The first week of November was Gender Diversity Week, which is a sad reminder that no country has yet achieved gender equality. The Global Gender Gap Report 2012, released in late October, shows New Zealand ranked sixth out of 135 countries, having closed 78% of the gap between men and women. Read more
As the European Union is mobilising hundreds of billions of euros to save the continent’s currency, it would be reassuring to know that it can be trusted with money. After last week’s annual report from the European Court of Auditors, there is little reason for such optimism. Read more
No one should ever compile a cost-benefit analysis of the United States elections. After a campaign that lasted about 18 months (and felt even longer), and having spent an estimated US$6 billion promoting both candidates, nothing has changed. Read more
New Zealand’s second internet cable is once again making headlines, this time courtesy of Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom. German born Dotcom has hatched a plan to resurrect Pacific Fibre and build a second fibre cable to the United States. Read more
When the New Zealand Electoral Commission was asked to review how the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system was operating, the outcome was pre-ordained: the report would extol the virtues of MMP, recommend a reduction in the 5% threshold, and scrap the one seat rule. And so it has come to pass. Read more
A latent state of emergency has become Europe’s new normal. Even professional optimists such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel believe that the euro crisis will be with the continent for at least another five years. Read more
Lesley Longstone, the secretary and chief executive of the Ministry of Education, says New Zealand cannot claim to possess a world-class education system. Strangely, Hekia Parata, Minister of Education said the very opposite just last week. Read more
Even so, New Zealand has its share of proponents of fiscal stimulus in the form of $900 cheques that former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd posted to 75% of working-age Australians in 2009. Australian Treasury Secretary Ken Henry said the stimulus of A$10 billion was all about ‘go hard, go early, go households’. Read more
When political announcements consist of motherhood statements that nobody could possibly disagree with, they often make little sense. Or at least they don’t tell us anything new. Read more
How would you feel if you suddenly discovered that you were much wealthier than you thought? Well great, obviously. Read more
Dr Oliver Hartwich, Executive Director at The New Zealand Initiative, interviews Initiative@home guest speaker, Dr Christian Sandström, Researcher at The Ratio Institute in Sweden, on his views on the Swedish economy. Read more
If New Zealand were anywhere other than right next to Australia, our current rates of economic growth, unemployment and proximity to developing global markets would be the envy of the world. As it is, comparisons with Australia are not always useful. Read more
Around 50 years ago, the newly independent Finland identified education as a key nation-building exercise. Ever since, Finland’s public school system has been of interest to other countries. Read more
George Mason University’s Mercatus Center is a top public policy think tank based in Virginia near Washington, DC. Some of its 2012 publications might be of interest to readers of Insights: a 28-page blueprint for regulatory reform in the United States (the blueprint could be easily applied to New Zealand). Read more
