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Speeches and presentations
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Public Policy: Objectives and Principles
9 September 2010, Roger Kerr
Roger Kerr's presentation to the 2010 Dunes Symposium
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MMP and Public Policy
2 August 2007, Graeme Hunt
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Parliament and Policy Making
2 August 2007, Charles Chauvel
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Public Policy: Objectives and Principles
2 August 2007, Roger Kerr
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Getting Better Value for Money in Public Spending
13 September 2005, Roger Kerr
Roger Kerr to the Conferenz 9th Annual Public Sector Finance Forum in Wellington today.
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Local Government: Constrained or Unconstrained?
8 July 2005, Roger Kerr
Roger Kerr to the Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce
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Local Government: A Business Assessment
21 January 2005, Roger Kerr
Roger Kerr's speech to the Society of Local Government Managers Marlborough Retreat in Blenheim.
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Reducing Barriers to Investment in Infrastructure
30 November 2004, Roger Kerr
Roger Kerr's speech to the Conferenz Instructure Conference in Auckland on 30 November 2004.
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Imagine There's No Government
15 June 2004, Rob McLeod
I've called this talk 'Imagine there's no government', but I'm not about to speak in favour of anarchy. Rather, I want to outline what I see as the proper process for reaching decisions about what the role of the government should be in any field of public policy.
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'The Government's Role Is Whatever The Government Defines It To Be' Discuss
6 May 2003, Roger Kerr
A couple of months ago, the government committed over $5 million of taxpayers' money to regain the America's Cup. According to the Dominion Post of 4 March, the prime minister, Helen Clark, was asked whether the government should be financing a yacht race. She replied that "the government's role was whatever the government defined it to be."
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Toward More Efficient and Democratic Local Government
28 May 1999, Roger Kerr
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Water Reform Imperatives
8 March 1999, Roger Kerr
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Getting a Core Government Function Right
8 October 1998, Douglas Myers
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The ARST Fiasco: Full Circle to Nowhere
18 August 1998, Roger Kerr
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The Problem With Peoples' Republics
4 August 1998, Roger Kerr
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Politics and Water Don't Mix
24 April 1998, Roger Kerr
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Local Government: Time for a New Blueprint
18 April 1998, Douglas Myers
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Corporatisation and Privatisation of Water Supply
26 February 1998, Roger Kerr
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Why Local Government Needs a Bomb Under It
12 November 1997, Roger Kerr
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Local Authorities' Commercial Activities and The Role of Consultation
25 September 1997, Roger Kerr
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The Water Ideologues
29 August 1997, Roger Kerr
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Privatisation: A Forgotten Policy?
18 April 1997, Roger Kerr
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Reform of New Zealand's Water Utilities: The Snail's Pace of Progress
24 March 1997, Roger Kerr
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Promoting Economic Growth: Challenges for Local Government
20 February 1997, Roger Kerr
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Making Government Smaller, Better, and Closer to Home
5 September 1996, William Eggers
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Clarity and Confusion in Local Government
28 August 1996, Roger Kerr
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Getting Up to Speed: The Challenge for Local Government
10 August 1996, Roger Kerr
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Privatisation and Infrastructure
14 June 1996, Robert Poole
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Seven Deadly Sins in Local Government
24 May 1996, Roger Kerr
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Local Government: Clarifying Public And Private Roles
16 November 1995, Roger Kerr
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Local Government: The Forward Agenda
9 May 1995, Roger Kerr
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State-Owned Enterprises and Privatisation
14 June 1992, Bob Matthew
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User Charges: Some Aspects of their Allocative Role
30 September 1991, Roger Kerr
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Efficiency and Accountability in the Private Sector
17 April 1991, Lindsay Fergusson
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Local Government: A Business Perspective
1 February 1991, Barry Dineen
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Getting Better Value for Money in Public Spending
30 December 1899, Roger Kerr
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Books and reports
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Local Government Forum: Port performance and Ownership
18 August 2010, New Zealand Institute of Economic Research
The OECD and the 2025 Taskforce, together with some private commentators, have recently highlighted the high level of local authority ownership among New Zealand ports and suggested that this is a barrier to port rationalisation and may be leading to inefficient investment in ports for parochial reasons.
