The Kākā by Bernard Hickey

This week I hosted a ‘Hoon’ on Substack Live previewing The Reality of Everything symposium to be held at Victoria University of Wellington on June 26, which will examine the interconnected crises of climate change, energy, water & food constraints, economic instability & public health. I was joined by regular Hoon guest Cathrine Dyer , substacker and symposium facilitator Catherine Knight , confe...

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

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

This week a speculative post on Substack by Citrini about ever-faster AI tools creating a self-reinforcing doom loop of fewer jobs & lower wages for humans -- while AI owners win big -- shook global stocks. A link to the post is below. So I decided to have a Substack Live with Ben Reid , who writes about tech and AI for Memia . The resulting chat is above. Thank you James Wilkes , Nicola Francis ,...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Elaine Monaghan about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics here, along with special guest Associate Professor Polly Atatoa Carr from Waikato University’s Te Ngira Institute for Population Research. This...

Independent economist David Skilling gave a stark public presentation to Treasury officials and others yesterday that painted a brutal picture of New Zealand’s labour productivity and real wage catastrophe since 2010, pointing out our economy remained stuck in a low-investment rut with weakening trade connections. Skilling’s presentation in video form below is a must-watch and should be seen as a...

Briefly in the news in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, February 23: * The Lead - Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Police Minister Mark Mitchell announced yesterday the Government planned to change the law to allow Police to ‘move-on’ homeless people aged over 14 from city centers for 24 hours, with breaches punishable by a $2,000 fine, which most won’...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Robert Patman and Cathrine Dyer about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics here, along with special guests Simplicity Chief Economist Shamubeel Eaqub and Coalition for More Homes Spokesman Scott Caldwell . This week: * Be...

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 & Peter Bale talking with New Zealand journalist Andrew Gunn in Kiev and Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey in central Otago. We talked about: * Bernard’s time at the NZ Association of Economists’ forum at the University of Waikato on Thursday and Friday; * Nicola Willis’ announce...

I spoke with Salvation Army Social Policy & Parliamentary Unit Director Bonnie Robinson yesterday about the unit’s State of the Nation 2026 report , which showed a range of indicators of poverty worsening through 2024 and 2025. She challenged the Government to adopt specific policies to address rising levels housing un-affordability and homelessness, more food and electricity poverty, and the wors...

I had a chat recently with economist Peter Redward about gold, the future of money, the US dollar and central bank independence. He writes an excellent substack on gold called About Gold . “China is emerging as a major factor here.” Here’s a couple of examples of his recent work that I’d recommend reading and subscribing to. We spoke about how: * Gold prices have surged due to stagnant production...

In recent weeks we’ve seen AA Insurance publicly acknowledge it has stopped writing new home insurance policies in Westport, Woodend in North Canterbury and in Blenheim to avoid taking on more flood and quake risk in those towns. The NZ Herald’s Front Page Editor Chelsea Daniels asked me to come on to her show to talk about what insurance retreat means for homeowners and why home buyers need to do...

Briefly in Aotearoa’s political economy on Tuesday, February 10: * The Lead: The Government announced last night it planned to levy each household $15-30 per year to pay for a $1 billion-plus LNG import terminal and reduce the risk of massive price spikes during a dry year, saying this would reduce future wholesale prices by up to five times as much, which it expected gentailers to pass on to cons...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman , along with special guest David Farrar , talking about his Op-Ed in the The Post-$ arguing it’s time New Zealand became the seventh state of Australia. We talked about: * The water treatment plant problems...

Briefly in Aotearoa’s political economy on Tuesday, February 3: * The Lead: Just when the Government is hoping voters will feel the ‘green shoots’ of an economic recovery ahead of the November 7 election, the headlines are instead showing another surge in company liquidations and cost of living pressures. Paying subscribers can see more detail below the paywall fold and hear more analysis in the p...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman , along with special guest historian and author Jonathan Lyons . We talked about: * Likely issues in Election 2026 due on November 7, including anti-migration comments from Winston Peters and his comments b...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman , along with special guests Auckland University Emeritus Professor Jane Kelsey and intensive care specialist Dr David Galler . We talked about: * Likely issues in Election 2026 due on November 7, including...

Briefly in Aotearoa’s political economy on Tuesday, January 20: * The Lead: PM Christopher Luxon unveiled a new election slogan in his State of the Nation set-piece speech yesterday, as expected, and doubled down on the Government’s strategy of running tight budgets and letting the economy do the work of getting it re-elected. It didn’t work in 2024 and 2025, but he hopes better economic signals i...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman . We talked about: * US President Donald Trump ’s attack on the US Federal Reserve’s independence and why it matters to us; * RBNZ Governor Anna Breman ’s defence of the Fed’s independence; * NZ First Leade...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman . Our special guests this week were Philippa Yasbek, who heads Gun Control NZ and Doyen: NZ Jews Against Occupation, and Lee Feinstein, former US ambassador to Warsaw and senior diplomat under Democratic ad...

Briefly in the news from Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, December 17: * Treasury published its Half Yearly Economic and Financial Update (HYEFU) report yesterday, lowering its GDP growth forecast, raising its unemployment forecast, reducing the Government’s tax revenue forecasts and delaying its forecast for a return to surplus by another year to 2029/30. * Finance Minister Nicola Willi...

Briefly in the news from Aotearoa’s political economy on Tuesday, December 16: * New Reserve Bank Governor Anna Breman pivoted away yesterday from a tacit approval of higher wholesale interest rates to outright opposition, but not in time to stop the largest bank, ANZ , from increasing its fixed mortgage rates by 20-30 basis points. ( Interest ) * Breman said in a statement issued at 3pm she would...

Briefly in the news from Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to Saturday, December 13: * National Finance Minister Nicola Willis and former National Finance Minister Ruth Richardson sparred over where and how to debate whether Willis is ‘fudging’ the Budget and ‘failing’ to cut spending enough to slash debt even more. * Richardson wants the debate hosted on NewstalkZB , while Willis first sug...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman and special guest Sanjana Hottotuwa about the importance and meaning of Donald Trump’s new US National Security Strategy document for Aotearoa and the world. The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on...