The PM called the leader of the ACT Party, David Seymour, an "arrogant prick" today. David is, by the way, the Member of Parliament who, by far, has been the most interested in debating economics issues with me. Why? Because they genuinely interest him, he cares passionately about them and he is extremely knowledgeable about such matters.
As for the Prime Minister's economics advisers, even though their qualifications in the subject are either non-existent or abysmally poor, they know everything - they know how to print money, they knew it wouldn't cause inflation even though this Blog predicted it, they knew it was best to abolish Charter Schools, even though Democratic President Obama called them "beacons of hope" and "incubators of innovation", especially helping underprivileged children from minority groups - the PM's economics advisers know their way of organizing the NZ health-care system is superior to how the French, Singaporeans & Canadians organize theirs, even though those nations have far greater involvement of private providers and better health outcomes than ours - and her advisers know that public projects & regulations whose costs exceed their benefits are still good for society because economists are stupid to try reducing everything to costs & benefits - they also knew it was best not to implement a pricing & subsidy scheme that would've enabled Managed Isolation & Quarantine (MIQ) places to be granted according to need, which this Blog pleaded with them to do - they also knew it was best to under-order the Pfizer vaccine to save pennies but which ended up costing us billions due to the late order - it was easy to work out that was a mistake (Sir John Key quoted this Blog's calculations in his "hermit kingdom" speech) - and they know how to run our Universities with zero input from folks at the coal face like me - because such types who actually teach courses are obviously clueless about education.
Yes, if you want arrogant pricks - go no further than the PM's economics advisers. Seymour and his staff will debate the subject anytime with me - but Ardern's team won't. Why should they? They already know the answers.