If there is one overarching theme in the Department of Internal Affairs’ report on loopy regulations, released this week, it is that our regulations have become so complicated that nobody really knows what the rules are any more. The Rules Reduction Taskforce set out last year to collect examples of “loopy” regulations in need of updating. Read more

It’s a rare day I do not pass by one of Wellington’s many bucket collectors. On my morning walk from the train station through to Lambton Quay, it’s more common to see at least three or four of them than to see none. Read more

When Cal Tech economist D. Roderick Kiewiet looked hard at the stack of American regulations affecting health and safety, he found a mess. Read more

It is really hard not to sympathise with calls for increasing the refugee quota. Seeing the pictures from the Mediterranean tugs at the heartstrings. Read more

We this week released Elisabeth Prasad's report running some of the numbers on whether compensating live kidney donors makes sense. She finds that the typical kidney transplant saves the Ministry of Health on net about $125,000 over the longer term: dialysis is expensive. Read more

Australia National University’s Dr. George Barker suggested that New Zealand could do well by strengthening its copyright legislation. He warned against the fair dealing exceptions that have crept into the law and asked, “Why not have copyright law like property law—i.e. Read more

The most important norm in economics was set by economist Vilfredo Pareto about a century ago. Put simply, the Pareto Criterion says that anything making at least one person better off, while making nobody else worse off, is desirable. Read more

There are not too many policies that can save and improve lives while saving the government money, but Chris Bishop’s member’s bill providing greater compensation to live organ donors may be one. Late Wednesday evening, Parliament voted that Bishop’s member’s bill should proceed to committee. Read more

The power to say no is also the power to make the rules, or at least in part. Parliament legislates. Read more

Online shoppers beware: getting that cheap paperback from Book Depository could get a lot harder. But, it will depend on just how the government goes about taxing direct-to-consumer imports. Read more

You never really understand an issue until you can argue from the opposing view. Being able to make the best possible case for something you oppose helps you to avoid attacking strawmen and means that your own argument will be stronger for it. Read more

When the government moved to privatise Mount Eden prison, I was a sceptic. There can be very good arguments for outsourcing service provision or privatisation in all kinds of sectors, but prisons were about the last on my list. Read more