OPINION

Left-wing blog The Standard veered beyond its usual polemic last week with a guest post that painstakingly laid out how Auckland Council had spent $1.24 billion on a new IT system with little to show for it so far. The piece, written in response to Bernard Orsman’s scoop in the New Zealand Herald, was notable for its familiarity with major IT project processes, and how far Auckland Council had strayed from industry best practice. Read more

More than a few folks have emailed me the latest from The Guardian on the coming intergenerational war. Youth incomes have been going backwards in too many countries. Read more

Too many New Zealanders are walking around with a shameful addiction. Your family members, colleagues or even spouse may be secretly struggling. Read more

How central banks communicate their monetary policy intentions to the market matters. First, central banks must be credible. Read more

Sometimes, the supermarket sticker price is just there to make the sale price look better. Anchoring expectations matters. Read more

Left-wing blog The Standard veered beyond its usual polemic last week with a guest post that painstakingly laid out how Auckland Council had spent $1.24 billion on a new IT system with little to show for it so far. The piece, written in response to Bernard Orsman’s scoop in the New Zealand Herald, was notable for its familiarity with major IT project processes, and how far Auckland Council had strayed from industry best practice. Read more

Recently a group of business people gathered to discuss what exactly is stopping Wellington from reaching its full economic potential (whatever that means) as part of a Trans-Tasman Business Circle event. As you would expect from a panel discussion featuring a bank economist, a major Wellington developer, and the newly appointed head of the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (WREDA), the conversation rested heavily on modern MBA speak. Read more

Have I really been wrong about gangs all this time? I’d thought their main line of work was almost legitimate. Read more

Last week’s column reckoned that Sir Robert Jones’s economic impact assessment tallying the merits of a five kilometre high statue of Gareth Morgan was sounder than rather a few economic impact assessments. The case for the statue is especially strong where the construction costs would be borne by the population of North Korea. Read more

The festive season is well behind us, but this week I feel like the Grinch who stole Christmas. Like the Yuletide, this strikes annually. Read more

When businesses make investment decisions, they should make them on their own. Taking risks and reaping the rewards: that is what entrepreneurship is all about. Read more

Last week, I wrote about the political implications of the UK’s forthcoming referendum on EU membership (Cameron’s gamble could destroy his premiership — and the EU, 25 February 2016). Today, let’s take a closer look at what the British are voting on … and why your columnist is not sure what to wish for. Read more

Eight reasons why a Trump presidency may not be as bad as you imagine. Don’t get me wrong: it could, and likely will, still all go horribly, horribly wrong. Read more

Why is it so hard for people to agree on poverty? Despite a wealth of evidence, statistics and measurements of social indicators, there is still widespread disagreement about what poverty means in New Zealand. Read more

Recently we heard that government agencies are fudging the numbers to make themselves look better. Or as The Salvation Army's latest State of the Nation report argues, government statistics can be tweaked and manipulated to illustrate favourable results. Read more