Down To Earth Kiwi is run by one Robert MacCulloch and I’ve added it to our list of blogs to link to, under the LIBERTARIAN / ECONOMIC mast head:

A native of New Zealand, Robert worked at the Reserve Bank of NZ, before he travelled to the UK to complete a PhD in Economics at Oxford University. He pursued research interests at London School of Economics and Princeton University, before joining Imperial College London Business School. Robert subsequently returned to his alma mater in NZ.

But as his latest post puts it, he’s not just an economist and he well understands the connections between economics and politics: The PM Abrogates Leadership of NZ:

This comment is far more about economics than politics. Today ACT’s Treaty Principle’s Bill was debated in Parliament and the Prime Minister didn’t turn up. Why? He doesn’t want anything to do with it. He just wants to talk about the economy. He wants you and me to talk about the economy. Well, here’s a message from an economist, not a politician. The Treaty debate IS an economic debate. It will determine the entire economic future of NZ. The PM’s idea the two can be separated is fiction. His job was to lead the nation. Should he not like Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill, then it was a requirement for him to produce an alternative that would have settled the division and uncertainty that is the status quo. My view is that he lacks the conviction to do so, and revealed himself as intellectually incapable of it. Who cares about who wins the next election? Its not the Labour Party or the National Party that the good citizens of New Zealand care about it. Its their own lives & nation.