NZ $0.00
incl GST
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Income and Wealth Redistribution: Should it be a Role of Local Government?
30 March 2009, Local Government Forum
There are good reasons why local government should not engage in explicit income redistribution, apart from the delivery of central government programmes and remission of rates and charges on hardship grounds. They include the following:
- Aside from matters relating to procedural fairness, local authorities are generally poorly placed to judge equity issues on an informed and objective basis.
- Redistribution by individual councils may not advance the overall redistribution goals of the government.
- Council redistributive programmes may impose costs on ratepayers that would otherwise fall on taxpayers.
- Councils generally lack expertise in the area of income and wealth distribution, and it is unlikely to be efficient for councils to acquire the information and skilled resources that would be required.
NZ $22.50
incl GST
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Local Government and the Provision of Public Goods
27 November 2008, Local Government Forum
The purpose of this report is to provide a primer on the core role of local government: the provision of public goods.
Governments have to distinguish their roles from those of the private sector and prioritise their plans because the demands on them are unlimited, but resources are scarce. There are some tasks that it is vital for governments to perform, and governments need to excel in them. There are a great many more tasks in a community that citizens can better undertake themselves through market transactions and other voluntary arrangements.
One of the two primary functions of government is to ensure the efficient provision of public goods (the other is to maintain order). Both national and local governments have public good responsibilities.
The distinctive features of public goods are, first, that non-payers cannot easily be excluded from receiving the benefit that others pay for (that is, public goods are susceptible to free riding) and, second, that one person's consumption does not reduce the consumption opportunities of others.
Goods with both of these characteristics are likely to be under-supplied by private firms or not supplied at all (unless under contract to a government entity). Firms cannot provide the level of such goods and services that would maximise net benefits across the community and still recover the full costs of supply.
Most services provided for the public do not have public good characteristics. They are provided by firms and funded from the revenue raised. These are termed private goods. If it is cost-effective to charge directly for a service, it is likely to be a private rather than a public good.
An examination of local government activities would identify many that are clearly private good in nature, such as ports, airports, off-street car-parking facilities, cinemas, forestry and farming. Economic analysis suggests that community well-being would be enhanced if councils exited from such activities.
NZ $22.50
incl GST
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Public Policy - An Introduction
2 August 2007, New Zealand Business Roundtable
INTRODUCTION
This paper is intended as an introduction to the topic of public policy. Contributing to
the development of good public policies for New Zealand is central to the mission of the
New Zealand Business Roundtable.
Good institutions and policies typically dominate other factors in determining the
economic performance of countries. Improvements to institutions and policies explain
much of the prosperity of Western nations since the Industrial Revolution and the rise of
countries such as China and India today.
New Zealand's earlier prosperity owed much to an environment of general economic
freedom and a generally observed rule of law. Its economic performance deteriorated
for much of the twentieth century with the adoption of policies that restricted economic
freedoms, and has improved in the past two decades as many of those mistakes were
corrected.
NZ $22.50
incl GST
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Democracy and Performance
20 March 2007, Local Government Forum
A manifesto for local government.
NZ $22.50
incl GST
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The Role of the State in an era of Globalisation: The 2004 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture
15 December 2004, Martin Wolf
Martin Wolf was the guest speaker for the 2004 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture held in Wellington earlier this year.
NZ $12.50
incl GST
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The Changing Balance Between the Public and Private Sectors
1 September 2002, Phil Barry
In the early 1990s, the World Bank identified four prerequisites for achieving sustainable economic growth: - sound macroeconomic policies; - competitive domestic markets and openness to international trade; - more and better private and public investment in people; and - achieving the 'right' balance between the roles of the public and private sectors.
NZ $24.95
incl GST
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Public Management in New Zealand: Lessons and Challenges (NOTE: THIS PUBLICATION IS NOT FOR SALE FROM NZBR. To purchase this pub
1 April 2001, 1 Graham Scott
Public Management in New Zealand: Lessons and Challenges describes New Zealand's transformation from a command administrative system to a performance-driven public sector. Novel arrangements were introduced based on the freedom of managers to exercise professional judgement in carrying out assigned responsibilities.
