With the Auckland border coming down today, it is tempting to talk about Covid. There is certainly plenty still to say. Read more
Is there anything worse than a politician who does not understand economics? The answer is a politician who mistakenly thinks he does. Read more
“We made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.” It’s a cliché from old gangster movies. Either side can just walk away from normal business negotiations if a deal is not in their mutual interest. Read more
The Prime Minister started the week looking ahead to the New Year. “It can’t always be Covid,” Ardern said in an interview on Monday. Read more
Festivus comes but once a year – December 23rd. Observants of the holiday popularised in a decades-old episode of Seinfeld raise the aluminium pole of celebration and air their grievances. Read more
US President Herbert Hoover once stated, “Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.” Right now, young people have a reason to be concerned. Since Covid-19 arrived 18 months ago, New Zealand’s net public debt has nearly doubled. Read more
Distance was supposed to be dead. The first dot-com boom promised an end to distance’s tyranny. Read more
Is there anyone who could be against something as positive sounding as ‘Social Unemployment Insurance’? Social Unemployment Insurance, a scheme the Government is currently developing, evokes compassion and a desire to help those in need. Read more
In all the excitement over the new ‘Traffic Light System’ and National’s new leader, a big story went almost unnoticed last week. According to the Herald, the Government is about to complete its proposals for unemployment insurance. Read more
Celebrations this week for Delta Airlines, Delta Electronics, Delta-Fly Pharma Inc and Delta Goodrem as – finally – a new variant of COVID sweeps the world. But spare a thought for the staff at Omicron Inversiones, an investment company in Spain. Read more
Central bank independence matters. The grand bargain struck between governments and their central banks, coming out of the turmoil of the 1970s, and led by New Zealand in the late 1980s, was simple. Read more
Written language came to humanity relatively recently. Modern homo sapiens have walked the earth for at least 100,000 years. Read more
At the formation of new governments, it has become an element of German political kitsch to quote from Hermann Hesse’s poem ‘Steps.’ Well, at least the famous line, “A magic dwells in every beginning.” Nonetheless, the talks leading to Germany’s new 'traffic lights coalition' were not particularly magical. Its name comes from the colours of its three parties: the red Social Democrats, the yellow Free Democrats, and the green, well, Greens. Read more
It isn’t that a New Zealand drug approval agency is a bad idea per se. It’s rather that the one we have might not be worth having. Read more
If you’ve ever had concerns about economists’ ethical commitments, relax. It could be worse. Read more