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Economy

Renegade Inc: The Year Of Reckoning

Renegade Inc: The Year Of Reckoning

2019: The Year of Reckoning A week before the 1929 crash, economists such as Irvine Fischer were commenting that the stock market was at a permanently high plateau and only heading higher.  When the dust settled, an economic theory called ‘debt deflation’  was developed – which ascribes financial crashes to the

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The $3.5 Billion Handbrake on the Economy

The $3.5 Billion Handbrake on the Economy

No, I am not talking about this woeful government. They are most certainly a major handbrake on the economy, but they are going to cost us much more than $3.5 billion. Yes, really. But there is another major handbrake on the economy, and it is going to cost us

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Ardern Forgets Her Fuel Tax

Ardern Forgets Her Fuel Tax

Did our Part-time PM think we would forget her tax contribution to our being “fleeced at the pump” every time we fill up? Ardern’s fuel tax was the first thing that popped into my head when she announced we are paying too much for fuel, which we already knew.

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Tuesday Nightcap

Tuesday Nightcap

Allianz Chief Economic Adviser Mohamed El-Erian discusses the inverted yield curve, and the Federal Reserve. The U.S. Treasury yield curve inverted Monday morning for the first time since 2007, sending equities into a tailspin and raising concerns about a recession. But strategists including Mohamed El-Erian are sending a message:

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The Hypocrisy of Jacinda Ardern

The Hypocrisy of Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda sees herself as a climate warrior. Let’s face it… climate change is her generation’s ‘nuclear moment’, even though she does not seem to understand that there have been no nuclear explosions (Thank God) since 1945, other than tests, and they have mostly been condemned. The North Koreans

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Could Media Speculation Sink Trump’s Booming Economy?

Could Media Speculation Sink Trump’s Booming Economy?

With the US economy booming it’s hard to imagine a recession but because other markets are not faring anywhere nearly as well, adverse speculation could impact the US. Donald Trump has once again lashed out at the media, but this time to blame reporters for trying to tank the

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The Economic Denial of Urban Elites

The Economic Denial of Urban Elites

Despite the image of the rugged Aussie bushman, Australia has long been one of the most urbanised societies in the world. Even in 1889, the narrator of Banjo Paterson’s Clancy of the Overflow, “sitting in my dingy little office…[in] the dusty, dirty city” was more typical of the

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Largest Cut to Interest Rates Since Christchurch Earthquakes

Largest Cut to Interest Rates Since Christchurch Earthquakes

Taxpayers Union This week’s most important story: the Reserve Bank Governor’s move to cut the interest rate from 1.5% to 1.0%. New Zealand has not seen a cut this large since the Christchurch earthquake. Previous rate cuts of this size were seen during the global financial

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Official Cash Rate is 1%. Now What?

Official Cash Rate is 1%. Now What?

No one expected the OCR to drop to 1% on Wednesday. Adrian Orr seems to be determined to kickstart the economy by dropping the rate to – almost – as low as it can go. But if he thinks that this will cause the economy to suddenly rebound and everything will be

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The Government Needs a Plan for the Economy

The Government Needs a Plan for the Economy

It is widely expected that the Reserve Bank will cut the OCR again this week, probably by another 25 percentage points. The problem here is that the OCR is now so low that further cuts are mostly pointless. We are rapidly heading towards an OCR of 0%, or possibly even

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The Sharing Economy

The Sharing Economy

I noted this in the NZ Herald. Amanda Chapman’s tiny home has taken her on a journey through Auckland’s sharing economy. The 28-year-old has been building the house over the past two years using all borrowed or hired tools thanks to the community phenomenon many believe is key

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The Government Is Going to Wreck Our Economy

The Government Is Going to Wreck Our Economy

The Greens conference at the weekend may have been mostly done behind closed doors, but snippets came out, including James Shaw calling Simon Bridges a “climate change denier”. We all know Bridges is no denier, but his attitude towards climate change is somewhat more benign than that of the Green

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Global Bankruptcy in Just 2 Days

Global Bankruptcy in Just 2 Days

In this interview, Darryl and Brian Panes from As Good As Gold Australia discuss with Chief Economist, John Adams the extreme vulnerability of the economy and the current real estate market, as the Australian government throws its full arsenal at it, including a reintroduction of first home buyer grants with

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