The collapse of the New Zealand dollar, now worth only a fraction of its former value, says a lot about the sorry state of economic punditry nowadays.

For much of the 1980s and early '90s, our business and economics experts told us how ruthless laissez-faire, liberalization, privatization and tariff cuts would turn the once-stodgy New Zealand economy into an economic powerhouse.

New Zealand diplomats in Tokyo toured the country lecturing all on the need to emulate smart, little New Zealand. Japan's Keidanren sent business delegations to study this miracle economy firsthand.