The book offers a rich menu of ideas and experiences for any country determined to improve public management. There are also lessons to be learned from the shortcomings and disappointments experienced by the New Zealand reformers.
Looking to the future, the author has pointed to areas where the government can strengthen public management through: improved capability and performance by ministers; stronger policy analysis and evaluation; more effective strategic management; firmer linkages between strategic goals, desired policy outcomes and the outputs of public organisations; better performance specifications and monitoring of chief executives and their departments; greater effort in development of professional and managerial human resources; and improved governance and accountability arrangements for semi-independent government entities.
NOTE: THIS PUBLICATION IS NOT FOR SALE FROM NZBR. To purchase this publication contact: Centre for Law and Economics at ANU in Canberra, George Barker email: BarkerG@law.anu.edu.au)
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Refocusing the Role of Local Government
1 December 1999, Local Government Forum
NZ $24.95
incl GST
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Should Governments Subsidise Stadiums and Events?
1 June 1999, Tyler Cowen
There is no summary available for this publication.
NZ $12.50
incl GST
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Reform of the Water Industry
1 August 1997, C S First Boston New Zealand
NZ $33.75
incl GST
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Reform of the Water Industry
1 August 1995, Susan Begg
This report examines the potential for reforming the water industry. It focuses on mechanisms for allocating water between different uses as well as the institutional arrangements governing businesses that supply water and wastewater services. It discusses possible problems with the status quo and examines options for reform.
The review is motivated by the importance of water as a resource and the sizeable public investment in water and wastewater infrastructure in New Zealand. The value of natural water for waste disposal, water supply, recreation and commercial fisheries (and excluding ecological and cultural values) has been estimated at around $1.5 billion per annum. The accumulated investment by local government in water supply and wastewater assets is of the order of $6 billion. This is larger than the investment in Telecom Corporation of New Zealand's network and roughly comparable to the national investment in the electricity transmission and distribution system.
NZ $33.75
incl GST
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The Provision and Funding of Fire Services - Some Broader Perspectives
1 March 1995, New Zealand Business Roundtable
There is no summary available for this publication.
NZ $33.75
incl GST
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Local Government in New Zealand: An Overview of Economic and Financial Issues
1 January 1995, New Zealand Business Roundtable
There is no summary available for this publication.
NZ $22.50
incl GST
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Options for the Reform of Roading in New Zealand
1 June 1993, C S First Boston New Zealand
NZ $33.75
incl GST
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The Public Benefit of Private Ownership: The Case For Privatisation
1 June 1992, New Zealand Business Roundtable
There is no summary available for this publication.
NZ $33.75
incl GST
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State Owned Enterprise Policy - Issues in Ownership and Regulation
1 March 1988, New Zealand Business Roundtable
There is no summary available for this publication.
NZ $33.75
incl GST
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Submissions
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Submission on the Ministry of Economic Development Discussion Paper: Review of Securities Law
19 August 2010, New Zealand Business Roundtable
The Business Roundtable does not propose to individually address
each of the 204 questions presented in the Discussion Paper but
instead address five key issues arising from it. These include: The public policy framework for evaluating New Zealand's securities laws; the scope of the securities laws; the substantive duties of disclosure; the standards of liability under the securities laws; and the securities law reform process.
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Local Government Forum Submission on the Local Government Act Amendment Bill
2 August 2010, Local Government Forum
The Bill arises from concerns expressed by ratepayers about the strong growth of
local government expenditure and the resulting increases in rates. It also arises from
the need for local government, which is a significant component of the economy, to
positively contribute to the Government's economic goals.
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Submission on the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill
12 March 2010, Local Government Forum
While improved governance arrangements for Auckland are a commendable first
step, the Forum believes that much work remains if local government is to contribute
fully to lifting overall economic performance. Broader reform of local government,
which the government is progressing separately, can assist.
