All Episodes
The Kākā by Bernard Hickey — 470 episodes
An unfair, unnecessary & counterproductive rate hike that exposes NZ’s broken economic model
Thursday's Early Bird: Three homeless people freeze to death
Monday's Early Bird: Land & infrastructure costs at the margins behind our ruinously expensive housing
Unemployment worse than forecast & real wages fall
A generation being disenfranchised in plain sight
PM compares NZ businesses to whiny kids
National sags again on economy in Ipsos poll
How NZ punishes our stressed & jobless youth
'Kia ora! Welcome to your job. It'll cost you $60k'
Why NZ should electrify everything ASAP
The only thing NZ has to fear is...fear of debt itself
The way we run the economy isn't working
The Govt's housing cuts come home to roost
Half a million New Zealanders living in poverty
What a rewrite of NZ's political & economic DNA might look like
Hipkins' pitch is empty & performative, for now
Where growth isn't paying for growth
The Weekly Hoon: Climate, housing, Iran and the revival of the Alliance Party
Bernard's Chorus: Why so relaxed Minister?
When a lobbyist jumps the species barrier into journalism
The Weekly Hoon: An amazing SpaceX IPO; NZ's $6.5b emissions credits bill; Auckland's de-intensification & Labour's fare cap policy
Here's the devil in our housing inflation detail
Auckland chooses high house prices & low GDP
Protest growing against Govt's disability cost-cutting bill
Scoop: NZ Govt has more assets than debt
Why shops & bars are closing as spending 'recovers'
A mini-Hoon with Transparency International CEO Julie Haggie
A mini-Hoon with Shamubeel Eaqub on his big infrastructure report
A mini-Hoon with Mike Casey on Sapere's dry year report
A mini-Hoon with Tex Edwards, calling for lobbyist reform & a breakup of the grocery duopoly
A mini-Hoon with Nick Ruane about the risks of a Robodebt scandal in NZ
A mini-Hoon with Susan St John on Budget 2026 and child poverty
A mini-Hoon with TOP Leader Quilae Wong after getting 6% in the latest Roy Morgan poll
A mini-Hoon with Anna Fifield about NZ Defence spending
A sugar-free Budget that relies on rosy forecasts
RBNZ almost hikes & eyes three hikes before election
Live with Bernard Hickey
Total Mobility funding cuts being finalised
Wednesday's Chorus Live with Bernard Hickey
Bernard Hickey & Verity Johnson bust the NZ debt myth
The world's oil reserves are running out
REPEAT:A political economy that enriches the old and punishes the young
An OECD smorgasbord of reform ideas
The hunt for magical merger efficiencies goes on
Willis still believes a rapid oil price fall is likely
The Weekly Hoon: The Middle East fuel crisis & more
Tuesday's Chorus Live with Bernard Hickey
Saturday Soliloquies Live with Bernard Hickey
Friday's Chorus Live with Bernard Hickey
Wednesday's Chorus Live with Bernard Hickey
Tuesday Chorus Live with Bernard Hickey
The Weekly Hoon: The Middle East fuel crisis & more
Thursday's Chorus Live with Bernard Hickey
Wednesday's Chorus Live with Bernard Hickey
Bernard Hickey's Saturday Soliloquies live
RBNZ’s Paul Conway on NZ’s inflation and productivity performance
RBNZ Governor Anna Breman
Live with Bernard Hickey & Dr Bex on disability funding
Live with Bernard Hickey
Govt prefers households take the pain instead
NZ faces a 1970s-style energy shock
Dawn Chorus: Will the fuel tax hikes actually happen?
Dawn Chorus Live Video with Bernard Hickey
Dawn Chorus Live with Bernard Hickey
Live with Bernard Hickey & Gareth Hughes on long-term decision making survey
Global oil & gas prices surge, hammering stocks
Live with Bernard Hickey and Ed Miller on LNG
Live with Bernard Hickey and Connor Sharp on RONS
Govt threatens to imprison homeless for 90 days at a cost of $49,680 per person
RBNZ holds, but sees a hike possible by the end of 2026
'The rising tide isn't lifting those without boats'
A chat about the future of money, the US dollar, monetary policy independence and gold
What insurance retreat means for home-owners
Why not spend $2.7b on solar & batteries instead?
