Professor Robert MacCulloch and Sir Roger Douglas: The Superannuation Debate

PRESS RELEASE

Professor Robert MacCulloch
Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics
University of Auckland

Sir Roger Douglas
NZ Finance Minister 1984-88

The NZ Initiative, which is funded by our largest corporates, has attacked super savings for all. One of its former staffers is Prime Minister Luxon's Chief Policy Adviser.

Robert MacCulloch: Chumocracy is Threatening NZ’s Future

Long-run economic prosperity is built on there being rewards for a person's efforts and ingenuity. However, when top jobs are handed out on connections, not on merit, it falls apart.

Why acquire skills and work experience when there is little in it for you? Why bother?

So it is now in New Zealand. We are in the midst not of a temporary downturn, but of a longer-lasting loss of living standards; stagnation unlike we’ve ever experienced.

Dr Bryce Edwards: NZ’s “Chumocracy” and the suppression of Prof Robert MacCulloch

New Zealand’s “soft corruption” has been called out this week by leading economics professor Robert MacCulloch of the University of Auckland. He’s launched some heavy broadsides at the way that political and business elites in this country are ruining the economy and the political process by their dysfunctional hold on power in which dissent and debate are suppressed using patronage and threats.

MacCulloch’s criticisms come about in the announced closure of his website, which he says is due to pressure from Cabinet Ministers and others. His main complaint seems to be that New Zealand is run by a “chumocracy” of mates whose “cosyism” is leading to national decline.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: DownToEarth.Kiwi Closing Due to Threats from National & Labour Parties....

DownToEarth.Kiwi Closing Due to Threats from National & Labour Parties & Big Business NZ Incorporated

It'd be nice to think we've added something these past years to improve the prosperity of NZ. We were the only economic commentary source that regularly pointed out how the huge fiscal expansion, and money printing program, of the Covid years would end in high inflation and subsequently economic stagnation.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: DownToEarth.Kiwi labelled "bitter & twisted leftists"....

DownToEarth.Kiwi labelled "bitter & twisted leftists", thereby achieving our non-partisan reporting aim, to the distaste of our National-Labour rulers.

This Blog has been frequently featured on Bassett Brash and Hide, as well as former ACT MP Muriel Newman's NZ Centre for Political Research. Many folks on the left of Kiwi politics dislike us, especially for calling Grant Robertson, now Vice Chancellor of Otago, "Worst Finance Minister Ever", and arguing he didn't deserve his current position. No government jobs will ever come my way from Labour. 

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Incriminating evidence now points to Finance Minister Willis forcing out Governor Orr....

Incriminating evidence now points to Finance Minister Willis forcing out Governor Orr to take over the Reserve Bank of NZ on behalf of the Big Banks

What on earth has Finance Minister Willis been up to? Secret meetings. An unexplained resignation. Refusals to talk to the media regards the former Reserve Bank Governor's departure. A sudden, unexpected review of (Big) Bank Capital Requirements with the (hidden agenda) aim of loosening them, to be completed under urgency to prevent a future Governor from undoing that decision.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: In today's New Zealand, the Enigma Code would've never been cracked. Why?....

In today's New Zealand, the Enigma Code would've never been cracked. Why? Because the smartest & hardest working are being shafted by dummies.

As we have often observed on this Blog, nearly the entire make-up of high-level government positions and private company Boards in New Zealand now comprises an old boys and old girls network made up of largely useless people, primarily from legal, accounting, marketing and communications backgrounds. That is why productivity is low, because our institutional (rules & enforcement) quality is objectively ranked as being one of the highest in the world.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Trump Retaliates Against Wellington's Movie Industry....

Trump Retaliates Against Wellington's Movie Industry, Hitting it with 100% Tariffs, a month after Nats announced its billion $ subsidies would continue.

The Los Angeles Times announces as a breaking story, "Looking to boost the production of Hollywood movies in the U.S., President Trump on Sunday announced a new 100% tariff applied on films produced overseas. For more than two decades, major studios have shifted movie production to cheaper countries, including Canada, U.K., Bulgaria, New Zealand, and Australia that offer generous tax benefits to build their local economies, luring films away from Hollywood".

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Right-wing Extremist Parties.....

According to German Intelligence, 85% of New Zealand Parliamentarians Belong to Right-wing Extremist Parties

There has been controversy in Germany because the AfD, or "Alternative for Deutschland", one of that nation's most popular political parties, which is against mass immigration into the European Union, has been designated "Right-wing Extremist" by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the domestic Intelligence Agency. Why? Because "the ethnicity- and ancestry-based understanding of the people prevailing within that party is incompatible with the free democratic order".

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Willis' Pre-Budget Speech is Out-of-Touch Wellington Jokey Silliness....

Finance Minister Willis wants her NZ Budgets to be "lolly scrambles", just not in 2025. Her Pre-Budget Speech is Out-of-Touch Wellington Jokey Silliness.

For some light relief and comedy, take a look at Finance Minister Willis Pre-Budget Speech. She sets up her party clown theme by saying, "For today though, I’m going to switch out of my Economic Growth hat and into my Minister of Finance hat and focus my remarks on this year’s Budget". What's with these hats?

Professor Robert MacCulloch: National and Labour have created a Fiscal Crisis in NZ.....

