Thread by @rustie5555

Seeing as the OECD report is getting coverage... Man it's a wildly mixed bag
oecd.org/economy/survey…

Increase ICU capacity and vaccination rates among vulnerable groups (✅ duh).

Once vaccination rates are high, progressively relax border restrictions, as planned (I mean we're going to, but don't be so gleeful about it ✅)

Withdraw fiscal stimulus rapidly to reduce the burden of macroeconomic stabilisation on monetary policy (If they mean through higher taxes on high incomes ✅, but they do not, so ❌).

Commit to explicit long-term debt-to-GDP targets (The tweet that gets me cancelled: ✅. Capital strike is real, we are vulnerable to it)

Increase the old-age pension eligibility age by linking it to life expectancy and take measures to limit the impact on disadvantaged groups. (❌they're right about the long-term problem, but if you think rich old people have too much money, just tax them).

Tighten monetary policy to the extent necessary to bring inflation back within the target band and to ensure that inflation expectations remain anchored. (Mostly ✅but it's complicated. If more of our borrowing was domestic inflating it away would be tempting, but it's not).

Complement loan-to-value restrictions by requiring banks to us minimum interest rates for assessing borrowers’ debt servicing capacity or by introducing debt-to-income restrictions (✅seems fine).

Remove barriers to competition in the retail grocery sector (no comment).
Monitor the effect of reforms in the FDI screening regime and streamline the procedure further if needed (❌, I think? We're a net importer of capital, but idk man this looks like neolib cargocultism).

Complement R&D tax credits with targeted grants subject to strict evaluation and enhance knowledge transfer from research institutions (✅lmao remember the "Knowledge Economy"?).

Consider the appropriateness of the current corporate tax rate. (Really conditional✅, should only be done if complemented by higher personal tax rates and some kind of cross-border witholding tax thingy on dividends to foreign shareholders)

Complement rising carbon prices from progressively tightening the supply of emissions permits with targeted measures that address market failures not corrected by carbon pricing alone (✅✅✅ but I suspect I think that's a bigger category than they do).

Ensure that the new water service delivery entities, which are to be established by 2024, are enabled and encouraged to apply volumetric charging for water and wastewater (no comment).

Introduce congestion charging in Auckland (✅✅✅, and WGN too plz).

Identify and remove unwarranted barriers to SPV deals (✅the main barrier is local government)

Give city councils greater incentives to accommodate growth, for example by sharing local goods and services tax receipts (✅).

Introduce the Social Insurance Scheme being developed and incorporate design features that encourage a rapid return to employment (✅but only if it's not a sly way of further undermining the current benefits system, which in the wrong hands it will be).

Advance the national digitalisation strategy by providing a strong mandate for strategic coordination across all relevant policy areas and by collecting the data needed to support it (🤷‍♂️those words don't mean anything).

Improve mathematics and science teaching in primary schools, including by putting more emphasis on inquiry plus guided teaching using well articulated knowledge bases for both the student and the teacher. (✅wait... is this international technocrat speak for "charter schools"?)

Develop digital apprenticeships and internships and expand the GOVTechTalent graduate programme to all public sector organisations (✅✅✅).
Develop programmes to help Māori and women pursue digital careers (✅✅✅).

Provide seamless support to innovative digital start-ups for their early global expansion through better coordination between Callaghan Innovation and New Zealand Trade Enterprise (✅like, seems obvious?)

Ensure interoperability across digital tool platforms by requiring agritech players to adopt common standards, while letting them choose the most suitable common standards to converge to (✅love me some standard interoperability).

Okay so actually less bad than I thought. But the bad bits are very bad, and the good bits are probably smallbore long-term.