OPINION

It only took minutes for the ambulance to arrive after my call to 111 from the kitchen floor, the pain cutting through me like a cracked whip. I was in trouble. Read more

Imagine you are a small country of just under nine million people. Your neighbour has a common market of 450 million consumers and 24 million companies. Read more

Persistence looks set to pay off with one of Labour’s 2017 election manifesto promises: to reintroduce compulsory sector-wide collective bargaining across the country. Dubbed “Fair Pay Agreements,” the Government’s plan is to take New Zealand back to the system of awards that dominated industrial relations for most of the 20th century. Read more

Emissions pricing and congestion pricing have a lot in common. The economics of both are straightforward. Read more

When presenting Budget 2021 last week, Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced that work is underway to develop an unemployment insurance scheme. Details are limited. Read more

“Soz, I meen spelng dozent mattr!” For those who haven’t heard, a British university has instructed its lecturers to overlook incorrect spelling, punctuation and grammar. Why? Read more

As American historian and philosopher Will Durant observed, "Civilisation is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew." That is a more polite way of saying that humans make mistakes, cause damage, then repair the mess. . Read more

Where do we come from? What has shaped this country? Read more

Last week’s government budget reinforced the sense of fiscal fantasy that arises when one contemplates the unprecedented deficit spending funded by central bank credit creation occurring here and elsewhere. The government plans to borrow around $30 billion net in the coming fiscal year. Read more

The biggest risk to New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme isn’t technical issues in how the scheme is run or in its accounting. The biggest risk instead is politics. Read more

Clean air is certainly the flavour of the month in Europe judging from the skyrocketing price of carbon. Since April last year, emissions units on the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (“ETS”) have nearly quadrupled from €15 to above €56 (NZ$95) this week. Read more

I was very disappointed with the recent housing announcements. Partly because they will increase my rent. Read more

As economics Nobel laureate Paul Krugman once put it, “Productivity isn’t everything, but, in the long run, it is almost everything.” Which makes you wonder what Krugman would think of yesterday’s Budget. Hidden behind headlines of benefit increases, spending initiatives and a new unemployment insurance scheme lies a worrying small detail. Read more

It was an urgent warning that German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung published last week. Its authors warned of rising inflation, “massive social upheavals” and further political polarisation. Read more

In colonial India, Delhi had a little problem with cobras. Since cobras can cause unpleasant things, like death, a solution was needed. Read more