Reductions in effective productivity, largely as a result of events overseas, require reductions in real incomes. Ignore that and you cannot defeat inflation.
Read MoreWhat is Really Causing the Sharp Price Rises
monetary policy
Where is Fiscal and Monetary Policy Going?
Treasury has announced that it is having a major review of its macroeconomic policy framework.
Read MoreA Big Change in Monetary Policy?
The Government’s new arrangements with the Reserve Bank represent an explicit acknowledgement of a major shift in theoretical underpinnings; whether it makes much change to the Bank’s operations is another matter.
Read MoreWhat is Central Banking Really About?
The retirement of the Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand leads to a reflection on what has been really going on.
Read MoreRedesigning the Reserve Bank?
Are Labour’s proposals for the changing the way the Reserve Bank operates sensible or nutty (as nutty as the current legislation)?
Read MoreRestoring Fiscal Responsibility
The times are a’changing, as recent macroeconomic fashions are being abandoned and old verities are being restated.
Read MoreCan Te Awamutu Have its Own Independent Central Bank?
Pretending it can, or that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand can function independently from the rest of the world, could generate a financial crash.
Read MoreHousing and Monetarism
The Reserve Bank cannot deliver affordable housing by itself. Its actions have to be coordinated with the government's. Unfortunately the monetarist framework of the Reserve Bank Act obscures this.
Read MoreThree ways Labour's 'new tool' is digging it out of a hole
It's too soon to say whether Labour's onto a fiscal winner, but politically its given the party a circuit-breaker it desperately needed
Read MoreLiving in fear of full employment
The doctrine of the pre-emptive strike against inflation is self-immolating. Controlling (suppressing) demand growth invariably limits investment in new capacity and so the ability to improve productivity and/or maintain competitiveness.
Read MoreIs global economy really on the mend?
The IMF's latest assessment of the world's economy contains a surprising policy suggestion. Should we be concerned (again), or is it just another part of the great plan?
Read MoreThe Greens have done the right thing
The greens are right to back down on QE. Their critics on the left are wrong to make QE a symbol of progressive orthodoxy.
Read MoreInflation control first, or The Daddy Bear Guide to Monetary Policy
Imagining Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler as a popular children's book character. Will he learn the lesson of 'what is smart and what is not'?
Read MoreIn that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands ...
Fran O'Sullivan doesn't like it when commentators present their readers with "very thin analysis". Perhaps she ought to stop doing so, then.
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