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When Christine Lagarde became president of the European Central Bank in November, she inherited a challenging legacy from her predecessor Mario Draghi. The ECB’s key people are openly divided on the future direction of monetary policy. Read more

There was something in the original plans for the post-earthquake Christchurch downtown rebuild that never really made much sense. Well, there were a lot of things that never made any sense, both in the plans and in practice, and that's why a lot of business fled to the suburbs. Read more

Over the past few months, you could not drive through any of our big cities without seeing some strange advertising messages. They were strange because, in our world of doom and gloom, they were spreading good news. Read more

It can take courage to champion what you believe in. Especially when your views are at odds with those of the crowd. Read more

One of the underappreciated joys of parenthood is lying to your children. Children are full of questions. Read more

Confirmation came this week that New Zealand’s once world-leading school system continues its steady decline. Ever since the OECD began testing the educational performance of 15-year olds in the early 2000s, New Zealand students have performed progressively worse in all three assessed areas of reading, maths and science. Read more

Moving to New Zealand in 2003 was a bit like stepping into an underpowered time machine. The new-release movies in theatre were ones that had hit the big screen in the US months earlier. Read more

No one has ever accused the Germans of boundless optimism. There is a reason the word Weltschmerz (world-weariness) was once coined in Germany. Read more

“If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands”. Clapping is a common gesture across all cultures – even babies clap. Read more