Insights
‘Insights’ is the weekly newsletter of The New Zealand Initiative. Every Friday it provides comment pieces on domestic and global policy issues and the state of the world as such. It is a newsletter serious enough for a think tank – and lighthearted enough for an enjoyable Friday afternoon read. Please subscribe to ‘Insights’ by visiting the website of The New Zealand Initiative: www.nzinitiative.org.nz
If the Government does not urgently improve its border handling capacity, there is no point pursuing elimination in New Zealand. We cannot afford to put our largest city into lockdown every few months because the border practices are not virus-tight.
[...]
While there is a Purity Law for German beer (since you asked, it’s from 1516), there is no such law for culture.
[...]
Perhaps the election of Judith Collins to the National leadership does not change her party’s immediate electoral prospects. National is still fighting an uphill battle to unseat an extremely popular Prime Minister.
[...]
New Zealand could keep its border shut regardless of whether it is possible to open it safely. But that would mean repeating the mistake it made during lockdown.
[...]
In its veneration of Jacinda Ardern, Taking the lead goes so far as to become boring – even for children.
[...]
Based on real-time data from the economy, a small team of researchers around Professor Christoph Schumacher has created a model to estimate current GDP as it happens.
[...]
To keep international investors’ trust, we must remain squeaky clean in our fundamental economic institutions. If we are not, New Zealand will come out of the Covid-19 crisis as a broken economy and a failed state.
[...]
It should have been a budget to steer New Zealand out of this economic depression. But it reads like a budget in an election year.
[...]
Our recovery path will be bumpy. But good policy development can help clear the road and lead us towards a better future.
[...]
How do you get an economy going again when entire industries are destroyed? How do you encourage private consumption when families are trying to make ends meet? How do you run a government when public finances are in disarray?
[...]