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Hey there, humans! It’s no wonder you’re dog's best friend. Read more

Walking around central Wellington, more shops are boarded up. On Lambton Quay, two bank branches recently disappeared. Read more

In mid-April, German sewerage experts were allowed through New Zealand’s tightly controlled border with the country still locked down at Alert Level 4. At the time, Wellington ratepayers were paying nearly $100,000 a day to ferry wastewater by truck from the city's Moa Point treatment plant to a landfill. Read more

A newspaper recently asked if the average Kiwi can live on a Covid-19 wage subsidy of $585 a week. Unsurprisingly, it found this would be difficult, particularly in Auckland where the average weekly expense for a couple with two children is about $2000. Read more

Unless you closely follow German politics, the name Karl Josef Laumann would mean nothing. And even if you are vaguely familiar with German federal politics, you also will not know much about the Health Minister in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW). Read more

For those who care about New Zealanders’ wellbeing, the central issue is if the benefits of any given level of lockdown plausibly exceed the costs. About four months ago, I calculated it might be worth sacrificing 6.1% of one year of New Zealand’s GDP if doing so was sure to permanently avoid 33,600 Covid deaths. Read more

“They” say a conspiracy theorist is someone who is correct ten years too early. What’s funny is this is the same definition of an economic forecaster. Read more

The Prime Minister has declared this year’s election, now postponed until October, a “Covid election.” That is an unfortunate framing. Though dealing with Covid is crucial for the country’s short- to mid-term future, there are plenty of other attention-deserving issues like education, housing and transport. Read more