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Displaying: 1 - 32 of 50 items.
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Article: Holidays Legislation: Do We Need the Nanny State?
21 September 2009, Roger Kerr
Holidays legislation has been a nightmare for many businesses since the Labour government amended the Holidays Act in 2003. A large-scale survey of 1500 enterprises by Business New Zealand in 2005 found that it had increased costs for 74% of respondents.
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Article: New Hope for Better and Less Regulation
24 September 2009, Roger Kerr
A potentially important announcement by the government last month has not been widely reported. It took the form of a Government Statement on Regulation, which was released with an accompanying Cabinet paper. It marks a major departure from the practice of the last government, which unleashed a barrage of poor quality regulation on the business sector and the wider community. As the Statement notes, bad regulation hinders individual freedom, innovation and productivity. The re-regulation of the economy in recent years was a major factor behind the slump in productivity growth.
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Article: Whatever Happened to the Idea of Progress?
25 September 2009, Roger Kerr
The idea of progress – human flourishing in all its dimensions – has permeated Western thinking since ancient times. It has been defined as the belief that material, political, social, intellectual and moral conditions have continually improved throughout human history and that such an improvement will continue in the foreseeable future. Belief in progress characterised the writings of the philosophers and classical economists of the 18th century Enlightenment, and nurtured the agricultural and industrial revolutions of that era.
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Perspectives: Issue 297 Big Government, Big Recession
9 September 2009, Alan Reynolds
Even those who think government borrowing is a free lunch can't possibly believe the government has already done enough "stimulus spending" to explain the difference between depression and recovery.
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Perspectives: Issue 298 Spiking the Road to Copenhagen
11 September 2009, Deepak Lal
Education reform has long been a popular buzz phrase. But too often it's proven to be a hollow call as the education establishment kills off common sense reforms even while we watch districts struggle with failing schools and low graduation rates
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Perspectives: Issue 299 Indianapolis Tests Out Education Reform? A confluence of factors favors school choice—for now.
17 September 2009, Matthew Tully
Education reform has long been a popular buzz phrase. But too often it's proven to be a hollow call as the education establishment kills off common sense reforms even while we watch districts struggle with failing schools and low graduation rates.
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E-Connect: No Longer Us Versus Them - Trade Policy for the 21st Century
17 September 2009, Daniel Ikenson
The removal of political and technological barriers totrade over the past two decades has had huge ramifications. In the new globalised economy, a product might be designed by teams in the USA and India, have components produced in Thailand, Poland and Mexico, while final assembly takes place in China, from where it is distributed to millions of consumers around the world. The benefits, equally widespread, include: better, less expensive products, more rewarding and higher paying jobs, and economic growth
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Perspectives: Issue 300 Oil and the minds of men - Peak Oil theory represents economic ignorance
18 September 2009, Peter Foster
It is less geological theory than unevolved intellectual shortcoming, although it certainly has its political uses.
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Perspectives: Issue 301 Power put in unions’ hands
23 September 2009, Alan Wood
Kevin Rudd has declared himself the only true inheritor of the Hawke-Keating economic reforms and the only national leader who can carry forward what he calls the great project of economic modernisation for Australia. It is a remarkably brazen claim for a Prime Minister who is presiding over the effective kneecapping of labour market modernisation in this country through his government's Fair Work Act, which came into force on July 1.
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Perspectives: Issue 302 Samuel Johnson and the Virtue of Capitalism
28 September 2009, Eliza Gray
It was the ultimate gathering of statesmen, thinkers and artists, the likes of which aren't likely to be found in Davos or at any Renaissance Weekend.
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Perspectives: Issue 303 The Keynesians Were Wrong Again
30 September 2009, Peter Ferrara
The result of our recent Keynesian stimulus bills? The longest recession since World War II—21 months and counting—with no clear end in sight.
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Perspectives: Issue 304 The Man Who Defused the 'Population Bomb'
2 October 2009, Greg Easterbrook
In 1999, the Atlantic Monthly estimated that Borlaug's efforts combined with those of the many developing-world agriculture-extension agents he trained and the crop-research facilities he founded in poor nations saved the lives of one billion human beings.