National and Labour have created a Fiscal Crisis in NZ. There's only one way out. Here it is, in joint work with former Finance Minister Sir Roger Douglas

The Worst Finance Minister Ever, Labour's Grant Robertson, and now the new one who is competing for that title, Nicola Willis, have jointly created a fiscal crisis in NZ. We currently have one of the worst primary fiscal deficits in the developed world (which is government spending minus tax revenues, excluding interest costs).

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Either Victoria University is lying about its World Ranking....

Either Victoria University is lying about its World Ranking, or its managers can't calculate percentages.

The QS World University Rankings 2025 say, "This year’s ranking is the largest ever, featuring over 1,500 universities". Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, sits at number 244, putting it within only the top 20% of those rankings. What does Victoria say about this matter? "Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University is in the top 1% of the world’s universities for 15 subjects". What is the truth?

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Turning around NZ for a few million $.....

Turning around NZ for a few million $ by buying the NZ Herald is the Best Deal Ever. Calling on all Investors to fire the going-nowhere, lost Herald Board.

A private investor with $10 million has bought 10% of NZ Media and Entertainment, which owns the Herald. Anyone who reads that paper knows its boring, failing and is serving no purpose. Other investors should buy more stock and overthrow the old guard. Introducing refreshing ideas into our domestic scene has become a requirement. The reasons a potential investor should consider doing so are set out below. The article is based on the original version that the National Business Review commissioned me to write a few years ago. Since this Blog has many more readers since then, and I've put effort into revising the article to make it more relevant to what's going on these days, here it is again:

Professor Robert MacCulloch: One News, NZ's State Broadcaster, spends $1 million to attack 4 billion Muslims & Christians Worldwide.

Congratulations to One News in New Zealand, which has just spent around $1 million of tax payers dollars in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, on a five part investigation into a Church - which it calls - shock, horror - "loud" and "fundamentalist". The Church in question is Destiny. It counts many Māori & Pasifika as members. What does One News discover?

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Luxon's visits and the TPB

Having Walked Out of NZ at its Most Crucial Time when the Treaty Principles Bill was debated, PM Luxon visits the Vatican Palace, Buckingham Palace, and Sultan's Palaces in Istanbul

The Kiwi Prime Minister says he wants NZ's economy to grow. It got ranked near bottom of the world this week by the IMF in terms of real GDP growth. On the back of the uncertainty due to tariffs that is shaving around 0.5% off most country's project economic growth rates, the National Party may be the first in NZ history to preside over an economy that is mired in stagnation during its entire three year term of office.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: The IMF ranks NZ as 183rd out of 196 nations in the world for 2024 confirmed real economic (GDP) growth

Its official. The figures came in yesterday from the International Monetary Fund. NZ had one of the world's worst performing economies in 2024, coming in at 183rd out of 196 nations. New Zealand and a tiny handful of other nations have shrinking GDP.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Yale University weaponizes Jacinda Ardern Against President Trump....

Yale University in the US weaponizes Former NZ PM Jacinda Ardern Against President Trump, even using her to give him the middle finger on Tariffs.

Yale University must really want to get defunded by the US Government. Its leadership has just given Trump the big middle finger. One may've thought Yale would balance their guest speakers so they reflected the entire political range to pre-empt moves against them by the new administration. But no. Yale goes and invites former NZ PM Ardern to give its Class Day Graduation Address 2025.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Finance Minister Willis Just Ain't Being Straight with Truth.....

Finance Minister Willis Just Ain't Being Straight with Truth. She ordered the RBNZ's Capital Requirements Review, not the Reserve Bank. Why deny it?

Thank goodness the NZ Herald still has one great investigative reporter, Kate McNamara. In her expose yesterday she asked whether Finance Minister Willis interfered in the decision to hold a new Reserve Bank review of the Big Aussie Bank Capital Requirements. We already know the answer. Yet Willis yesterday denied any political interference whatsoever in the Bank's decision to launch (another) Review. She stated in response to McNamara's question, "The minister completely rejects any inference of political interference .. The decision to .. review the Reserve Bank’s capital requirements was made by the Reserve Bank not the minister (although she has welcomed it)” There is overwhelming evidence against.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Fire the "All Talk" NZ Treasury Secretary.....

Fire the "All Talk" NZ Treasury Secretary. Throw Out his Rubbish All Talk "Te Ara Mokopuna 2025 Consultation"

Readers of this Blog have long known about our frustration with Wellington's lack of action by career bureaucrats over practically every important issue facing NZ. The pointless party has continued under National. Take the latest Treasury Report for example. Its called, "Te Ara Mokopuna 2025 Consultation on the Draft Content of the Treasury’s Long-term Insights Briefing: Sustainable & resilient fiscal policy through economic shocks and cycles". With a long-winded title like that, the report is bound to be nonsense, and so it is.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Regards Free Trade, did NZ get conned by the European Union?....

Regards Free Trade, did NZ get conned by the European Union? Our trade agreement with it cost our government $280 million a year.

Former Trade Minister David Parker & Prime Minister Ardern signed a free trade agreement with the European Union (EU), which they touted as an amazing victory. How good a deal actually was it? Since tariffs are in the world news now, lets take a quick look at that deal. The EU saved itself $280 million per annum in tariff payments to the NZ government. The Euros couldn't believe their luck. Dunedin could've renovated its hospital by now and a ton more infrastructure projects been underway had NZ's government not lost those revenues.