The closest parallel to the current economic situation may be after Ruth Richardson became Minister of Finance in late 1990.
Read MoreForeshadowing HYEFU 2024
government spending
What About Inflation?
Claims that our current inflation is due to government spending are nonsensical. There is a mantra which goes: if the economy is expanding, cut back public spending; if the economy is contracting, cut back public spending; if the economy is inflating, cut back public spending; if the economy is deflating, cut back public spending. Recognise a pattern?
Read MoreLabour's obsession with avoiding one trap is leading it fair square into another
Labour is obsessed with not being seen as a ‘tax and spend’ party, but its economic caution means social issues are dominating its agenda and it risks falling into another trap with the election little more than a year away
Read MoreOf Memory and Forgetting
We need to learn what happens when public spending is repressed. It does not lead to efficiency gains. Sometimes the consequences are disastrous.
Read MoreAn Alternative to Neoliberalism?
Is public spending stuck in the vicelike grip of our quasi-Austerian economic policy?
Read MoreHe’s Spent It All
The just published PREFU, Treasury’s assessment of the economy, raises more important questions about our fiscal stance than what the election is talking about. Have we the right borrowing strategy?
Read MoreGrumpiness and Government Spending
The policy dimension of the election appears to be about the concerns with past restraints on government spending and the consequential social failures. But whatever the rhetoric, implementation of campaign promises is going to be much harder.
Read MoreThe Context of the 2017 Budget
Much of the commentary on the budget was shallow. What is really going on is that the changes are small but they reflect a particular political perspective. The financial threat was hardly discussed
Read MoreHow Much Should the Government Be Spending?
Is the fiscal pact between Labour and the Greens a defeat for the left?
Read MoreThe Budget: A Longer Term Prognosis.
A major preoccupation of the budget was preparing for the next major financial crisis. To do so it is reducing government spending relative to GDP. Where do tax cuts fit in?
Read MoreThe Optimist’s Budget
The National-led government has delivered an “Optimist’s Budget” forecasting increased tax revenue, increased spending, and increased debt on its journey to a wafer-thin surplus by June 2015.
Read MoreUniversal pension: universally fair?
What the Retirement Income Policy and Intergenerational Equity conference told us about selfish generations, and raising the age of pension entitlement
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