A regular question in New Zealand and Australia is whether our respective nations succeed because of, or in spite of, our politicians. As both nations' Budgets were read this week, it was a story of two countries that have faced a vastly different set of circumstances over the past five years, and the choices both have made in light of that. Read more
Budget 2013 confirms the government's determination to achieve fiscal surpluses by 2014/15 by stopping the growth in government spending. Adjusted for inflation and population growth, projected government spending in 2014/15 will be 6% lower than in 2008/9, the year in which John Key's government took office. Read more
Early this week, the government announced a rather distasteful plan. In return for giving regulatory favours to the Sky City Casino in the form of more favourable gambling regulations, the casino will build a massive conference centre. Read more
Germany found in 2001 that their 15-year-olds ranked well below the OECD average in maths and reading in the Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA) study. They also had one of the largest gaps between high and low performing students in the world. Read more
Click image for larger view.
Read more
If I were a cynic, I would now be predicting the next European bailout recipient. And the winner is… Slovenia! Read more
Not all teachers in Singapore desire to rise through the ranks to head of department (HoD) or beyond. Many are content to stay in the classroom, branding themselves as HOT – happy, ordinary teachers. Read more
It is commonplace for businesses to complain that the Resource Management Act has become a costly bureaucratic nightmare hindering economic development. Ironically, such complaints are often dismissed as evidence of the Act working, with consents being declined or heavily qualified to adequately protect the environment. Read more
Standing atop Mount Victoria last Sunday, looking over Wellington basked in glorious sunshine, I was quietly confirming to myself that I really wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Not in Germany where I grew up. Read more
Click image for larger view.
Read more
Last week, I gave a speech to Auckland University’s economics club called The never-ending Euro crisis – Anatomy of an economic policy disaster. It was a wide-ranging presentation in which I covered the history and pre-history of European monetary union, Europe’s fiscal and monetary problems, the eurozone’s governance issues and their political implications. Read more
This week, The New Zealand Initiative released its first report: New Zealand’s Global Links: Foreign Ownership and the Status of New Zealand’s Net International Investments. The report contains 84 tables of statistical information relating to New Zealand’s inwards and outwards investments, and is accompanied by a spreadsheet on the website. Read more
It is often the case that reports by the Ministry of Economic Development (and now its successor, the rather pretentiously named Ministry for Business, Employment, and Innovation or MBIE) recommend further government interference in economic activities in the name of ‘helping business.' The much-vaunted ‘business growth agenda’ of the government, which few people outside of Wellington have heard of, has suffered from this fate. So it is refreshing to see an interesting and useful report into regional economic development being released by the Ministry. Read more
Some Australian politicians believe sacking the bottom 5% of teachers is the answer to improving student achievement. Last week in Melbourne, I interviewed academics at a number of universities, researchers at the Australian Council of Education Research (ACER), media commentators, and think tank researchers. Read more