Eric Crampton looked at potential economic policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in his regular Radio New Zealand Nights slot, Read more
The Covid-19 outbreak is quickly developing into an economic crisis. Maintaining employment and the ability of firms to recover quickly when the crisis abates is critically important given that labour markets in several European countries are yet to fully recover from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008. Read more
Milton Friedman was wrong about the euro currency. Before its introduction, the godfather of monetarism predicted Europe’s monetary union would not survive its first recession. Read more
In times of war, parts of the every-day rulebook for liberal democracies must be suspended. To protect personal and economic freedoms, in wartime governments must temporarily curb some of them. Read more
Wellington 23 March 2020 - BusinessNZ and The New Zealand Initiative are encouraging the Government to go further with its economic support package, saying the support package announced last week was the right first step and was greatly appreciated but needed to go further. The New Zealand Initiative’s Executive Director Dr Oliver Hartwich and BusinessNZ’s CEO Kirk Hope noted the Australian Government’s move yesterday, launching a second amount of support and signaling that more was coming. Read more
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. Or at least that's what Hunter S. Read more
Oliver Hartwich talks to Heather du Plessis-Allan on Newstalk ZB about the Government's Covid-19 economic support package. He argues it is a good first step, but more work needs to be done. Read more
No one doubts the economic costs of lost jobs and income from Covid-19 will be substantial in the short run. But what can we know about the likely magnitude of those costs? Read more
In this week’s episode of the New Zealand Initiative podcast, chief editor Nathan Smith sits down with Bella d’Abrera to discuss the ideas behind the international progressive movement. Dr d'Abrera is the Director of the Foundations of Western Civilisation Programme at the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne. Read more
Fiscal responsibility matters. Being careful guardians of the public purse during good times provides flexibility for dealing with nightmare scenarios. Read more
The gloomy headlines say New Zealand just flagged its 28th case of coronavirus. Great. Read more
New Zealand’s ‘upset-no-one’, content-free National Curriculum is hurting our children’s education. To identify what knowledge should be every child’s entitlement, the Ministry of Education must be willing to have some difficult conversations. Read more
Plenty of first-world countries have been hit with Coronavirus cases and failed to stamp it out effectively. However, Singapore has once again shined as an example of clever public policy. Read more
There were three things I was looking for in this week's pandemic budget announcement. I was not disappointed. Read more
In wartime, it’s often hard to know exactly what is going on. Good communication is critical but it’s hard for governments – or anyone else – to make good decisions in the absence of information. Read more