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People have a bad habit of wanting to tell stories about random low-probability events. Whether it's a few dog attacks that happened in the same couple of weeks, or a blip in youth drinking rates, people want to know why. Read more
Usually, we call things stable when they do not change and unstable if they do. Apparently this is not the case in monetary policy. Read more
We should not pay through the roof for small safety benefits, argues Bryce Wilkinson How would you react to being told that government regulations have added 50 percent to the cost of replacing a tin roof on a house? I ask because a long-standing professional builder told me in a chance encounter shortly before Christmas that scaffolding requirements under the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 mean that a small re-roofing job that would have otherwise cost $4,000 may now cost $6,000. Read more
In my last column of 2014, I wrote that European leaders usually pick the least appealing policy option and still manage to make it worse (A Greek olive branch for Steve Keen, 18 December). Maybe that was a premature assessment. Read more
Wellington (3 December 2014): Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative, Dr Oliver Hartwich, is today publishing his new monograph Quiet Achievers: The New Zealand Path to Reform. It will be presented by Australia’s Minister for Finance, Senator the Hon. Read more
Wellington (13 November 2014): Angela Merkel’s talk at the University of Auckland on Germany’s innovation policy will be interesting; but what the New Zealand business community want to know is how she plans to address Europe’s economic crisis, says the head of The New Zealand Initiative. In the first visit of a German head of government to New Zealand since 1997, Merkel will meet with Prime Minister John Key ahead of the G20 Summit in Brisbane this weekend, deliver a speech at the University of Auckland, and attend a reception for German and New Zealand business leaders. Read more
Earthquakes are bad enough on their own but policy can always make them worse. Regulatory and planning policy in the lead-up to the February 2011 earthquake and in the subsequent response period led to needless deaths, too few options for those whose homes were damaged, a confusopoly in insurance, and an endlessly drawn out quest for the perfect downtown plan. Read more
The elections in the state of Saxony a couple of weeks ago mark a historic shift in Germany’s political landscape. The liberal, business-friendly Free Democrat Party got kicked out of parliament, having lost two thirds of their previous voters and being left with only 3.8 percent of the vote. Read more
New Zealand has to wait another three weeks for the result of its elections, in another MMP country they went to the polls last Sunday. In the German state of Saxony, voters delivered a fractured parliament in which none of the traditional coalitions of the right or the left had a clear and robust majority. Read more
It is an utterly ironic situation for Europe. Every bit of bad news for its economies is good news for asset markets. Read more