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Local Government Forum Submission on Auckland Local Government Bill
26 June 2009, Local Government Forum
The Local Government Forum welcomes the opportunity to make a submission on the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill. Overall, the Forum supports the Bill's intent and recommends that it should proceed - subject to specific comments in this submission.
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Submission to the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance
23 April 2008, New Zealand Business Roundtable
The Business Roundtable believes that the mandate of local authorities should be more tightly constrained. As a general rule, councils should only be permitted to engage in those activities, including regulatoryactivities, that fall within the proper role of government (as opposed to the private sector) and that should be the responsibility of local rather than central government. These core roles of councils should be enumerated in legislation.
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Joint Complaint to the Regulation Review Committee of Parliament
17 March 2008, Joint Business Roundtable and Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce
Complaint to the Regulation Review Committee concerning the Order in Council of 3 March 2008 amending the Overseas InvestmentRegulations 2005.
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Submission on the 2007 Budget Policy Statement
20 February 2007, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Wellington Regional Strategy
31 October 2006, New Zealand Business Roundable
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Submission on the Business Tax Review
1 September 2006, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission on Auckland Regional Council's draft long term community plan 2006 - 2016
1 May 2006, Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) in conjunction with New Zealand Business Roundtable
Submission on Auckland Regional Council's draft long term community plan 2006 - 2016 presented by Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) in conjunction with New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Local Government Asset Decisions and the Cost of Capital
17 February 2006, Capital Economics Ltd
This paper was prepared by Capital Economics Ltd for the Local Government Forum
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Submission on the Wellington City Council's Draft Annual Plan 2005/06
31 May 2005, Local Government Forum
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Submission on Proposal that Wellington City Council Subsidise the V8 Supercar Championship Series
19 April 2005, Local Government Forum
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Proposed Declaration of Unlisted under the Securities Markets Act
16 March 2005, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission on Wellington City Council's Draft Annual Plan 2004/05
22 May 2004, Local Government Forum
The Forum considers that local authorities should restrict themselves to their core business of providing local public goods and performing its regulatory activities in an efficient manner.
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Submission on Your Region Your Future: The Auckland Regional Council's Draft Long-term Council Community Plan 2004-14
1 May 2004, Local Government Forum
Our submission focuses on the Council's proposed spending and
revenue, and its rating policy, particularly the issue of the business differential.
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Submission on Walking Access in the New Zealand Outdoors
25 November 2003, New Zealand Business Roundtable
The proposals discussed in the report entail a substantial erosion of private property rights which is detrimental to prosperity. Land-based industries, such as farming and forestry, and tourism are directly affected.
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Submission on the Holidays Bill and the Holidays (Four Weeks Annual Leave) Amendment Bill
10 July 2003, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission On The Wellington City Council's Draft Council Plan 2003/04
26 May 2003, Local Government Forum
By focusing on its core activities the Council could cut expenditure and rates, which we believe is an essential step towards making Wellington a more attractive place for business.
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Submission On The Auckland City Council's Draft Annual Plan 2004
26 May 2003, Local Government Forum
The main contribution that the Council can make to growth and employment prospects in Auckland is to reduce the rates and regulatory burdens it imposes on the private sector, focus on the funding of genuine public goods and services, and facilitate the provision of necessary infrastructure.
