Last week, an educational resource unveiled by Ministers Shaw and Hipkins was praised by The Guardian newspaper for putting New Zealand “at the forefront of climate change education worldwide”. ACT MP David Seymour judged differently, describing the same resource as “state-organised bullying”. Read more
When was the last time you made a New Year’s resolution? Maybe 25 days ago. Read more
The greatest social scandal of our time barely raises eyebrows anymore. Read more
Can market forces help get the chores done? Chief Economist Dr Eric Crampton discusses the economics of parenting with Barry Crump on the Radio New Zealand Nights programme. Read more
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
Insights 47/ December 13: A year of delivery Read more
Standard organisational theory explains the differences between an organisation’s objective (or its goal) and the strategies and tactics it adopts to achieve its objective. Read more
Cabinet’s decisions announced today by Finance Minister Grant Robertson to reform the governance and accountability arrangements of the Reserve Bank are commendable. Key among the decisions is establishing a governance board that will be responsible for all functions of the Reserve Bank, except those undertaken by the Monetary Policy Committee. 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
Following the Government's announcement of the $12 billion for infrastructure, Dr Eric Crampton discusses on Radio New Zealand about the need to enable other ways of financing infrastructure on a stable basis rather than constantly relying on infrastructure deficits hitting near-crisis levels. 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