Negative interest rates are in the news. In response to imploding economies and very low inflation rates, some commentators have argued that central banks should cut nominal interest rates below zero to try and stimulate economic activity. Others including Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell are less enthusiastic, noting that that there is little evidence that […]
The events of the last two months have brought financial liquidity issues into sharp focus. As firms shut down for an indefinite period in response to the Coronavirus, the question on many people lips is “will this firm be able to survive without cash income?” If they have large amount of cash in the bank, […]
For the last 8 months I have been teaching at a small liberal arts college in Morocco, Al Akhawayn University. It is located 1600m high in a small town in the Atlas Mountains, about 60 km from Fez. Morocco went into full lockdown on Friday March 20 at 6pm, just after the 80th case was […]
As many of you know, I have done a lot of work on New Zealand’s retirement and tax systems in the last decade. I have been attracted to this issue because New Zealand has tax and retirement income systems which are now substantially different from those in most high income countries. Standard economic theory suggests many of the […]
One of the most fortunate things about being a New Zealander is that we are close to Australia and we have the right to live and work there. This is not just because Australia does many things very well, but simply because Australia is such a wonderful place. Looking back, I can’t believe I only […]
By international standards, New Zealand is a small town economy. True, Auckland now has more than 1.5 million people, but by global metrics this is not very large. In 2010 there were 449 cities with more than 1 million residents, and Auckland was ranked 307 in terms of population. Small beans indeed – even if […]