruses, hurricanes, you name them)

It's official. Labour has politicized hurricane Gabriel, blaming it on Climate Change. They're even pontificating about policy responses as bodies are still being found. It is not the time. If the PM insists on laying blame and talking policies, then the only question he should be asked is as follows. Why has he hit folks living in Gisborne & Hawkes Bay with ute taxes and is pursuing them for agricultural emissions charges, but never returned funds back to them for flood prot

What are the Political Views of our Students' Teachers?

rmacculloch

Feb 18
1 min

What are the Political Views of our Students' Teachers?

In the United States, according to the New York Times, about 60 percent of undergraduate teaching faculty identify as liberal or far left, compared with about 12 percent who identify as conservative or far right. The gap has grown over the past few decades: It would be good to see what the same graph looks like in NZ. I would expect it was more extreme, given that the US has quite a few, for example, conservative-right wing economics departments, like University of Chicago. "

rmacculloch

Feb 17
1 min

The Finance Minister plays Politics with a Natural Disaster as bodies are still being found

The Herald reports that the Minister of Finance, who you would have thought should be focused on allocating scarce resources in an efficient and fair manner to help rescue those still in distress from the Cyclone, instead gave us a lecture on Climate Change today. Robertson said "Climate Change is here, it is affecting the economic security of our country, our communities ... we have two jobs when it comes to climate change .. the first is to reduce our emissions". He said th

rmacculloch

Feb 16
2 min

On President Obama's criteria, PM Hipkins ended the dreams of countless poor Kiwi school children

It was the new NZ Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, that ended Charter Schools in this country in his capacity as Minister of Education. Why? He disliked the degree to which they were independent of State control. He disliked the degree to which they were free of union control. He disliked how Charter Schools gave students and their families, especially for low income families and ethnic minorities, free choice. Hipkins' preference is for a "one-size-fits-all" education model, r

rmacculloch

Feb 14
2 min

PM Hipkins has declared himself on economics: vested interests and lobby groups win the day

It would probably be fair to say that most decent, serious economists, if asked to comment on the various policies of the Kiwi Labour Party, would argue strongly against the return to 20th century compulsory sector-wide industrial union bargaining that has been put into law. Why? The main effect will be higher unemployment. On the other hand, most would argue in favor of a well-designed unemployment insurance (UI) scheme, especially one with 6 months duration, which is regard

rmacculloch

Feb 10
2 min

Did Prime Minister Hipkin's Maiden Speech in Parliament copy Bobby Kennedy's?

If one was marking PM Hipkins maiden speech in Parliament in 2008 for originality, I'd give it 3 out of 10. Why? When it comes to core ideas, let's look first at what Senator Bobby Kennedy had to say about the American Dream in 1968: "Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play .. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor

rmacculloch

Feb 3
1 min

Who's 'abysmal'? Not the Mayor. It's the Kiwi mainstream media that just revealed IT runs the nation

Today, on Newshub's AM show, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown was slammed for his "communication catastrophe during the devastating Auckland floods" which "continued to cop criticism this morning with a political commentator describing it as 'abysmal' " Newstalk ZB's Political Editor declared on AM's panel today, "I would have had one piece of advice for Brown - 'don't lose the media .. when a politician loses the media, you actually lose the argument and you lose the people becaus

rmacculloch

Feb 2
1 min

DownToEarth Kiwi is a Better OCR Predictor than the Chief Economists at all this country's Big Banks

I reported last December on this blog that: "In a bunch of radio interviews these past weeks, I've argued that the RBNZ should not have over reacted to inflation (having under reacted in 2021) by hiking the Official Cash Rate by 75 basis points in order to 'engineer a recession'". When asked on Radio NZ what would be the best policy, my view was a 25 basis point rise, 50 at most. The reason is that inflationary pressures from oil & supply chain problems have been easing, so t

Home: Blog2

CONTACT

Robert MacCulloch

rmacculloch1@gmail.com

Previous Posts

SUBSCRIBE

CONTACT