Liquidations surge to near post-GFC highs
Luxon betting economy will provide the 'lollies'
Govt demands Health NZ cut another $510 million
RBNZ pivots, pushing wholesale rates back down
A debt debate that is frozen in time & ideology
IRD hunts for more cash as deficit widens
Nicola Willis reneges on Paris in plain sight
A rates (handi)cap to throttle GDP 'growth, growth, growth'
More magical thinking borne of 1989
Wednesday's Chorus: Churn claims Police target
Wednesday's Chorus: A lazy balance sheet
Friday's Chorus: A miserly, investment-lite Government
Thursday's Chorus: 'Where are we moving these people to?'
Wednesday's Chorus: Mental health & joblessness wrecking a generation of workers
Wednesday's Chorus: A small & hazy target
Tuesday's Chorus: Where's the solar & batteries? And a proper CGT?
Friday's Early Bird & Dawn Chorus: Choosing $30b of motorways instead of real wage increases
Thursday's Early Bird & Dawn Chorus: The elephant in our news
Wednesday's Chorus: The problem(s) with the RoNS and tolls
Thursday's Chorus: Jim Bolger dies
Wednesday's Chorus: Going for Growth. House price growth.
Monday's Chorus: A new round of austerity
Thursday's Chorus: OCR slashed as poll shows NZ on the 'wrong track'
Survey shows economy 'stuck in the mud'
PM tells jobless youth to leave to find a job. So they are going. To Australia.
Thursday's Chorus: Where's the solar plan?
Wednesday's Chorus: Performative power politics
Mini-Hoon: 'Why don't we buy back the shares?'
Tuesday’s Chorus: Some new New Building Standards
Daily Chorus: The problems for our new 'Laser Kiwi'
Choosing marginally lower mortgage rates
Voters & business leaders now blaming Govt for economic malaise
Why a record-high 201 NZers a day are emigrating
Govt gaslights voters on health costs/GDP
Why National can't afford true RBNZ independence
The Government just administered an inflation shock
RBNZ says it remains 'fiercely independent'
Still captured, after all these years
Govt goes for growth by selling residencies
What Christopher Luxon is doing to ensure 'modest, consistent' house price inflation
Memo to PM: Your 'strategy' is not working
Auckland Inc losing faith in Govt's economic strategy
Luxon doubles down on failing strategy
Scale of regional health chasms revealed
'Double investment in back-to-work 'trampoline''
It turns out kicking homeless people out of motels increases homelessness
Luxon & Willis stranded with failing economic strategy
Performative politics in high viz. Again.
Interview: The Co-operative Bank CEO Mark Wilkshire on the housing market, bank capital and climate change
The hunt for inflation scapegoats amps up
Potaka delaying homelessness data release
Bishop wants a growth economy that isn't just a housing market with bits tacked on
Manufacturing, services & retail mired in recession
Slash blamed in climate change-free flash-flood coverage
The RBNZ just held the OCR at 3.25%. Is that it? Does it matter?
NZ economy sliding back into recession
Willis eyes more tax from banks
'Sleeping rough is a lifestyle choice here'
Act forces Willis backdown on policy costings unit
Behold, another Quarterly Survey of Business Delusion
So many extreme weather events, but no mention of climate change
GDP outlook slashed as fresh cost-of-living shock arrives
A housing supply shock in exactly the wrong direction
One way housing supply growth is strangled
Labour commits to same debt & surplus targets as National
ACT’s extreme policies & budget fallacy endanger National’s re-election
Carers, teachers & nurses lose up to $17b, to fund $14b of tax cuts
NZ economy sliding into wintry deep freeze
Canada & Australia stood up to Trump. When will NZ?
