A very timely opinion piece in The Economist here on how energy policy should not be confused as with job creation. Too often investment in the energy sector, especially around low-carbon energy, is held up as a way to ‘create’ jobs for the economy. This article dispels the myth: At the risk of being obvious: […]
Since I am the UK correspondent for TVHE I thought I had better contribute something to the blog. Then I stumbled across this gem from today. One of the centre-pieces of the budget was the reduction in fuel tax (it has had a lot of media coverage). Not only was the fuel tax increase cancelled, […]
Bill English has been quoted as saying the Government is considering the sale of certain state owned enterprises in its next term. Apparently the Government are currently preparing an “investment statement” that will outline what it considers possible. Currently a significant portion of Government capital is tied up in the SOEs, around $40 billion dollars […]
I like to place the odd sports bet. In New Zealand I have no official option but to do this through the TAB, which is a state-sanctioned monopoly. In other countries there are often many competing institutions offering odds on various events, including sports. In fact, there are now many companies that operate across borders […]
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 1,000 points today, the largest intra-day fall since 1987. It’s not quite certain yet what caused it, with some blaming an “erroneous trade”, possibly via human error or a computer glitch. It seems the initial fall, whatever the cause, then triggered many more sells as paranoia over the […]
In the 2005 election the Labour Government found itself in a very tight battle to retain power. In order to mobilise the student vote, Labour promised interest free student loans. The bribe assisted Labour in returning to Government for their third consecutive term. At the time National called the interest free loan scheme “irresponsible”. Since […]