Last month, New Zealand celebrated emphatic victories over Australia in the Bledisloe Cup. For many years, sporting competitions like this were the only opportunity for Kiwis to beat their cousins across the Tasman. Read more

Now here's an economic policy idea: What if we strategically placed a few pocket-sized atomic bombs around New Zealand and detonated them? Not too devastating to wipe the country off the face of the earth, of course. Read more

Speech by Dr Oliver Hartwich to The Centre for Independent Studies 'Consilium' conference In previous years Dr Oliver Hartwich spoke at The Centre for Independent Studies 'Consilium' conference about the future of capitalism and about Europe's economic and social decline. His presentation to this month's gathering in Queensland is closely linked to these topics. Read more

Government spending has been rising for the past one and a half centuries. The increase itself is startling, but even more worrying is the composition of government spending in the developed world. Read more

Ahrensburg is not the place where great political announcements are made. Usually, the small town in the North German state of Schleswig-Holstein does not generate any headlines relevant beyond the city boundaries. Read more

Whether you like Canberra or not, there is no doubt it properly fulfils its functions as Australia’s capital. The federal government, parliament and the High Court all operate in close proximity to each other. Read more

If a week is a long time in politics, two years is an eternity. In 2011, Wayne Swan was named the Euromoney Finance Minister of the Year. Read more

Rejoice! The European economic crisis is over (again). Read more

Ever since the creation of the Auckland super city, murmurings have surfaced in Wellington about a greater Wellington council to include the Hutt Valley, Wairarapa and Kapiti. Intuitively, large councils seem undesirable; why take local governance further away from locals? Read more

When I grew up, nearly every Sunday was spent playing board games with my parents. Unsurprisingly for a future economist, my personal favourite was Monopoly. Read more

Recently, I met a New Zealander who asked me how I, as a relatively newly arrived foreigner, experienced New Zealand. I returned the question straight back to him. Read more

Two things are an anathema to free-market economists: government intervention and monopolies. And one thing is even worse: When public services are provided by a central government monopolist. Read more

There may not be much growth in Europe at present, but at least European leaders continue to produce an impressive number of growth initiatives. Last week, the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council, José Manuel Barroso and Herman van Rompuy, issued a joint letter ahead of the next G20 summit in St Petersburg in early September. Read more

Throughout most of human history, cities were the dominant force of political affairs. From the very first cities of Mesopotamia in the seventh millennium BC, to Athens and Rome, and the city states of the Middle Ages, cities drove the development of political affairs, of culture, of democracy, of finance, of the arts, of education. Read more

Last week, I wrote about how the euro crisis had been put on hold until the German federal election (A euro crisis on German ice, July 18). One of the policies affected by this crisis deferral is the European Union’s so-called banking union. Read more