Heather du Plessis-Allan: We need to make sure politicians deliver on their promises

National is making noises that sound an awful lot like they might not deliver the full tax cuts in July like they promised.

Finance Minster Nicola Willis was on the radio this morning, she was asked about it and she replied that she still intended to roll out the tax cuts in July- but it was subject to Cabinet discussions, so she could not give a cast-iron guarantee it would happen.

Ooh, she's playing with fire.

Derek Mackie: An economics masterclass....well, not entirely

Grant Robertson was interviewed today on TVOne’s Q & A by Jack Tame and was asked why inflation is “soaring” in New Zealand. 

 Grant blamed it on “circumstances beyond his control”. Maybe he’s right but, suspiciously, this is standard politician-speak for “it’s all my fault, really, but I’ll never admit it”. 

He claims the increase in inflation is entirely due to high global demand for goods and services. Now I’m not saying that that isn’t a factor but is it really the only one? 

 Grant is adamant that rising inflation is most definitely NOT caused by the government’s huge Covid borrowing and spending programme. I’m certainly no economist, so I can’t contradict him, but there are apparently two schools of thought on this. Unsurprisingly, one thinks government stimulus packages will cause inflation and the other thinks it won’t. 

And that’s economics in a nutshell, I suppose. More of an art than a science. You can choose any outcome you want and someone will back you up. 

Mike Hosking: We're paying a huge economic price for smugness

 

Depends on who you ask, of course, but a reality check for the Finance Minister who has been busy this lockdown reassuring us that the economy can handle 4 weeks of level 4 for Auckland.

Two weeks for the whole country with at least two coming weeks in level 3. 

And the added time, fingers crossed for Auckland in Level 3 then Level 2. 

Quick reminder of the numbers, Auckland Council has level 4 at $100 million a day for Auckland alone in economic damage. ASB has the country at $290 million a day in level 4.

The Finance Minister says the economy was going gangbusters. 

That's not true.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: This won't magic up houses

 

Today’s move by the Finance Minister and the Reserve Bank on housing is an admission that the changes they made back in March to ‘fix’ the housing market are not working .

Tony Alexander’s survey out today shows two thirds of agents report that buyer FOMO is back, three out of five agents say prices are rising, and fewer agents say investors are selling

The Government won’t admit publicly that the changes have failed, but if they had any confidence that their punishment of investors back in March was going to materially change things, they wouldn’t have needed to add more tools today.