Oscar Wilde once quipped that a cynic was “a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”. That saying has since migrated to refer to economists. Allegedly, our depraved profession values only money. But for our widespread incompetence we would all be rich. In fact, deep down economics is about value, not cash. Economists do not loaf around in universities and government agencies to get rich. Read more

Wellington Mayor Justin Lester says NZ Bus is up to 40 drivers short, with up to 30 cancelled services a day. He now wants the Transport Minister to help improve local bus services. Local National List MP Nicola Willis also wants central government to step in. A sceptic might ask what that means for local government accountability to the local community. The answer is of course that it perpetuates the status quo – inglorious role confusion. Read more

The government is hyping Budget 2019 as a world-leading “Wellbeing Budget”. The December 2018 Budget Policy Statement proclaims the government’s key focus on improving the wellbeing and living standards of New Zealanders. Do the public have any real evidence of any substance behind such froth? It appears not. Government policies can be expected to improve overall community wellbeing if an authoritative analysis demonstrates that the benefits will exceed the costs to those affected, in some overall sense. Read more

In the mid‐1980s, New Zealand was forced into a major economic restructuring. Those adjustments were particularly significant for the traded goods sector, since export subsidies and import barriers were largely eliminated. Some may see the UK's possible trade restructuring after Brexit as retracing some of New Zealand's steps. Read more

What can politicians who care about value for money in government hope to achieve? Where should they focus their efforts? Read more

Taxpayer guarantees for bank deposits are a can of worms. There should be a strong presumption against them. Read more

KiwiBuild – the government programme to build or deliver 100,000 homes in 10 years – serves no useful public interest purpose and promises to endlessly distract and embarrass the government. That is the signal conclusion of KiwiBuild: Twyford’s Tar Baby, a research note released this week by The New Zealand Initiative. The programme does not directly help those on low incomes; only the relatively well-off can afford KiwiBuild homes. To subsidise such people would be unfair. Read more

KiwiBuild – the government programme to deliver 100,000 down-sized homes in 10 years – is a waste of time and money. Read more

We have to take the flower by the thorns and cut the animalism out of our everyday language. That is the message this week from PETA, or the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Good on them. More ethical treatment of millions of humans in totalitarian countries would be a good thing, too. So when you want to motivate your colleagues to real action, PETA does not want you to talk about taking the bull by the horns. Read more

New Zealand’s screening regime for foreign investment in sensitive land conjures images of a madman waving a big stick in a public place. He is as likely to hit his own head as anyone else’s, but it is bad either way. It piles absurdity on absurdity. First on my list of self-inflicted harms is the economic madness of the Overseas Investment Act’s refusal (section 17(2)) to recognise that the primary benefit to New Zealand from selling land to a foreigner... Read more