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Submission on Wellington City Council's Draft Annual Plan 2002/03
1 May 2002, Local Government Forum
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Facing the Future: Auckland City Council Plan 2003
1 May 2002, Local Government Forum
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Submission On The Local Government Bill
2 February 2002, Local Government Forum
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Submission on the Review of the Local Government Act 1974
1 August 2001, Local Government Forum
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Submission on Infrastructure Auckland's Draft Annual Plan 2000-2001, Long-Term Funding Plan 2000-2010, and Statement of Corporat
1 June 2000, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission on the Christchurch City Council's Draft Annual Plan 2000/2001
1 May 2000, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission on the Wellington City Council's Draft Annual Plan 2000/2001
1 May 2000, Local Government Forum
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Wellington Regional Council's Ten Year Plan 2000 - 2010 and Draft Annual Plan 2000/01
1 May 2000, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Infrastructure Auckland's Draft Annual Plan 1999-2000, Long-Term Funding Plan 1999-2009 and Statement of Corporate Intent 1999-2
1 June 1999, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Cost Recovery of Passenger and Craft Border Clearance Services
1 November 1998, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission On The Review Of The Holidays Act 1981
1 December 1997, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Pathways for Auckland: Concerning the Future of the Auckland Regional Services Trust
1 August 1997, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission on the Christchurch City Council's 1997 Draft Annual Plan
16 June 1997, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission on the Auckland City Council's 1997/98 Draft Annual Plan: This is Your City
1 June 1997, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission to the Government Administration Committee on the Proposed New Parliamentary Building
1 June 1997, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission on the Wellington City Council's Draft Annual Plan 1997/98, Draft Long Term Financial Strategy 1997-2007, Draft Fundi
1 May 1997, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Wellington Regional Council's Long-term Strategy: Facing the Future 1997-2007
1 May 1997, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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The 1996/97 Draft Annual Plan of the Auckland Regional Services Trust
30 August 1996, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission on the Christchurch City Council's 1996/97 Draft Annual Plan
24 June 1996, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission on the Draft Auckland City Council 1995/96 Annual Plan
8 June 1995, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Supplementary Submission to the Internal Affairs and Local Government Committee on the Local Government Law Reform Bill
1 March 1995, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission to the Internal Affairs & Local Government Committee on the Local Government Law Reform Bill
1 March 1995, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Articles
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Council Democracy and Performance Must Be Improved
19 July 2010, Roger Kerr, The Dominion Post
The job of councils should be to provide public good services – services that can’t be provided efficiently by firms or the voluntary sector. Otherwise councils crowd out the private sector, run commercial businesses less efficiently on average, and harm economic growth.
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Economic Fallacies And Their Consequences
16 July 2010, Roger Kerr, Otago Daily Times
A few weeks ago I decided to look out for examples of economic fallacies
that routinely appear in our media. It didn’t take long to make a list.
Local government is always a happy hunting ground.
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Understanding Profits
9 April 2010, Roger Kerr
A recent correspondent to the New Zealand Herald, arguing against operating water and wastewater services on commercial lines, wrote that business has “little concern for society’s needs. Profit is all … Water services are, in themselves, expensive. To add profit to charges is unforgivable.”
Wow! Where does one start in dealing with common misconceptions about the roles of business and profits?
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A Regulatory Responsibility Act: An Idea Whose Time has Come?
27 November 2009, Roger Ker
Good regulation is necessary to promote social, economic, environmental and other goals. However, countries around the world have struggled with the problem of poor quality regulation which is economically costly and unnecessarily curtails citizens’ freedoms and choices.
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Transport Policy: A Replay of the Economic Past?
11 July 2008, Roger Kerr
The transport sector vividly illustrates the replay of the economic past - dramatically in the case of the buy-back of Air New Zealand and the railways, and the repurchase of the private shareholding in Ports of Auckland by the Auckland Regional Council, but in other ways as well.
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The Great Train Folly
4 July 2008, Roger Kerr
As the World Bank has said, "Privatisation is now so widespread that it is hard to find countries not using the approach: "North Korea, Cuba and perhaps Myanmar make up the shrunken universe of the resistant."
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Privatisation: New Zealand Swimming Against the Tide
8 May 2008, Roger Kerr
With the National Party's decision not to move any state-owned enterprises to the private sector in its first term if elected this year, we appear to have a new political consensus between the major parties in New Zealand: privatisation is bad.
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New Thinking Needed on Local Government
5 October 2007, Roger Kerr
The 2007 local government elections are now just over a week away. Early indications are that the turnout may again be low. This may reflect not so much apathy as a feeling of disenfranchisement on the part of voters - a lack of ability to have a real say over what councils do.
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Auckland Airport Not a Political Plaything
24 August 2007, Roger Kerr
Some of the reactions to the offer by Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) to take a shareholding of 51% - 60% in Auckland International Airport Limited (AIAL) have been emotive rather than rational.
