Within a fortnight last month, Australia and New Zealand placed opposite bets on their economic futures. The Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates to 3.85 per cent. Read more
While American and Israeli jets were bombing Tehran last Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron stood before nuclear submarines at the Île Longue naval base in Brittany. He announced that France would extend its nuclear umbrella across Europe. Read more
Anyone who has visited Sydney recently will have seen what asset recycling built. New metro lines that transformed commuter rail. Read more
Democracy is easy to take for granted. For most of the last century, it has been advancing around the world. Read more
The world changed last week. The United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran, killing the Supreme Leader, sinking warships, and plunging the Middle East into its gravest crisis in decades. Read more
Last week, the Government confirmed it would spend up to $200 million buying new Genesis Energy shares. Three ministers lined up to explain the decision. Read more
A principal who runs a school well does not get to tell parents what to cook for dinner. The authority is real – but it is specific. Read more
In early 2004, I wrote a letter to a man I had never met. I was a German doctoral graduate planning to move to London, struggling to find work. Read more
From 2007 until about two weeks ago, New Zealand’s regulators considered prediction markets as a kind of futures market. Then the Department of Internal Affairs decided they are gambling. Read more
The central Government has a local government problem. Rates have been rising too fast, regional councils are seen as inefficient and unaccountable, and the public wants action. Read more
Cities are shaped by millions of individual decisions. When people choose where to live, work and build, an order emerges from their combined choices – what urbanists call "spontaneous order." It arises from markets and human interactions, not from master plans. Read more
Many pre-modern people believed gambling was bad and suppressed it. If you think about it, your life insurer is a bookie betting that you’re not going to die this year. Read more
On 5 February 2026, Donald Trump stood before the National Prayer Breakfast. The room was full of the faithful – pastors, politicians, and conservative leaders who had long believed that America’s renewal required a strong hand. Read more
New Zealand has been trying to fix its resource management system for the better part of three decades. The Resource Management Act has been amended virtually every year since 1991 and reviewed several times during that period. Read more
European integration has always been a tug of war. On one side stand the enthusiasts. Read more