I note that New Zealand exerts a disproportionate effect on world economics again. ;-) In this case it's because an influential paper by guru economists reached the wrong conclusion by including only one year of NZ data- the worst year- skewing the overall results. Including all the relevant NZ data actually changes the overall study growth rate from -0.1% with 90% government debt, to 2.2 per cent. Your author can go on about applicability of the NZ data- he has a point- but lets focus on how only the worst NZ year with -7.6% growth got included. Basically the entire conclusion of the article, and the economic well-being of millions of people around the world, was allowed to hinge on one year of uncharacteristic poor growth in New Zealand- in 1951. Whether the conclusion turns out correct or not, how is that acceptable? That's the real story here- that a brief event half a century ago in a tiny distant country ends up influencing worldwide policy that affects millions of lives and drove some people to suicide. Seems to me the message has to be that if we can't trust these economists then we can't trust these economists.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1