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Perspectives: Issue 305 The Stimulus Didn’t Work
7 October 2009, John F. Cogan, John B. Taylor and Volker Wieland
Keynesian models that predicted that the $787 billion stimulus package would increase GDP by enough to create 3.6 million jobs. Now, six months after the act's passage, we no longer have to rely solely on the predictions of models. We can look and see what actually happened.
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Article: Inflation and Housing: Three Myths
8 October 2009, Roger Kerr
Recently there have been renewed calls to tax capital gains on housing. Opposition leader Phil Goff has indicated Labour would be open to talks. Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee considered the taxation of housing in its 2007-08 monetary policy inquiry. It found that the monetary framework was sound, with monetary policy being necessary and sufficient to maintain price stability. Only the Green Party recommended a capital gains tax (CGT)on housing (other than the family home).
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Article: Does a Bad Start in Life Make for Failure at School?
9 October 2009, Roger Kerr
At an Easter hat parade at Bellfield Primary School in Melbourne, a child’s mother got into a punch-up with another mother and head-butted her unconscious in front of 250 children. Did anyone bat an eyelid? No, says the then principal, John Fleming. The children had seen plenty of this kind of violence before, and the Easter hat parade continued as usual.
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Perspectives: Issue 306 Back in Demand - A great thinker has his admirers and detractors. Do his ideas logically cohere?
9 October 2009, N. Gregory Mankiw
Most macroeconomists—that is, those who study the ups and downs of the overall economy—fall into one of two broad camps: Keynes admirers or Keynes detractors. When these groups cross paths, the result is the ivory-tower equivalent of a spitball fight.
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E-Connect: Capitalism: A True Love Story
13 October 2009, Steve Forbes
Well before the economic crisis intensified the drumbeat against "greed" and "free markets" on the part of the media and politicians, many people, including an astonishing number in business itself, didn't have a clear understanding of just what constitutes a "free" market. This is why they blame capitalism for economic disasters, such as the recent mortgage meltdown and the astronomical cost of health insurance, when those disasters have in fact been caused by the government's not allowing markets to function.
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Perspectives: Issue 307 What About Microeconomics?
14 October 2009, Robert W. Crandall and Clifford Winston
Microeconomists' theoretical and empirical contributions have taught us that market failures do exist but that the government rarely, if ever, can be counted on to correct those failures efficiently. Nothing in the last two years has undermined microeconomic analyses that influenced the deregulation of the airline, trucking, railroad, natural gas, crude oil, telecommunications and cable television markets.
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Perspectives: Issue 308 Why Health Care Will Never Be Equal
16 October 2009, N. Gregory Mankiw
Every morning, I take a small white pill that makes me think deep philosophical thoughts about the American health care system, the value of life, and the relationship between man and state. No, it is not some illegal psychedelic left over from the 1960s along with my tie-dyed T-shirts. But if you bear with me, I bet this pill will have the same effect on you.
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Submission: Submission on the Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill
16 October 2009, New Zealand Business Roundtable
The Business Roundtable believes that policy development on climate change has entered a more constructive phase over the past 12 months. We were critical of the previous government’s ‘carbon neutrality’ ambitions because of their enormous potential adverse economic impact; the lack of an adequate regulatory impact analysis as a basis for policy; many design features of its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS); and the rushed process. We were pleased that the select committee reviewing the scheme abandoned the unrealistic March deadline for a report, and we believe its deliberations over a longer period contributed to a better understanding among policymakers and the public of the difficult issues New Zealand is grappling with.
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Article: ACC Monopoly an Idea Whose Time Has Passed
2 November 2009, Roger Kerr
In a speech about New Zealand’s accident compensation scheme in 1996 I said, “The country was sold a pup which has turned into a pitbull terrier that mauls everyone it comes in contact with accident victims, employers and politicians alike.” ACC minister Dr Nick Smith is just the last of a long line of ministers to inherit a scheme in financial crisis.
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Submission: 2025 TASKFORCE: INVITATION TO HAVE YOUR SAY
29 October 2009, New Zealand Business Roundtable
“On a first examination, the Regulatory Responsibility Taskforce appears to have produced an outstanding and robust report that deserves the support of the government and parliament”, the executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable, Roger Kerr, said today. “Poor quality regulation has been a perennial problem which has become worse in recent years. Less and better regulation must be a key element of the government’s programme for substantially raising New Zealand living standards.
