Cam Slater: Building Bridges Won’t Fix the Wrecked Economy

Last week the government announced, yes I know, a plan for a new bridge over Auckland’s harbour. This announcement should be filed in the same basket as 100,000 new Kiwibuild homes in 10 years, light rail to the airport by 2021, planting a billion trees, and a bike bridge over the same harbour. They were all grand announcements that have cost millions upon millions of dollars but delivered absolutely nothing except the enrichment of lavishly paid consultants.

This week the Reserve Bank has destroyed any remaining hope for the working poor, the self employed and indebted homeowners, by ratcheting up the OCR more than anticipated by the markets.