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Back in 1968, economist Friedrich Hayek wrote that competition is a discovery procedure. Some information about the world simply would not exist without the process of market competition that discovers it. Read more

A giant is dead. Paul Volcker died this week, aged 92. At 6ft 7in, he was, according to the New York Times obituary, one inch too tall for military service. Read more

Last week, Labour finally began delivering on its urban growth agenda. Housing affordability was one of the two main themes of the 2017 election. Restrictions preventing cities from either growing up or growing out made for serious problems when population growth increased demand for housing. Getting the infrastructure in place to allow for urban growth is absolutely vital. Read more

The Prime Minister had declared 2019 “the year of delivery”. Voters will eventually judge the government on whether it has succeeded. Read more

When Christine Lagarde became president of the European Central Bank in November, she inherited a challenging legacy from her predecessor Mario Draghi. The ECB’s key people are openly divided on the future direction of monetary policy. Markets are expecting interest rates to stay ultra-low for decades, and parts of the continent’s banking system remain fragile. Read more

There was something in the original plans for the post-earthquake Christchurch downtown rebuild that never really made much sense. Well, there were a lot of things that never made any sense, both in the plans and in practice, and that's why a lot of business fled to the suburbs. Read more

Over the past few months, you could not drive through any of our big cities without seeing some strange advertising messages. They were strange because, in our world of doom and gloom, they were spreading good news. Read more