Foundation for Economic Growth - Newsletter

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Last Updated: Aug 15th, 2008 - 11:26:43

Newsletters : 2006 Newsletters : 12 May 2006
Thought for the Day

The United States Geological Survey has concluded that the world had three trillion barrels of recoverable conventional oil in the ground. So far we have recovered one trillion barrels and used them up in one century. There are still 2 trillion barrrels to go.

The Greens should stop panicing and peaking and let our politicians concentrate on getting steady economic growth of 4% or 5% per year.


May 2, 2006, 05:58

 Newsletters : 2006 Newsletters : 12 May 2006
An Evasive Recovery

Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker once said: "Sometimes I think that the job of central bankers is to prove Kurt Richebächer wrong." A regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal, Strategic Investment and several other respected financial publications, Dr. Richebächer’s insightful analysis stems from the Austrian School of economics. France’s Le Figaro magazine has done a feature story on him as "the man who predicted the Asian crisis".

Americans live in a bubble economy and so do all the economies of the English speaking world (including NZ with a housing bubble). Eventually all bubbles run out of steam - the United States economy included.

The big question here is: are we in for a hard or a soft landing?

Dr. Kurt Richebächer explores...


May 11, 2006, 11:14

 Newsletters : 2006 Newsletters : 12 May 2006
Press Release - Auckland Public Transport Plan

This is a press release by Judith Tizard which raises more questions than it answers. Once again Labour talk about the major increase in money being spent; from $130m to $1300m but little evidence of any progress.

Ms Tizard refers to a "groundbreaking first world plan" to improve transport in Auckland. Were the other plans from the "Third World"? Perhaps.

The Soviet Union was keen on 5 and 10 year plans; here is a 40 year plan. Nobody will be around to blame when it fails to develop.

As a press release this little effort leaves a lot to be desired which is perhaps why I didn't see it reproduced in the Dom. - but here it is, so judge for yourself.


Apr 21, 2006, 12:55

 Newsletters : 2006 Newsletters : 12 May 2006
Energy Efficiency: Another Central Planning Failure

And here we are again, fresh from some central planning for our telecommunications infrastructure which has reduced Telecom's shareholders' wealth by $2bn. Air New Zealand lost $1bn due to government bungling and the tax payers paid up. TVNZ has lost significant value and now our politicians are about to "centrally plan" the electricity business. I remember when Rob Muldoon decided to plan the energy business with his "Think Big" project which was calculated to produce 400,000 jobs. As the Tui ad. says, "Yeah, right."

The Labour government has produced legislation and regulations over the past seven years which have inevitably reduced our growth rate. Dr. Cullen's team of policy analysts cannot point to any that have produced an increase in GDP growth, no matter how small. Now that the economy seems to be in reverse after 15 years of growth our government is determined to finish the job. More controls, more government action and inevitably lower growth.

Australian GDP has been growing on average 0.9% faster than ours for the last 30 years and they are now 30% wealthier, so now they have announced tax cuts in their latest budget. As Dr. Cullen has stated that tax cuts won't improve our economy in New Zealand, can we presume that the Aussies have made these tax cuts to slow their economy down to our level (minus 0.1% at last measure)? As the Tui ad. says, . . .

AS Roger points out: "Efficient markets are the best device for promoting energy efficiency."


Apr 21, 2006, 12:31

Can we fix it?