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Negotiations on an extension of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free-trade agreement meant to liberalise economic relations across the Pacific, are to go into their fifteenth round next week. Proponents of the TPP hope it will improve conditions for foreign direct investment (FDI). Read more
Exports are the thing! At least that is the refrain of many economists, commentators, and observers: we need to export more, we should help exporters, and so on. Read more
World share markets rose markedly on Monday this week: the US S&P 500 (by 2%), London FTSE (by 2.4%), Paris CAC (by 2.9%), Tokyo Nikkei (by 1.4%), and the Hong Kong Hang Seng (by 0.5%). Europe saw the biggest daily gain in 10 weeks, but from the lowest levels for months. Read more
The first week of November was Gender Diversity Week, which is a sad reminder that no country has yet achieved gender equality. The Global Gender Gap Report 2012, released in late October, shows New Zealand ranked sixth out of 135 countries, having closed 78% of the gap between men and women. Read more
No one should ever compile a cost-benefit analysis of the United States elections. After a campaign that lasted about 18 months (and felt even longer), and having spent an estimated US$6 billion promoting both candidates, nothing has changed. Read more
Even so, New Zealand has its share of proponents of fiscal stimulus in the form of $900 cheques that former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd posted to 75% of working-age Australians in 2009. Australian Treasury Secretary Ken Henry said the stimulus of A$10 billion was all about ‘go hard, go early, go households’. Read more
If New Zealand were anywhere other than right next to Australia, our current rates of economic growth, unemployment and proximity to developing global markets would be the envy of the world. As it is, comparisons with Australia are not always useful. Read more
The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union’s ‘jobs crisis’ summit in Auckland will be over in an hour or so after you receive this edition of Insights. The secretary of the EPMU, Bill Newson, claimed before the summit that the decline of manufacturing reflects 30 years of ‘hands-off’ economic management. Read more
The productivity commissions in New Zealand and Australia recently completed a joint study to mark the thirtieth anniversary of Closer Economic Relations (CER) and examine ways to further strengthen economic ties between the two countries. This was a welcome development, as there is a feeling that CER has stalled over the past couple of decades, particularly in capital flows and mutual recognition of franking and imputationcredits. Read more
The new governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Graeme Wheeler, just signed a slightly revised policy target agreement with a greater focus on financial stability, but for some this is not going far enough. A curious coalition of exporters, newspaper commentators, Labour, the Green Party, and New Zealand First wants the RBNZ to relinquish its traditional focus on inflation. Read more