The tabs!
- “Is it unfair on everybody else that has paid for that road and doesn't use it? I mean, this equity stuff's bollocks, this is about traffic. ...Consultation’s bollocks as well.” Mayor Brown ain't wrong.
- Predictions that Labour and Te Pati Maori will strike a deal where TPM seeks only the electorate votes in Maori districts and Labour seeks only the party vote in those districts. Biggest question is why MMP has avoided these kinds of rorts so far. They're the obvious play.
- Good time to be a liquidator.
- 35 kilograms seems like a lot of cocaine to seize in one go for a country of 5m people. Are there reasonable measures of demand elasticity? One could perhaps work out the size of the market based on price movement. If the price doesn't move much, either the market is huge or suppliers are able to quickly plug even a 35kg hole. If it moves a lot and stays high for a long time, less so.
- My normal drill on carbon forests and biodiversity is that if you want more biodiversity, don't screw up the ETS accounting - use a separate policy instrument. But if this is right, then biodiverse forests sequester more carbon. And if it also applies to NZ forests, then making sure the settings accurately reflected sequestration would encourage greater biodiversity.
- Don't envy Shane Reti this hospital pass. The health system is not in good shape.
- Works in Progress on Upzoning NZ
- Maybe post-prison half-way houses should be next door to judges' primary residences. Skin in the game and all that.
- NZ needs a dedicated agency whose only task is infectious disease. Indeed.
- Andrew Norton on Australian attempts to centrally plan higher ed.
- Why We Need Taiwan.
- Mercatus on cutting zoning down to size. Tons of good stuff in here on problems with single-family zoning.
- Good News! New Zealand is at less of a competitive disadvantage relative to Australia! Bad news: it's because they dropped by more than we did.