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Local Government: New Framework Needed
13 September 2006, Roger Kerr
This article was first published in the Independent Financial Review on 13 September 2006.
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Scanning the Far Horizon: Treasury's Fiscal Outlook
12 July 2006, Roger Kerr
Last month the Treasury released a report on New Zealand's long-term fiscal position, looking out to around the middle of this century.
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ARC Rating Claims Exposed
2 February 2006, Roger Kerr
The Auckland Regional Council's claim that the business sector benefits more than proportionately from its services has been exposed as groundless by two recent reports.
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Privatisation: A Third Rail?
4 November 2005, Roger Kerr
Privatisation seems to be regarded as a 'third rail' in New Zealand politics: touch it and you're dead.
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The Case for Flat Taxes
1 February 2005, Richard A Epstein
The flat tax is robust and unique, and outstrips its competitors in fairness and efficiency.
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In Economics Everything Takes Time
28 January 2005, Roger Kerr
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A Deficit of Understanding
15 January 2005, Roger Kerr
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Reducing Barriers to Investment in Infrastructure
31 December 2004, Roger Kerr
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Serving the Public, not Just the Politicians
13 August 2004, Roger Kerr
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Competition shouldn't be incarcerated: The case for privately managed prisons
26 November 2003, Roger Kerr
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Perspectives
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Issue 405 California Business Exodus Now Triple Last Year’s Rate
18 October 2010, Joseph Vranich
In executive coaching, there is a saying: "The problem you define is the one you solve." Based on what I've seen, California is in serious trouble because many people refuse to admit to one of our big problems - the flight of businesses, capital and jobs to other states and nations.
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Issue 399 The Size of Government and the Choice This Fall
21 September 2010, Arthur C Brooks and Paul Ryan
As we move into this election season, Americans are being asked to choose between candidates and political parties. But the true decision we will be making—now and in the years to come—is this: Do we still want our traditional American free enterprise system, or do we prefer a European-style social democracy?
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Issue 358 learning from What Works
8 April 2010, Richard W Rahn
Economists, political scientists, reporters and pundits spend too much of their time looking at dysfunctional societies and trying to explain why there are poverty, joblessness and hopelessness. In many ways, Haiti is easy to explain - no rule of law and 200 years of corrupt and incompetent governments. Switzerland is the polar opposite. It has almost no corruption and has the rule of law with honest, competent judges and government administrators.
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Issue 357 Escape from Taxation
6 April 2010, Wall Street Journal Opinion
New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie must be following the economic news from
Greece. Its tattered reputation for fiscal control has turned Greece into an international
financial nightmare and laughingstock. Perhaps tiring of New Jersey jokes, Governor
Christie this week handed down a stiff freeze on spending.
Announcing the freeze on $1.6 billion of unspent money, Mr. Christie was blunt:
"Today, we come to terms with the fact that we cannot spend money on everything we
want. Today, the days of Alice in Wonderland budgeting in Trenton end."
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Issue 356 Social Housing Model rips the Heart out of Indigenous Communities
1 April 2010, Noel Pearson
THAT welfare passivity has no racial basis is readily confirmed in the writings of the pseudonymous English doctor and author, Theodore Dalrymple, about life among the white tribes of contemporary Britain.
Dalrymple's accounts of underclass pathos and dysfunction and the elite ideas that have created and sustain it, could well be an account of life an entire world away: Aboriginal communities in remote Australia.
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Issue 351 Taxpayer beware - The hidden costs of public funding's helping hand
12 March 2010, James Stanfield
While much of the current debate on higher education has focused on what is seen, namely the immediate benefits of government spending and national planning, it has tended to neglect what is not seen - the hidden costs and unintended consequences of these interventions.
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Issue 347 Dont Like the Numbers? Change 'Em
22 February 2010, Michael J Boskin
Politicians and scientists who don't like what their data show lately have simply taken to changing the numbers. They believe that their end—socialism, global climate regulation, health-care legislation, repudiating debt commitments, la gloire française—justifies throwing out even minimum standards of accuracy. It appears that no numbers are immune: not GDP, not inflation, not budget, not job or cost estimates, and certainly not temperature. A CEO or CFO issuing such massaged numbers would land in jail.
