The Kākā by Bernard Hickey

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about the global economy, local and international politics and climate change. This week’s special guests were independent climate change policy expert Christina Hood and former NZPA foreign correspondent...

I spoke with economist and Motu researcher Arthur Grimes yesterday about a paper he has just published today with Amelia Blamey and Norman Gemmell about the effects of monetary policy on wellbeing and inequality. The paper attached below and linked above and below is titled: Impacts of macroeconomic policies on objective and subjective wellbeing: The role of housing tenure and concludes: “Using su...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thekaka.substack.com Briefly in the news in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate: * The Lead: Jim Bolger, a centrist National PM who backed Treaty settlements and sacked Ruth Richardson, has died at the age of 90. * The Sidebar: New polls put support for National below 30% again and show almost half of voters...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thekaka.substack.com Briefly in the news in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate: * The Lead: Without warning, consultation or a permanent Governor in place, the Reserve Bank yesterday loosened mortgage lending restrictions in a way that will increase house prices, accelerate sales activity and turbo-charge t...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thekaka.substack.com Briefly in the news in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate: * The Lead: A swathe of new mayors are promising local austerity after voters punished councillors and mayors who pushed through big rates increases in the last two years. This will add another wave of uncertainty and fear into...

I spoke to Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) Economist Andrea Black this week about a report she’s produced on the economic, social & financial costs of the worsening health of our workforce. The 52-page report, titled Managed decline: The Health of New Zealand 2011 to 2024, details a worsening in the health of the working-age population, in particular around mental health and obe...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about the global economy, local and international politics and climate change. This week’s special guest was Israel Cooper from The Home Foundation . We talked about: * The economy, the Reserve Bank’s rat...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thekaka.substack.com Briefly in the news this morning in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate: * The Lead: The Reserve Bank has cut the Official Cash Rate by a ‘bazooka’-sized 50 basis points to 2.5% and has indicated it may cut by more in November and February. Financial markets see the OCR dropping as far a...

Last night I spoke with Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr last night after the RBNZ’s 50 basis point cut in the OCR. He says the cash rate may need to go under 2% to get the economy going again. Here’s his full note on the decision. We talked about: * How interest rates need to be below neutral to encourage growth. * The housing market’s stagnation was concerning for overall economic health. *...

Last night I spoke with The Urban Advisory’s Managing Director Dr Natalie Allen , who has released the first results of a new longitudinal survey on the experiences and aspirations around housing of renters and owners. The New Zealand Housing Survey is a nationwide study designed by The Urban Advisory and analysed by the University of Auckland . It was conducted with 2,587 adults aged 16 and over...

Last night I spoke with economist Ganesh R Ahirao , who has written another letter with 19 other economists to PM Christopher Luxon and Minister of Finance Nicola Willis, calling on them to abandon their fiscally stringent approach to the economy. Here’s the letter: We discussed: * the Government’s sole focus on cutting interest rates as the way to boost the economy; * the need for investment in i...

In the final week of council elections, I spoke with The Integrity Institute Director Bryce Edwards about the need for more transparency & vigilance around lobbyists & candidates in local democracies. It followed this detailed comment piece from Bryce. We talked about: * the lack of scrutiny in local government; * the influence of lobbying; * the need for greater transparency and integrity in poli...

Briefly in the news this morning in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate: * The Lead: The NZIER ’s September quarter survey of business confidence found a slump in expectations about the wider economy and businesses’ own activity in the next three months. Businesses reported they shed more staff during the quarter and were no more confident about employing more in the D...

Briefly in the news this morning in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate: * The Lead: Facing criticism over cancelling benefits for 4,300 jobless youth and forcing them to go home and be supported by their parents, PM Christopher Luxon said last night there were plenty of jobs in regional areas and these 18-19 year olds should move to find work. Luxon said: “If you want...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features Bernard Hickey talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about the global economy, local and international politics and climate change. Peter Bale was off for a week travelling. This week’s special guests were . Electric Kiwi CEO Huia Burt, Listener Columnist Danyl McLauchlan and Rewi...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thekaka.substack.com Briefly for all today in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate: * The Lead: The Government’s electricity reforms yesterday focused on a vague, expensive and slow construction of an LNG port facility. But why didn’t it look at a fast and big rollout of grid-scale solar panels and electric b...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thekaka.substack.com Briefly for all today in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate: * The Lead: The Government has this morning announced a series of measures to try to get the mostly state-owned gentailers to build more electricity generation and try to restrain double-digit power price inflation. * The Side...

On the eve of the Government’s big electricity market reform announcement this morning, I chatted in a ‘pop-up’ ‘Mini-Hoon’ with CTU Economist Craig Renney about a CTU proposal for the Government to use the gentailers’ dividends to buy back the privately-held shares in the 51% state-owned Meridian, Mercury and Genesis, if they chose not to build much more power generation capacity to stop rampant...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thekaka.substack.com Briefly for all today in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate: * The Lead: The Government announced new earthquake strengthening standards that redefined away $8.2 billion worth of strengthening work. It was widely welcomed by business owners, especially in provincial cities hit hard with...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about the global economy, local and international politics and climate change. This week’s special guests were primary school teacher Lucas Campbell and BusinessDesk Founding Editor Pattrick Smellie . Thi...

I’m making the video above freely available to all free and paying subscribers as an experiment. If you like what you see, subscribe to the paid version of The Kākā to support this work being done in public. Paying subscribers can see more analysis and detail below the paywall fold in the text and chart version published earlier today plus my Pick n’ Mix Six of today’s scoops and deep-dives elsewh...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thekaka.substack.com Briefly in my Picks n’ Mixes and Daily Chorus of the top news, scoops and deep-dives in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, September 22: * 1News reports this morning Christchurch Hospital Emergency Department doctors have sent a letter to Health NZ pleading for more staff, fu...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about the global economy, local and international politics and climate change. This week’s special guests were CTU Economist Craig Renney and Monopoly Watch’s Tex Edwards . This week’s Hoon featured: * Th...

Just briefly in our political economy today, two new surveys show both voters and business leaders are now blaming the current National-led Government, rather than the previous Labour Government, for an ongoing economic slump that worsened again in August. There is more detail and analysis below, and in the video and podcast above. I have published a lightly-edited transcript of my video below. I’...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about the global economy, local and international politics and climate change. This week’s special guest Simplicity Chief Economist Shamubeel Eaqub . This week’s Hoon featured: * An initial discussion bet...