Calling b******t on a pro-cyclical tightening of fiscal policy
Interview: Shamubeel Eaqub on an even tighter Budget for 2025/26
Bernard’s Dawn Chorus & Pick ‘n’ Mix for Monday, April 28
Willis ignores new Global Financial & Trade Crisis
Bernard's Dawn Chorus & Pick 'n' Mix for Wednesday, April 16
The Government is cutting, just as the economic recovery is stalling
Trump just detonated a neutron bomb under the global economy, but NZ could win
Luxon's 'going for growth' actually means 'going for debt reduction'
30% of doctors leave NZ after graduation
Bernard’s Soliloquy for the week to March 23
Why is the Govt so afraid of borrowing?
S&P downgrades 18 councils, blaming Govt
Climate sceptic ACT MP attacks National
'There are no exemptions. Just eat it.'
The problems with PPPs
PPPs are more expensive, slower & riskier than Govt DIY
IMF calls for Capital Gains Tax or land tax
Luxon wants media to celebrate National's homelessness achievements more
Luxon’s economy focus at odds with voters
Owners of compulsorily acquired non-iwi land to be stripped of appeal rights
Will Adrian Orr’s replacement unleash a new mortgage war?
Luxon trusts Seymour & Trump
An administered, unnecessary & counter-productive inflation shock
Why the housing market is just not firing up
Seymour's late, missing, discarded, allergenic, nutritionless, dangerous & skimpy school lunch programme is unravelling
Interview: ‘I didn’t want to smile’
'We can't hold on any longer. We're selling.'
Interview: RBNZ wary of any administered inflation spiral
Govt set to hike insurance costs $400/year
A mini-hoon on the OCR cut & the housing market
'Where will your kids raise your grand-kids?'
The ambulances at the bottom of our cliffs are full
‘The funds for infrastructure projects need to be prioritised and released’
Recession & local protests drag National below Labour
Concrete production slumps to 2014 levels
Business doubts about National’s growth tactics growing
First polls of 2025 show coalition losing
Why NZ's new looser 'golden visa' won't 'turbocharge' GDP
Bernard’s Saturday Soliloquy for Feb 8
Govt grasping at economic growth straws
Govt to sell billions of dollars worth of state housing land
NZ jobs contracting as Australia's expands
How Donald Trump's tariff shock will change our political economy
The chart deck calling b******t on Luxon’s ‘just drive faster & work longer’ economic growth talk
Govt sets 'shockingly unambitious' new climate target
Luxon stumbles into toxic privatisation debate
Bernard’s Soliloquy for Monday Jan 27
Why the Government's going-for-growth push will fail
NZ now frozen, listless, mean & hopeless
A silver lining for cycling?
Will swapping Shane Reti for Simeon Brown make any difference?
Luxon flicks Reti's hospital pass to Brown
Bernard’s last Saturday Soliloquy for 2024
Austerity thumps GDP most since 1991
MSD rejecting 220 pleas for food grants each day
Blaming Treasury & Labour, Willis looks for even more Austerity
Willis' austerity strategy just isn't working
When austerity worsens public debt & cuts GDP
Coalition forced to back down on tolling Manawatu Gorge replacement
Govt cancels Tauranga housing expansion
Ferries delayed again, then handed to Peters, who hits out at Seymour
When haste makes waste & is risky, dangerous & mean
Govt eyes 'PPP-lite' for health centres
Simeon Brown alienates another National electorate
My Saturday Soliloquy for Dec 7
TKP 26/50 solutions: A new home without a power bill
An experiment and our Christmas offer to subscribe to The Kākā
A housing market with bits tacked on doesn’t need many (if any) pure scientists
'The cuts will continue until the economy improves'
Govt says borrowing to build now last resort
Labour leaning back towards Capital Gains Tax
'Why we've cut the OCR so much since August'
RBNZ loosening as the Govt is tightening
Bishop cautious on guaranteeing social housing bonds
'Guarantee us and we'll build thousands of social homes'
Treasury warns deeper recession worsening Budget deficit
'These budget cuts are counter-productive and make no sense'
Economists call on PM to suspend budget cuts for the sake of the economy
27% of kids going hungry, up from 21% in a year
Shipley warns Seymour’s bill is ‘inviting civil war’
Adding up the climate cost
Trump's return to White House brings the climate's 'find out' phase closer
The 30/30 fiscal rule that rules us all
National risks being eaten alive by NZ First & ACT
Budget cuts penny wise & pound foolish
Toxic positivity and toxicity in the kitchen
A deliberate and unnecessary crash landing
Will banks & insurers back self-consented homes?
