OPINION

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Talk about the looming global currency war obscures an unpleasant reality: monetary policy remains the West’s only weapon to prevent imminent insolvency. Unfortunately, the medicine may kill the patient, rather than the disease. Read more

Germany is Europe’s model economy. It is a prosperous, well-governed, and efficient country. Read more

As the New Zealand dollar reached an all-time high against the British pound and keeps rising against the US dollar, the euro and other major currencies, New Zealand manufacturers are renewing their complaints about the damaging effects of our strong currency. However, currency movements usually produce losers and winners. Read more

As we hear the litany of doom and gloom about manufacturing in New Zealand, it would be easy to assume that manufacturing is in crisis; that everyone is shutting down, packing up and leaving; and that no new jobs are being created or industries expanded. However, this week there was a positive story in this space – the Chinese-owned Yashili Dairy Company has announced two substantial investments in New Zealand, pending approval from the Overseas Investment Office (OIO). Read more

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For decades, following German real estate prices was like watching paint dry. Well, actually it was even less exciting than that. Read more

Here’s a radical idea: Let’s think of houses as places where people live. Housing affordability is the big political issue of 2013. Read more

Broken windows and Warrant of Fitness (WoF) checks have more in common than first meets the eye. And no, we’re not talking about cracked windscreens. Read more

This week, the Dominion Post ran an article under the rather optimistic headline, ‘Fulltime work lined up to keep prisoners happy’. It quoted Prime Minister John Key talking about a “working prisons” proposal designed to get prisoners working full-time in the prison system. Read more

As the opposition’s parliamentary inquiry into manufacturing gathers pace, it is worth taking another look at manufacturing and the chief culprit blamed for its troubles: the high dollar and the monetary regime. First, the recent decline of manufacturing has been grossly overstated. Read more

Even political leaders used to hopping from conference to conference do not often fly halfway around the world and back for a weekend meeting. It’s even more remarkable when most of Europe’s political leaders go on such a journey together – but it happened last weekend. Read more

When cyclist Lance Armstrong finally confessed to Oprah that he won all his Tour de France titles by using a cocktail of banned substances, he received widespread condemnation. Rightly so. Read more

Housing is back in the papers again after the release of the ninth annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey. House prices in Auckland have topped their 2007 peak, which sparked comment from Minister of Finance, Bill English, who said if councils didn’t approve more land for development, power to do so might be relocated closer to the Beehive. Read more

This week, we heard news falling straight from the category “Only in Ireland”. What happened? Read more