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Issue 339 A 'National Broadband Plan'
26 January 2010, WSJ Opinion
The Federal Communications Commission recently told Congress that it will miss a February deadline for delivering a "national broadband plan" and requested a one-month extension. If it keeps missing deadlines, nearly everyone in the U.S. might soon have high-speed Internet.
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Issue 336 A Crime Theory Demolished
18 January 2010, Heather MacDonald
The recession of 2008-09 has undercut one of the most destructive social theories that came out of the 1960s: the idea that the root cause of crime lies in income inequality and social injustice. As the economy started shedding jobs in 2008, criminologists and pundits predicted that crime would shoot up, since poverty, as the "root causes" theory holds, begets criminals. Instead, the opposite happened. Over seven million lost jobs later, crime has plummeted to its lowest level since the early 1960s. The consequences of this drop for how we think about social order are significant.
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Issue 329 Bentham vs. Hume
14 December 2009, David Brooks
I’d like to introduce you to two friends of mine, Mr. Bentham and Mr. Hume.
Mr. Bentham knows everything. He went to Stanford, then to the Kennedy school before getting a business degree. He’s got multivariate regressions coming out of his ears, and he sprinkles C.B.O. reports on his corn flakes for added fiber.
Mr. Hume is very smart, too, but he doesn’t seem to make much use of his intelligence. He worked on Wall Street for a little while, but he never could accurately predict how the market was going to move tomorrow or the day after that.
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Issue 323 Why Obama Bombed on Healthcare
27 November 2009, Holman W Jenkins, JR
President Barack Obama made a "public option" his centerpiece not because it's the answer to what's broken in the U.S. system, but because it's a halfway house to a single-payer setup that liberal Democrats have always wanted.
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Issue 321 Conroy Wins, Taxpayers Lose
23 November 2009, Henry Ergas
Update CASINO capitalism is dead; long live casino socialism. Karl Marx thought that rational economic calculation - the idea that people would carefully assess the consequences of alternative choices - was one of capitalism's great contributions to human progress. Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner doesn't agree.
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Issue 319 Elinor Ostrom on the Market, the State, and the Third Sector
18 November 2009, Paul Dragos Aligica
When economists show that market arrangements fail, they usually make the simple recommendation that “the” state should take care of these problems. Elinor Ostrom has demonstrated empirically that “the” state may not be “the” solution
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Issue 317 Obama Goes Postal
11 November 2009, William F Shughart II
When President Obama told the people attending a town hall meeting on health care that “UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? . . . It’s the post office that’s always having problems,” he was right on the facts, but drew the wrong conclusion from them.
As his whirlwind schedule of Sunday talk show appearances indicates, he still doesn’t get it.
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Issue 289 If David Cameron wants to govern, he should stop being afraid of ideas
12 August 2009, Simon Heffer
You may recall the Beyond the Fringe sketch in which Squadron Leader Peter Cook tells Jonathan Miller, the doleful pilot, that he must set out on a doomed mission because "we need a futile gesture at this stage. It will raise the whole tone of the war".
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Issue 286 All Honor to Jefferson
29 July 2009, Jean Yarbrough
Instead of consolidating power or attempting to forge a general will, Jefferson went in the opposite direction, "dividing and sub-dividing" political power, while multiplying the number of interests and views that could be heard. He saw these units of local self-government as a way of bringing the large republic within the reach of citizens and so keeping alive the spirit of republicanism so vital to its preservation. And in this day and age, when the federal government seems to intrude on every aspect of our daily lives, and people feel powerless over matters of most interest to them, can we doubt that he was right? For this insight, too, let us echo Lincoln: "All honor to Jefferson"!
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Issue 280, Local Councils Become Instrument of Nanny State
8 July 2009, Richard Allsop
Once upon a time citizens looked to the local council to provide a few basic local services such as ensuring the maintenance of local roads, the collection of the garbage, the operation of a library and provision of a maternal and child health service.
However, in recent years councils have more and more chosen to use their planning powers and ability to set rates to impose their personal world view on the rest of us.
