The Green Party has declared its wealth tax will be a red line in any coalition negotiations. And because Labour knows this, the larger party left the door wide open. Read more

When Germany’s Constitutional Court ruled on the legality of the European Central Bank’s asset purchase programme on 5 May, it sent shockwaves through financial markets. In one fell swoop, the red-robed judges accused the ECB of going beyond its mandate of monetary policy and the European Court of Justice of covering up the breach. Read more

It says a lot about this economic crisis when a forecast of -4.5% annual growth is regarded as good news. Yet that was the forecast the International Monetary Fund released yesterday. Read more

The Cold War is mainly history today with more people remembering the spies than the ideological warfare. But at its heart, it was an ideological battle, which makes comparisons with today’s tensions between China and the West natural. Read more

Germany is leading the way with a debate on its constitution, the Basic Law. After seven decades in operation, politicians of all parties want to remove racist elements from it. Read more

A new publication about Jacinda Ardern is hardly remarkable these days. The Prime Minister’s global celebrity status has created a small avalanche of books and magazine covers. Read more

To understand the mindset of European elites, it is worth going back to the words of the founding godfather or European integration, Jean Monnet: “Europe will be forged in crises and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises." Monnet’s spirit of integration was alive in last week’s proposal to create a €750 billion fund to deal with the fallout of the coronavirus crisis. It is a gutsy move which pushes European fiscal integration to a new level. Read more

As we all navigate our way through this crisis, we are in uncharted territory. We cannot base our actions on experience because no-one has ever lived through a scenario like this. Read more

It was in 1986 when Paul Keating, then Australia’s Treasurer, made a famous remark: “If this Government cannot get the adjustment, get manufacturing going again, and keep moderate wage outcomes and a sensible economic policy, then Australia is basically done for,” Keating warned on the John Laws radio programme. “We will just end up being a third-rate economy, a banana republic.” In hindsight, Keating might have exaggerated. Read more

This week, opinion polls revealed that the Government is more popular than ever. On current figures, Labour could comfortably govern alone, the Prime Minister’s ratings are stratospheric, and nine in ten New Zealanders approve of the Government’s handling of the public health crisis. Read more

As New Zealand moves towards some new form of normality, the question becomes how to benefit from eliminating Covid-19 in New Zealand. It is worth looking at other countries’ specific problems. Take Germany’s football league, for example. Read more

Watching Budget 2020 delivered yesterday was a surreal experience. It was two things at once. Read more

As New Zealand moves towards the 2020 Budget, there is increasing talk about shovel-ready projects, stimulus and building the recovery. It all makes me nervous, probably because I am still spooked by another crisis in another country. Read more

It was an unusual document Angela Merkel just found in her in-tray. Written in French and on joint letterhead, 15 members of France’s Parliament penned an open letter to the German Chancellor. Read more