The Hoon

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics with guests Robert Patman , Cathrine Dyer and Elaine Monaghan , who is a former Reuters correspondent and Washington correspondent for The Times . We discussed: * the US mid-term election results,...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. It included special guest Shamubeel Eaqub talking about fiscal, monetary and KiwiSaver policy. We referred to this substack post he wrote: And also the Zombie town documentaries he did, referred...

Thank you Virginia McMillan , PixieMatt , Alistair Schorn , Gill Franklin , Toni S , and many others for tuning into my live video with Ganesh R Ahirao ! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. It included regular guest Robert Patman talking about Donald Trump’s friendly relations with Vladimir Putin, events in the Middle East and what’s at stake for New Zealand. This week’s special gue...

I talked in the video above last night with Elliot Crossan about about his analysis of Labour’s fiscal plan, including how its National -like focus on returning to Budget surplus and cutting debt will force big real cuts in welfare and other Government spending. I have asked Labour spokesperson Barbara Edmonds for an interview. Here’s the essence of what Elliot is saying (bolding mine): Labour and...

I talked with Dr Mona Krewel in the video above about how New Zealand’s political parties and leaders are using Facebook so far in Election 2026. She is the director of the Internet, Social Media and Politics Research Lab at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington and was reporting back after the first week of the 2026 New Zealand Social Media Study , including analysis of 544 Facebook p...

Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. Here’s the post from Rosie we discussed. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Ken Howell , Graham Collins , and many others for tuning into my live video with Huhana Hickey ! Join me for my next live video in the app. Here’s the post we discussed. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

University of Otago finance academic Morgan Edwards has discovered through an Official Information Act request to Treasury and the Reserve Bank that the Government ‘ran out of money’ 272 times since 1997 when the Crown Settlement Account went into overdraft, sometimes to the tune of billions of dollars. In theory, that’s not possible, but it happened. Here’s Morgan’s substack post documenting the...

The discussion above is about Bryce Edwards ’ substack post on this University of Otago survey published this week. I also covered the survey results yesterday. Thank you Felicity Letcher , Morgan Edwards , Paul Singh , Gaylene Middleton , Alex Clarkson , and many others for tuning into my live video with Bryce Edwards ! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. It included regular guest Cathrine Dyer , including a discussion about this article she wrote for Newsroom. Bernard’s three things of note this week were: 1. Starship’s cancer treatment closure i...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. It included regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman and discussions about climate change science distrust, National’s election policy to cut foreign aid and the near identical fiscal polic...

Thank you Maurizio Piglia , Brian Rathbone , Ken Howell , Tim , Tony Pomfret , and many others for tuning into my live video with Elliot Crossan ! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

I had a great chat this evening with the University of Otago’s Michael Swanson about MMP and vote-splitting after he produced this excellent substack post: The Bastardisation of MMP Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theka...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. It included regular guest Cathrine Dyer , plus special guests Auckland University Emeritus Professor Jane Kelsey , intensive care specialist Dr David Galler , who also publishes this substack dav...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics with regular guests Robert Patman and Cathrine Dyer , plus special guest: * Former NZ Heral d Editor Gavin Ellis , who talked about his article on the Official Information Act, the future of media...

National, Labour, NZ First, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori have all released policies for major state intervention in the supermarkets sector to break up or challenge the duopoly of Foodstuffs ( Pak n’ Save, New World & Four Square ) and Woolworths in recent weeks. National and NZ First have proposed breaking up Foodstuffs into separate competing Pak n’ Save and New World/Four square chains, while l...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics with regular guests Robert Patman and Cathrine Dyer , plus special guests: * Technology commentator, futurist and substacker Ben Reid to talk about AI, data centres and future of everything; and,...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics with regular guests Robert Patman and Cathrine Dyer , plus special guests: * Columnist on international affairs for The Guardian , Paul Taylor , who talked about the rise of AFD in Germany, and th...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics with special guests, including: * International affairs expert Dr Geoffrey Miller , the author of the Gulf States Insights substack, talking about the recent Mecca Agreement; and, * Andy Reisinger...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-host Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. Bernard was taking a break. In this week’s edition: * Author and polymath Turi Munthe was on from Rome to talk about his new book: Why We Think What We Think : The...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. In this week’s edition: * Bernard and Peter talked about developments in New Zealand’s political economy in the last week, including the winter...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. This edition also included discussions with special guests Jonathan Lyons, PhD on Iran and NZME’s Fran O’Sullivan. * Bernard and Peter talked a...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. This edition also included discussions with special guest Don Christie , the MD of Catalyst IT , who talked about Catalyst’s manifesto for Elec...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guest Cathrine Dyer about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. This edition also included discussions with special guests: * Former PM Helen Clark on why PM Christopher Luxon should sack NZ First Leader and Foreign Minister W...