OPINION

Chronic road congestion is a global epidemic, plaguing poor and rich countries alike. In dozens of cities around the world, from Bogota to Rome, from Moscow to Boston, from Toronto to Dhaka, from Sydney and Melbourne to Auckland and Wellington, the average motorist wastes more than a hundred hours every year idling behind the wheels in overcrowded routes. Read more

“Yes, we are all individuals,” the crowd unanimously shouted in Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Which made a mockery of professed individuality. Read more

Minerals never mined cannot benefit New Zealanders. They might as well not exist. Read more

Chronic road congestion is a global epidemic, plaguing poor and rich countries alike. In dozens of cities around the world, from Bogota to Rome, from Moscow to Boston, from Toronto to Dhaka, from Sydney and Melbourne to Auckland and Wellington, the average motorist wastes more than a hundred hours every year idling behind the wheels in overcrowded routes. Read more

The cogs of government and regulation can grind slowly. And, sometimes, that can be for the best. Read more

Imagine if a friend believed cake was more nutritious for children than vegetables, and any time you tried to explain otherwise they closed down the discussion saying the two were a false dichotomy: children should just eat both. This is what happens when the overwhelming evidence in favour of teacher-directed, rather than student-oriented learning achieves air-time in New Zealand. Read more

Recent New Zealand elections have revealed a 21st-century paradox. Election year should be a time when politicians talk with the voting public about whether the country’s current policy settings are improving wellbeing, or whether changes are needed. Read more

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. Every year for the past 16 years, urban consultancy Demographia releases their international ‘Housing Affordability Survey’. 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

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. If an organisation confuses these concepts, it risks jeopardising its goal. Read more

A giant is dead. Paul Volcker died this week, aged 92. 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. 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