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Issue 280 Local Councils Become Instrument of Nanny State
8 July 2009, Richard Allsop
There is something intensely irritating about many modern-day local councils.
Once upon a time citizens looked to the local council to provide a few basic local services such as ensuring the maintenance of local roads, the collection of the garbage, the operation of a library and provision of a maternal and child health service.
This had begun to change by the 1980s when a few left-wing councils decided to make the odd feel-good meaningless gesture such as declaring themselves a "nuclear free zone", but other than stinging ratepayers for the cost of a few signs this did not really do too much practical damage.
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Issue 257 Big and Getting Bigger
17 April 2009, John Roskam
Kevin Rudd would have felt right at home at the Group of 20 summit. He was in the city where political spin was invented. And he was joined by the likes of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was elected two years ago proclaiming his belief in free markets and economic liberalism. Now he's complaining about the evils of "Anglo-Saxon" capitalism and demanding crackdowns on bonuses for "traders and speculators".
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Issue 92, Why we love government
10 May 2007, Walter E Williams
This article was first published on www.townhall.com
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Media Releases
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Auckland Shows Benefits of Rationalising Water Businesses
2 September 2010, New Zealand Business Roundtable
This week’s announcement that customers will benefit from lower prices from the integrated water business in Auckland was predictable and good news, Business Roundtable executive director, Roger Kerr, said today.
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New Thinking on Council Spending in UK
2 August 2010, New Zealand Business Roundtable
“The UK government has announced its intention to introduce automatic referenda if the rate of increase in council tax (rates) exceeds a threshold set by parliament”, Roger Kerr, executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable, said today.
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New Report on Public Policy Released
2 August 2007, New Zealand Business Roundtable
A new report, Public Policy: An Introduction, released today by the New Zealand Business Roundtable, explores the topic of public policy and its importance for national success.
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Budget Policy Statement Falls Short of Government's Goals
14 February 2007, Roger Kerr
"The projections in the Budget Policy Statement, which go out over 10 years from when the government was first elected in 1999, are clear evidence that its economic policies are not succeeding", Roger Kerr, executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable, said today.
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Rates Rises Require Urgent Response
13 June 2006, Local Government Forum
"News that councils are planning on increases in rates revenue averaging 7-8% over each of the next three years highlights the need for urgent changes to the policy environment under which local government operates", Roger Kerr, executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable, speaking on behalf of the Local Government Forum, said today.
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Faster Progress Necessary in Water Reform
13 April 2006, Business Groups
Frustration at the slow progress in water reform was expressed by business groups, following the Government's release of its water policy initiatives earlier this week.
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Bad Regulation Has Led to Unaffordable Housing
2 March 2006, New Zealand Business Roundtable
"Misconceived restrictions on the development of land have led to unaffordable housing", Roger Kerr, executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable, said today.
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Policy backgrounders
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No.6, Can we learn from Ireland's experience? An Irishman's Perspective
7 June 2005, Colin Lynch
Ireland's economic transformation has been breathtaking.
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E-Connects
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Seven Myths About Green Jobs
2 September 2010, International Policy Network
A study “Seven Myths About Green Jobs,” published in association with more than two dozens think tanks from all over the world concludes that green jobs are not as green as is being claimed by the politicians and advocates.
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Economics 101 on "Learning From Sweden's Free Market Renaissance"
8 March 2010, Centre for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation
Sweden is a powerful example of the importance of public policy. The Nordic nation became rich between 1870 and 1970 when government was very small, but then began to stagnate as welfare state policies were implemented in the 1970s and 1980s. The CF&P Foundation video explains that Sweden is now shifting back to economic freedom in hopes of undoing the damage caused by an excessive welfare state
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America's Fiscal Crisis Is Excessive Government, not Rising Debt
15 December 2009, Centre for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation
In this CF&P Foundation video entitled, "Deficits are Bad, but the Real Problem is Spending," Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute explains that huge deficits and skyrocketing debt are rightly causing worry, but these are merely symptoms of the real problem of excessive government spending.
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