Imagine you wanted to establish a bar. Before you could worry about vintage, décor or music, local activists might scare you away. Read more
Fans of the classic Australian political satire The Hollowmen will remember the standard trick for inflating a figure when doing political math: roll together several years' expenditures to get a bigger number. A smallish-sounding $10 million spending announcement, rolled up over 10 years, becomes $100 million. Read more
Have you ever driven past one of those stores that mostly sells blinds but calls itself ‘Not Just Blinds’ and wondered whether they should have thought a bit bigger in their marketing? This week, the coalition government announced plans for a parliamentary budget office charged with providing independent costings of election policy promises, and with keeping an eye on the government’s compliance with fiscal rules. Read more
When Germany’s statistics office released the economic growth rate for the second quarter, the disappointing 0.1 percent decline added to the troubles on Wall St. Little wonder stock markets are looking anxiously at Germany: the German economy remains the largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world (behind only the United States, China and Japan). Read more
It would be insane to do the same thing over and over again and still expect different results. It’s a lesson those embroiled in the politics of the night have yet to learn. Read more
On Monday, Adrian Orr was interviewed on TV One’s Q+A programme. If you had not known that Orr is the Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, you could have mistaken him for a politician. Read more
It is the hope that this time it will be different that really kills you. Sisyphus at least knew his labours were futile and could resign himself to the task of forever pushing the boulder uphill. Read more
Few parents would give their child a cough medicine that had not been trialled. The potential risks of doing so are endless. Read more
For someone with a hammer, everything looks like a nail, they say. For politicians, large-scale restructuring and reorganisations are sometimes that hammer. Read more
As Doctor Frankenfurter prepared to step up the reactor power input three more points and bring life to the Rocky Horror in the classic Rocky Horror Picture Show, he welcomed the assembled “unconventional conventionists” who would witness his triumph. Unconventional monetary policy is a bit like Doctor Frankenfurter’s giant defibrillator experiment with the Rocky Horror. Read more
When US President John F. Kennedy approved the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, he relied on advice from his staff, the defence force and the secret service. Read more
These are strange times, even for economists. Fearmongers are urging governments to pump up their spending in order to maintain economic activity. Read more
They say you should never let a good crisis go to waste. New Zealand’s employment figures currently look superb. Read more
Eighties glam-metal band Cinderella taught us we don't know what we've got until it's gone. But it can be harder to know what you could have had if you never had it at all. Read more
Alan Duff’s latest book – A Conversation with My Country: Where we have come from. Where we can go. Read more