Bernard’s Pick ‘n’ Mix on Saturday, April 5

Global stocks slump another 6% after China retaliates with 34% tariff on US; Delays for heart surgeries costing lives; 40% of urgent hospital repairs not being worked on; DOC to charge trampers

In short this morning in our political economy:

1. The S&P 500 fell another 5.6% this morning after China retaliated with tariffs of 34% on all US imports, and the Fed warned of stagflation without rate cut relief.

2. Delays for heart surgeries and scans are costing lives, specialists have told Stuff’s Nicholas Jones.

3. Meanwhile, 40% of most urgent hospital repairs aren’t being worked on and Simeon Brown wants to use slow, complicated and expensive PPPs to build new hospitals, RNZ’s Phil Pennington reports.

4. DOC is considering charging trampers to walk on a much wider range of high-volume tracks, moving beyond charging for car parks and hut stays, the ODT reports.

5. The Government has decided to increase the size of the granny flats that can be built without consent to 70 square metres from 60 square metres, NZ Herald’s Adam Pearse reports this morning.

6. The select committee considering ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill recommended not going ahead with the bill, which was opposed by 90% of the about 300,000 submissions. RNZ

Here’s my selection¹ below of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$², The Press−$, Newsroom/$³, NZ Herald/$, Stuff, BusinessDesk/$, Politik-$, NBR-$, Reuters, AP, FT/$, WSJ/$, Bloomberg/$, New York Times/$, Washington Post/$, The Guardian, Wired/$, The Atlantic/$ and The Economist-$, for Saturday, April 5.

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My Top Pick n’ Mix Six on Saturday, April 5