Damien Grant: This Budget does not matter

Nicola Willis is proofreading her Budget as I type this and, as a columnist with pretensions to economic competence writing for the largest, and best, digital news site in the country you would think I’d wait until her Budget on Thursday to write 800(ish) words on topic.

I should do that. My long-suffering editor no doubt expects it as will both loyal readers, but my soul is recoiling from that prospect with the same force that drives me to avoid a dental appointment. The problem with commentators is the need to comment on everything, when ignoring something can be a more powerful statement.

This Budget does not matter, is today’s thesis, and I am going to rely on Karl Marx to make my point.

Eric Crampton: Ratcheting up Govt in a crisis goes just one way

It’s funny how times change.

In 2019, Labour announced its first ‘wellbeing’ budget. It was hardly austere.

Over the prior decade, core government spending, as a fraction of overall economic activity, had retrenched considerably. Core Crown expenses peaked at 34.1 percent of GDP in 2011 – the year of the most substantial Christchurch earthquake, as well as continued government response to the Great Financial Crisis.