Dr Oliver Hartwich: A bad tax is not a down payment on a good one

On Monday evening, I sat on a panel at Foxglove on Queens Wharf in Wellington, where I was expected to play the neoliberal villain.

The Institute for Democratic and Economic Analysis is a think tank devoted to fighting poverty and political exclusion. It launched a new report on capital gains taxes, including the one Labour has proposed, and invited me to be one of the discussants.

A centre-left think tank, a Wellington audience and a Labour tax policy sounded like a home game for the tax. And I was presumably cast to declare that a capital gains tax would wreck the economy.

However, the evening did not follow that script.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Here's Proof that Governor Orr Mislead Parliament's Finance & Expenditure Committee about the OCR Cut.

Yesterday there was a commotion about the unexpected cut in interest rates by the Reserve Bank. It marked a departure from the Bank’s statements a few months ago in May, when it raised the possibility of further hikes. Infometrics Chief Brad Olsen had previously said “heads should roll” if a cut happened this week, given the economy had progressed much as the Reserve Bank was expecting when it forecast no cut until 2025. So when a cut was delivered this week, Olsen accused the Bank of the ‘biggest flip-flop ever’.