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Last week’s column reckoned that Sir Robert Jones’s economic impact assessment tallying the merits of a five kilometre high statue of Gareth Morgan was sounder than rather a few economic impact assessments. The case for the statue is especially strong where the construction costs would be borne by the population of North Korea. Read more

The festive season is well behind us, but this week I feel like the Grinch who stole Christmas. Like the Yuletide, this strikes annually. Read more

When businesses make investment decisions, they should make them on their own. Taking risks and reaping the rewards: that is what entrepreneurship is all about. Read more

You can sell just about anything with the right economic impact report. Just consider Sir Robert Jones’s presumably tongue-in-cheek proposal for a magnificent new statue on The Terrace. Read more

The old human sciences building on the grounds of the University of Auckland was affectionately known among my peers as The Dungeon. With its dingy basement corridors and eerie acoustics, it stood in stark contrast to the more recently-constructed business school, a colossal, contemporary glass structure. Read more

Reading the headlines, you might think the world is going to hell in a handcart. Once again there is carnage in global financial markets. Read more

Economics provides us with a useful toolbox with which to analyse the world. From Pareto efficiency, to perfect competition and rational irrationality, there is an economic theory that will just about explain anything. Read more

“Will capitalism and globalisation survive the next Global Financial Crisis?” That was the question I put to a panel of international investment strategists at a PortfolioConstruction Forum conference in Sydney this week. To be more accurate, I only passed it on. Read more

Admittedly, Europe’s migration crisis is far more interesting and important, but we have to talk about Greece again. Amid all other crises plaguing Europe at the moment, the financial problems engulfing Athens had temporarily slipped off the front pages. Read more

There are many things that are great about our cool little capital: Wellington’s wind, its regular earthquakes, and of course the Sevens. Though we can’t do much about the former two, at least we can destroy the latter. Read more