Animal spirits are back in fashion in NZ

The idea of injecting a bit of animalistic competition into NZ is making a comeback. (Image: NZME)

Mon, 17 Feb 2025

If there was one unifying theme across all the speeches and discussions at the University of Waikato Economics forum last week it was this: NZ is too damned comfortable. The conference started with Finance Minister Nicola Willis talking about how the grocery market was too cozy and needed a new competitor, then moved on to Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen musing about the need for businesses to take more risks, before progressing to a panel of artificial intelligence enthusiasts talking about how standing still in the AI race car...

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