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rmacculloch
Dec 26, 20243 min read
The (Only) Way Out for the Coalition (and NZ) in 2025 is to end welfare transfers to high income families
Budget 2025 should be the austerity budget that Finance Minister Nicola Willis didn't have the guts to deliver in 2024. Instead, her lame...
rmacculloch
Dec 20, 20245 min read
Merry Xmas & End of Year Comments on the Value of DownToEarth Kiwi. (You can even make money out of us).
This blog costs me money - it generates no income. Is that a bad thing? As the third richest bloke in NZ once told me, because he likes...
rmacculloch
Dec 19, 20241 min read
News Flash: Government to Ask Big Bank ANZ, Westpac & ASB Kiwi Saver Funds to better "capitalize" Kiwibank, thereby Cutting their Own Profits (!?)
The government is going to crack down on the Big Banks. I bet they are scared. The Finance Minister has a cunning plan. The best part is...
rmacculloch
Dec 19, 20243 min read
Latest GDP data: NZ in Recession; One of World's Worst. Useless former Covid Minister Hipkins Trashed our Economic & Social Fabric. He should lock himself up.
Today's news headlines read, "Massive GDP fall: NZ in deep recession - ‘worst since 1991′". What's the cause? The economist who can best...
rmacculloch
Dec 18, 20243 min read
Three Kiwis who Should be Knighted in the New Years Honours, as symbols of how New Zealand still celebrates meritocratic achievement (or should).
Here are the three names, together with the reasons why. Each of them is a no-brainer - the question is why haven't they already been...
rmacculloch
Dec 18, 20242 min read
Yes, Labour Recklessly Borrowed $100 billion. National's doing the same. How Finance Minister Willis & Shadow Minister Edmonds Put their Own Careers Above the country's Interest.
This Blog is about giving some gentle advice to National Finance Minister Willis, and her Labour opposite number, Barbara Edmonds, on the...
rmacculloch
Dec 17, 20242 min read
Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman's GDP Graph Confirms the Bottom has Fallen Out of the New Zealand Economy
High profile US Economist Paul Krugman has written a New York Times article in which he shows in one graph the incredible resilience and...
rmacculloch
Dec 17, 20242 min read
Its Official: Behind all the Hot Air from the PM & Finance Minister, National is Running a Bigger Borrow-and-Spend Government than 6 years of Ardern & Robertson.
Political spin is one thing. Facts another. My reading of NZ Treasury's Half Year Economics & Fiscal Update 2024 is that little has...
rmacculloch
Dec 16, 20244 min read
Call in the Bailiffs: How the NZ Government's Green Investment Fund Turned Itself Into an Unpleasant Predatory Lender and Debt Collection Agency.
The just resigned Chair of the NZ Â Green Investment Fund (NZGIF) and Chancellor of Auckland University, Cecilia Tarrant, previously...
rmacculloch
Dec 11, 20242 min read
State Owned Media Anti ACT Bias Alert: One News states that its Poll reveals "More NZ'ers oppose than support Treaty Principles Bill".
Why the relentless bias? A 1News Verian Poll, in which the exact survey question was not made available, got reported as follows by...
rmacculloch
Dec 11, 20242 min read
The NZ Green Investment Fund should be Liquidated for Losing Money that could've gone into alleviating Poverty.
Only a few months ago, the Chair of the NZ Green Investment Fund (NZGIF) and Chancellor of the University of Auckland, Cecilia Tarrant,...
rmacculloch
Dec 11, 20243 min read
New Zealand doesn't have a problem with productivity - it just lacks investment. The economic "experts" have got it wrong for 40 years.
The Productivity Commission told us that NZ has a productivity problem; how Kiwis are so dim & lacking in skills we don't know how to add...
rmacculloch
Dec 10, 20243 min read
The Finance Minister's Solution to Big Bank Oligopoly: Make You Pay for Dirty Deals that Sell Out 3 Million KiwiSaver holders. Labour did the same.
What's the object of Kiwi Saver? To build up retirement savings of New Zealanders by giving us the opportunity to earn high returns...
rmacculloch
Dec 9, 20242 min read
Deloitte's Awards for the Greats of NZ Business and our non-Governmental Economics Policy Setter (not Adviser)
In a wonderful gala event done by Big Accounting Firm Deloitte's (you may see where this Blog's going) and splashed onto the front pages...
rmacculloch
Dec 8, 20241 min read
The IMF confirms that Labour Leader Chris Hipkins Put New Zealand Bottom of Asia Pacific Economies in 2023.
New Zealand was governed in 2023 by former PM Chris Hipkins, and before him, of course, Jacinda Ardern. How did they do, especially in...
rmacculloch
Dec 8, 20243 min read
New Zealand's Productivity Puzzle: The Plot Thickens.
The author of the world's best selling textbook on economics, Greg Mankiw, is someone I admire for helping students, me included,...
rmacculloch
Dec 6, 20243 min read
The RBNZ's November 2024 "Monetary Policy Statement" is one Big Fat Load of Crock.
In the Introduction to its November Monetary Policy Statement , the Reserve Bank states, "Economic activity in NZ remains subdued" and...
rmacculloch
Dec 6, 20243 min read
Will More Funding for "Core Science" in NZ lead to more "Economic Impact"?
Minister Judith Collins who visited my law & economics class last year has announced, " The focus of the Marsden [Research] Fund will...
rmacculloch
Dec 4, 20243 min read
Holiday Reading Advice for Finance Minister Willis. Go buy a book on "Expansionary Fiscal Contractions".
This week at a Select Committee Hearing the Finance Minister was asked whether she knew of any evidence that fiscal consolidations could...
rmacculloch
Dec 4, 20243 min read
Westpac's Chief Economist Backs up DownToEarth.Kiwi regards the RBNZ paying lip service to Finance Minister Willis' amended Reserve Bank Act.
Some readers, and two of my economist work colleagues, expressed the view that the Blog got carried away arguing the Reserve Bank is...
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