Comments sections are hardly the place to go for well-considered musings on topical issues. They are, however, a repository for the layman’s understanding of complex issues. Read more
Groucho Marx did not want to belong to any club that accepted people like him as members. Next Thursday, the British will have to decide if they feel the same way about the European Union. Read more
Political hierarchies are like fish: both rot from the head downward. So, when fishing starts to stink, we need to first look at the fisheries management hierarchy. Read more
University of Otago Associate Professor Nick Wilson argued that Disney’s classic 101 Dalmations should carry an R rating. Why? Read more
I have just returned from a journey of discovery in the UK and the US looking at how they navigate the notion of school choice. As a concept, it remains highly contentious. Read more
Globally, growth in productivity and GDP has stalled. Much of the West and Japan suffer from rapidly deteriorating demographics and crippling levels of debt. Read more
In New York City, a bottle placed on the curbside for recycling can find its way back into a convenience store, relabeled and refilled, within thirty days. In Auckland City, a bottle’s destiny is not so enduring. Read more
Perhaps the defining global economic issue of this decade has been inequality. The notion that a free market economy promotes inequality is having an impact on the political climate. Read more
‘Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll steal your fish’. Read more
Auckland’s housing crisis produces some strange side effects. One of them is that the word ‘boarding school’ might acquire a new meaning. Read more
In the mid-2000s, when inflation was running hot and the Reserve Bank was having a tough time keeping things under control, the former Business Roundtable’s Roger Kerr warned that monetary policy needed mates. Government made the Reserve Bank’s job even harder by running expansionary fiscal policy when labour markets were tight and inflation was a problem. Read more
Heritage buildings provide real value. They are often cherished by their owners, who bought them for their character. Read more
If there is one art Prime Minister John Key’s New Zealand government has mastered, it is expectation management. So for its eighth budget, delivered yesterday, expectations were low. Read more
It has now been a couple of weeks since we found out that the Overseas Investment Office was not being as thorough in its background character checks on investors as some might have wanted. Every day, I’ve been scanning the newspaper headlines, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Read more
Last week saw a rare conjunction. Almost all the political parties agreed that Auckland’s artificial rural urban boundary had to be lifted to free up land for housing development. Read more