Search

A higher kiwi dollar could boost New Zealand exporters’ productivity, leaving them better off in the long run. Earlier this month the kiwi reached a record high against the euro, trading at a whisker under 70c – the highest level the kiwi has been valued against European currency since its inception. Read more

Among the most sought after locations you find in Sydney is the inner-city suburb of Pyrmont. It is not only home to headquarters of major companies such as American Express, Accenture, Vodafone, and Google. Read more

If the latest signals coming from the Federal Reserve are anything to go by, it is only a matter of time until the US central bank increases its funds rate. Most likely it is going to happen some time over the northern hemisphere summer. Read more

When the new Greek government took office in late January, I wondered whether they might be trying to play the ‘madman strategy’ in a game of chicken (The euro crisis has become a game of chicken, January 29). Behaving erratically and seemingly irrationally, so I wrote, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his finance minister Yanis Varoufakis might just drive the other Europeans to insanity -- and force them to surrender to prevent the worst. Read more

It was an unfortunate coincidence that earlier this week two interviews were published almost at the same time that demonstrated the schism between European wishful thinking and Europe’s not-so-wishful reality. Speaking to German conservative broadsheet Welt am Sonntag, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called for a common European army. Read more

Imagine for a second that you are a small business owner, and one day while trawling through your emails, a bolt of lightning sizzles through the office window and strikes your assistant, killing him instantly. Then to compound the situation, the telephone rings, and it is the police. Read more

Picture this: a wealthy American couple buy a 3ha piece of land in a beautiful, sleepy town in rural New Zealand. Their plans for the land are ambitious; a redeveloped campground, information centre and community classroom. Read more

It is fair to say that New Zealand and Portugal are not particularly close nations. Yes, there were a few Portuguese whalers in 19th century New Zealand but according to the latest census the NZ Portuguese population is estimated to be just under 1,000 people -- or roughly 0.02 per cent of the total population. Read more

There are two things that the changes currently shaking up the media sector can teach us. The first is that the digital transition process is painful. Read more

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) has hired Crown research institute NIWA to draw up coastal hazard lines. Yet the 2012 hazard line guidance co-authored by NIWA staff fails to define, even in principle, what likelihood such lines are meant to represent, let alone justify that choice in cost-benefit terms. The folly of coastal hazard lines of unknown likelihood and net benefit is illustrated by the experience in 2012-14 of the Kapiti Coast District Council. Read more