'Happy to watch your grandkids grow up in Australia via WhatsApp?'
After years of cover ups and hacks, the truth on gas is out
What's driving the exodus of workers to Australia
DTIs set to restrain housing-debt-led economic rebound
Funds cut for social housing with 3 days notice
Deep-dive: What does an ageing population mean for Aotearoa?
Extreme weather events coming for us all
Luxon escapes having to pay $70,000 in ‘brightline’ capital gains taxes
‘I don't know what the point of the questioning is.’
One in four march against Govt in Dunedin
Could a doubling of Co2 trigger 8° of warming?
Treasury warns of unprecedented cuts in real spending per capita to achieve surplus
An attack 'unbecoming of a leader'
ANZ CEO says 'it's time' for a Capital Gains Tax
ACCC accuses Woolworths of misleading pricing
Fixing child poverty would cost <1% of GDP
Kaka project: What could a revamped Entrust do with/for/to Vector?
Deadly floods and streams of non-solutions
Too much haste & waste in Simeon Brown's need for speed
Tolling revolt brewing in National heartland
Driving blind at higher speeds
Govt may kick elderly out of hospitals
48 seconds on a plan that would reverberate for a million years
Using blunt instruments and magical thinking to ignore evidence of harm
Treasury warned Govt lower debt limits meant less ‘productivity-enhancing investment’
How Substack works to take (some) craziness out of America's elections
Question Two of The Kākā Project of 2026 for 2050 (TKP 26/50)
Hipkins challenges long-held Labour view Government must stay below 30% of GDP
The professionals actually think and act like our Government has no fiscal crisis at all
No new funding for cycling & walking
Disabled now have to commit crime, be insane or in crisis to access residential care
Starting The Kākā Project of 2026 for 2050 (TKP 26/50)
Labour revisiting 30/30 fiscal rules. Good.
'Those spending cuts will go into the bone'
PM lectures councils he needs help from
An electricity crisis after a lost decade
The ugliness inside our churn and burn economy
Cutting funds now, but increasing costs later
Introducing The Kākā Project of 2026 for 2050 (TKP 26/50)
The longer recession the RBNZ and the Govt decided we had to have
How not to win friends and tax people
Deficits are not the constraint we think they are
Willis screws down fiscal lid even tighter
How Aotearoa's political economy works
Inside NZ's Housing Theory of Everything
The week the mask came off an Austerity Government, revealing front-line job cuts
Health NZ directors accuse PM of disinformation
The day our health system crumbled
'Let's build a motorway costing $100 million per km, before emissions costs'
Solutions Interview: Steven Hail on MMT & ecological economics
Why we have to challenge our national fiscal assumptions
Weekly Climate Wrap: A market-led plan for failure
Climate policy axed in broad daylight, while taxpayer liabilities grow in the dark
Farmers get free pass on climate AND get subsidies
Jones: 'NZ has to mine its way to the future'
Bernard’s Saturday soliloquy and weekend Pick ‘n’ Mix for June 8/9
Did we boil the oceans by cutting pollution?
Cancer charities excoriate Government
Willis borrows an extra $12b to pay for $14.7b of tax cuts
A 'cost of living relief' Budget for some, but not others
When ‘back on track’ meant going into reverse
How much climate reality can the global financial system take without collapsing?
House-builders in limbo for longer while Govt focuses on paying for tax cuts
A generation is leaving at a rate of one A320-load per day
Why we almost blacked out and how to fix it
A nod and a wink that will unnecessarily cost Aucklanders tens of millions per year
Agribusiness following oil and gas playbook
Worst poll result for a new Government in MMP history
Coalition's dirge of austerity and uncertainty is driving the economy into a deeper recession
'Lacks attention to detail and is creating double-standards.'
'This bill is dangerous for the environment and our democracy'
The ‘Humpty Dumpty’ end result of dismantling our environmental protections
Study sees climate change baking in 19% lower global income by 2050
Should the RBNZ be looking through climate inflation?