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Submission: Submission on the Climate Change Response
16 October 2009, New Zealand Business Roundtable
The Business Roundtable believes that policy development on climate change has entered a more constructive phase over the past 12 months. We were critical of the previous government’s ‘carbon neutrality’ ambitions because of their enormous potential adverse economic impact; the lack of an adequate regulatory impact analysis as a basis for policy; many design features of its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS); and the rushed process. We were pleased that the select committee reviewing the scheme abandoned the unrealistic March deadline for a report, and we believe its deliberations over a longer period contributed to a better understanding among policymakers and the public of the difficult issues New Zealand is grappling with.
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Submission: TSO Review (2009) Discussion Document
29 October 2009, New Zealand Business Roundtable
In our view the general context in which policy related to the Telecommunications Services Obligation (TSO) should be set is the government’s goal of closing the per capita income gap with Australia by 2025. Achieving that goal will require a sustained commitment to the adoption of institutions and policies of the highest order. Policy proposals that do not meet that standard should not be adopted.
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Submission: Submission to the Law Commission on Alcohol In Our Lives: An issues paper on the reform of New Zealand's liquor laws
30 October 2009, New Zealand Business Roundtable
A national interest perspective in the context of the Law Commissions’ inquiry means giving primacy to the interests of consumers. In respect of alcohol, it does not, as in the days of pervasive controls on competition in the liquor industry, mean favouring producer interests. At the same time, such a perspective requires attention to the effects and costs of misuse of alcohol products and effective ways of minimising them.
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Article: The 2010 Budget: Rough Water Ahead
23 October 2009, Roger Kerr
Preparations for the 2010 budget will be underway in government circles. The 2010 Budget Policy Statement, which sets out the broad parameters, is due in December. The task won’t be an easy one. Core Crown expenses have mushroomed from 29.2% of GDP in the year to June 2004 to a forecast 37.3% in the year to June 2010. On the wider OECD measure, which includes local government, total government spending is running at 46.4% of GDP, higher than the OECD average.
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Perspectives: Issue 309 Tax Carbon to Stop Corruption
21 October 2009, Peter Walsh
Politics makes for strange bedfellows, but the alliance that has pushed the Carbon Pollution
Reduction Scheme Bill to the point of ultimate success is surely the most bizarre alliance in the
history of Australian politics. The driving force behind this campaign to decarbonise Australia has been the Greens. Although
they are small in terms of numbers they are extraordinarily influential.
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Perspectives: Issue 310 Folk Economics
23 October 2009, John A Baden
There were no economics in the Garden of Eden for there was no scarcity. Economics arises when
we confront scarcity and must choose among competing values. Hence, economics involves
trading off one scarce thing, time for example, for another.
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Perspectives: Issue 311 Sound Method Key to Literacy
28 October 2009, Janet Albrechtsen
It’s not often one gets the chance to say this: NSW is doing something right. At least it is when
it comes to literacy. In recognition of the importance of phonics, NSW teaching guides now
require teachers to spend part of each day teaching young children the sounds that make up
words.
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Perspectives: Issue 312 The Pitfalls of the Public Option
30 October 2009, N Gregory Mankiw
In the debate over health care reform, one issue looms large: whether to have a public option.
Should all Americans have the opportunity to sign up for government run health insurance?
President Obama has made his own preferences clear. In a letter to Senators Edward M.
Kennedy of Massachusetts and Max Baucus of Montana, the chairmen of two key Senate
committees, he wrote: I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public
health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of
choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest.
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Perspectives: Issue 313 Gross Domestic Happiness?
2 November 2009, John A Baden
French President Nicolas Sarkozy recently said he wanted the nations of the world to stop using
GDP, or gross domestic product, as the main measure of their economic performance. He wants
them instead to work up another metric that takes into account not only economic production
but such things as environmental quality and even time not spent in traffic—a sort of gross
national satisfaction index.
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Media Release: Updated Fact File of Economic Statistics Released
30 October 2009, New Zealand Business Roundtable
The New Zealand Business Roundtable has updated the data of key statistics complied for economic journalists and others interested in the New Zealand economy.
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