City planners have done terrible things to housing affordability. While improving the RMA is an important step in stemming the madness, it’s only a first step. Read more
In case you missed the flurry of stories surrounding the release of the latest census data, New Zealand may at some point in the foreseeable future have to give up its status as God’s Own Country. According to the data, the number of people who stated their religious affiliation as Christian dropped below the 50 per cent for the first time in 2013 census, while the number of people claiming no religion rose to just under 42 per cent. Read more
It always astounds me when people claim they have no interest in economics. How could anyone be so nonchalant about the ways in which economic forces influence their daily lives? Read more
Ending the Swiss franc’s peg to the euro surprised market participants, analysts and commentators alike, including this writer. Unlike the introduction of the euro peg in 2011, which was flagged beforehand, the end of the measure was prepared in secret. Read more
The review of troubled Whangaruru facility should be released to help the rest, writes Rose Patterson. One of New Zealand's first charter schools is failing, abysmally, and the Ministry of Education must stop dodging questions. Read more
People have a bad habit of wanting to tell stories about random low-probability events. Whether it's a few dog attacks that happened in the same couple of weeks, or a blip in youth drinking rates, people want to know why. Read more
Usually, we call things stable when they do not change and unstable if they do. Apparently this is not the case in monetary policy. Read more
If you have been scanning the press over the past week or so you may have come across an opinion piece by Michael Pascoe, prophesying doom for the New Zealand dairy industry and the Kiwi economy in general. Pascoe has taken a look at the similarity between iron ore and dairy prices since 2013 - both have more or less halved in value over the period - and concluded that there is a hard landing in store for New Zealand. Read more
We should not pay through the roof for small safety benefits, argues Bryce Wilkinson How would you react to being told that government regulations have added 50 percent to the cost of replacing a tin roof on a house? I ask because a long-standing professional builder told me in a chance encounter shortly before Christmas that scaffolding requirements under the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 mean that a small re-roofing job that would have otherwise cost $4,000 may now cost $6,000. Read more
In my last column of 2014, I wrote that European leaders usually pick the least appealing policy option and still manage to make it worse (A Greek olive branch for Steve Keen, 18 December). Maybe that was a premature assessment. Read more
Oh, the perils of the silly season. If your office is typical, you’re in a mad dash trying to finish everything that needs to be done before Christmas. Read more
In a series of articles earlier this year, we introduced Insights readers to some basic ideas from the wonderful world of economics. Today, we are releasing the compilation of pieces in a short pamphlet, The ABC of Economic Literacy. Read more
For anyone who has used Uber, knows someone who has used it, or is aware it exists, the crowd consensus seems to be that it is pretty great. Uber, which recently entered the New Zealand market, is an app that offers an alternative to taxis by allowing users to order a driver to get them to their destination for a set price. Read more
Only until a couple of years ago, it would have been unthinkable to suggest that New Zealand could hold some policy lessons for Australia, let alone that it could be seen as a model that Australia might wish to emulate. Australians had become used to regarding New Zealanders as their poorer cousins. Read more
When you publish a report with the title Poverty of Wealth: Why minerals need to be part of the rural economy, it is best to prepare yourself for some strong responses to your work, and to quickly grow a thick skin. Feedback from green groups, politicians, officials, and the online communities who populate the comments sections of various websites are all obvious sources of critical feedback. Read more