Is saving one minute of a politician's time worth nearly $1 billion?
Govt ignored economic analysis of smokefree reversal
Antarctic heat spike shocks climate scientists
When 'going for growth' actually means saying no to new social homes
Back to the future, with a 2032 deadline
The hunt is on for an asterix for farm emissions
Dawn Chorus for Friday, April 5
New oil and gas to quadruple by 2030, threatening climate goals
Confidence in Government collapses
The debt rules being used to strangle NZ
Failing to internalise new realities
Borrowing $15b more to pay for $14.9b of tax cuts
GDP-per-hour worked stagnant at 2012 levels
Simeon Brown threatens councils on water reform
No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
Public infrastructure and service potholes under massive population pressure
'Couch surf. It's better than motels & cheaper for us'
Our nation of inflation displacement
Luxon's housing-market-with-bits-tacked-on moment
Bishop wants house prices to halve vs income
Govt's Budget 'just like a household,' says Willis
S&P slams new Govt's council finance vacuum
We’re not as fragile or as lazy as Luxon says
Is 2.8% per year population growth too much?
Tax cuts paid for by up to 13k more kids in poverty
Mortgage rates seen high for even longer
The holes in National’s water reform pipes
Looking at clouds from both sides now
Watching the ladder being pulled up in real time
'Please manage and fund our climate retreat'
When a few climate sceptics skew debates and elections
The years of living dangerously
Why The Kākā is staying on Substack
Dawn Chorus for Monday, January 8
Dawn Chorus for Friday, December 29
A yawning gap opens up between climate advice and Government action
Auckland's double-cab utes and yoga pants drive massive ocean micro-pollution
A smoking gun without smoke or a barrel
What to look for in the ‘mini’ Budget
Resend: Infrastructure & planning pipelines deep-frozen
Govt bans cycling & walking projects to help fund tax cuts
We cooled our jets. So where's our rate cut?
Government chooses slower economic growth
Record high net migration now deemed “unsustainable”
So much noise and so little signal
Dreams of eternal sunshine at a spotless COP28
Why we're missing out on sharply lower inflation
Nicola Willis' 'show me the money' moment
The very opposite of social investment
Cathrine Dyer's guide to watching COP 28 from the bottom of a warming planet
An ugly fight for African forest offsets NZ may have to buy
Aotearoa's energy and housing poverty crisis
2023 set to be hottest year in 125,000 years
Thursday's Chorus: Less stressed than most
Wednesday's Chorus: An impossible trinity
Monday’s Chorus: Inside Simplicity's 25k home building fund
Monday’s Chorus: The missing 1,060,038 voters
A post-election chorus: winners, losers, what it means and what happens next
Thursday’s Chorus: Record population growth without enough building or any real debate
Wednesday’s Chorus: Tax cuts for mega-landlords to average $1.3m. Each.
It's always, always about land, land, tax and tax
Monday’s Chorus: Richie Poulton's lament
Wednesday’s Chorus: Arthur Grimes on why building many, many more social houses is so critical
Friday’s Chorus: 'Show us the costings, Nicola!'
National still working on fiscal plan
Wednesday’s Chorus: The PREFU's missing debt
The Kaka Project for Election 2023: Universal dental care
Resend: What a real climate dividend looks like
What a real climate dividend looks like
Budget cuts to beat profit-driven inflation
Making up our climate response as we go
A deliberate population growth strategy
'Welcome to our Churn and Burn economy'
How $45b of tunnels could actually cost $65b+
The 'fiscal black hole' talk actually is a joke
480 families living in their cars in June, up from 102 in October, 2017
Matariki special interview: Danyl McLauchlan on our captured state
So this is how the story ends
A Green smorgasbord of wealth taxes
The holes (still) in National's (not so) new infrastructure policy
Dawn Chorus: Conflicting airport interests
Dawn Chorus: Call to lower voting age renewed
The climate change bill arrives and the grown-ups don't want to pay
Brighter signs from our pre-election housing-market-with-bits-tacked-on
House prices primed to surge 10-20% if National wins
NIMBYs push to dump MDRS totally and stop greenfields' houses too
Inside National's housing backflip + twists & rolls
Dawn Chorus: National/Act edge ahead
Luxon kills the hopes of Townhouse Nation
Recycle the ETS cash++ into emissions cuts here
Why Budget 2023 is more austere than it appears
$140m well spent at $16.20/tonne
Dawn Chorus: Interest rate warnings after Budget 2023
Budget 2023: Some rabbits, a few more houses and a higher trust tax rate
The fire fueled by our housing and poverty crises
Dawn Chorus: Luxon painting himself into an unpopular and power-less corner
What a bank profits market study should focus on
It’s official: our banks are profitability world-beaters
Govt throttles rebate scheme for electric cars
'It's medicine or food. We can't afford both'
PM goes back to the old favourites: high migration, low investment & reigniting the housing market
PM to downplay capital tax hole and instead signal post-flood austerity
Interview: Inside Wellington's local government democratic deficit
Interview: Rod Carr warns Govt is falling behind on climate
Govt defends NZ Steel's 25-year extension
Councils' staff go rogue on densification
Bad weather delays emissions-cutting plan
Accelerating our churn and burn economy
A financial reckoning of a departing PM's legacy
The climate landmine under our economy (a housing market with bits tacked on)
RBNZ paying billions to banks in interest, plus lending $19b cheaply to banks
Wayne Brown's #Auxit moment
Is bundling restricting electricity competition?
What the US and European bank rescues mean for us
Inside TOP's Teal Card and political strategy
Slow consenting could create $16b climate liability by 2050
Labour's climate policy bonfire just blew up the ETS
Wasn't this the rainy day we saved for?
Young prefer wealth tax to fuel tax, while the old oppose such taxes
Ford Ranger Man drives over Michael Wood
Interview: How to look through inflation shocks
National chooses to think just as magically as Labour on water infrastructure, taxes and debt
What building back better could look like
Will this climate crisis event be wasted too?
The week that was to Feb 11
Hipkins clears the decks and crouches down low
When a $5 fee costs us all $2.65 billion
Dawn Chorus: Classic middle class welfare to win 'Ford Ranger Man'
Isn't this the rainy day we're supposed to be saving up for?
Dawn Chorus: 'Atmospheric River' swamps Auckland, its Mayor and our climate debate
Hipkins eyes cheap & fast growth lever
Inflation's Wile-E-Coyote moment?
The meaning and tragedy of Jacinda Ardern's time as PM
Business 'jets' cooled, but consumer spending still warm...for now
Dawn Chorus: A looming political choice on LVRs and DTIs
CTU wants new Act to cut inflation and lift disposable income
Why are we using a blunt and short-term demand lever in response to two long-run supply shocks?
Flying blindly back to migration-led growth
The week that was to Dec 9
A glimmer of hope via inclusionary zoning
How to redevelop a golf course for housing properly
Wayne Brown should sell the golf courses instead
The week that was for the week to Dec 2
The week that was for the week to Nov 27
Inside the Reserve Bank's (even bigger) rate hikes
The RBNZ throws a wet blanket over the economy
A chance to close our democratic deficit
Hotter dividends and land values now, but an even hotter planet and power bills later
A post-mortem on an inter-generational and institutional tragedy
RBNZ now a hostage to politics
The case for a windfall tax on bank profits
PM wags finger at bank profits
Incomes are rising faster than prices & bad debts are tiny
Dawn Chorus: 'Aspirational for the top 10%'
PM drives past Three Waters off ramp
Is the RBNZ's fast tightening fair to Covid's losers?
A cautionary tale for Christopher Luxon
It's a profit-price spiral, rather than a wage-price spiral
Dawn Chorus: Overcrowded and under-invested country chooses unlimited migration
We're still bargaining when we should already be accepting
Boomers lash back to ‘make Niuw Zullund grey again’
Inside TOP's new $7b land-tax-for-income tax switch plan, with extras
Challenging the priority of a AA+ rating over climate change action
Bank of England bails out pension funds and pays for tax cuts for Britain's richest
Friday’s Dawn Chorus: Councils quiet quitting on urban densification