The budget runup is far from easy.
Read MoreThe 2025 Budget in a World of Trade Warfare
Viennese Refugees Who Changed the Way We Think
Four eighty-year-old books which are still vitally relevant today.
Read MoreCountervailing Trumpian Sense
A modest attempt to analyse Donald Trump’s tariff policies.
Read MoreResource Management and Property Rights
While there have been decades of complaints – from all sides – about the workings of the Resource Management Act (RMA), replacing is proving difficult. The Coalition Government is making another attempt.
Read MorePublic-Private-Partnerships?
New Zealand’s economic development has always been a partnership between the public and private sectors.
Read MoreWhy Do Cryptocurrencies Appear to Be So Valuable?
it is said that economists know the price of everything and the value of nothing. That may be an exaggeration but an even better response is to point out economists do know the difference.
Read MoreIs the New Zealand Healthcare System Doing Badly?
By international standards the New Zealand healthcare system appears satisfactory – certainly no worse generally than average. Yet it is undergoing another redisorganisation.
Read MoreCan We Ignore the Environment?
Peter Frankopan’s The Earth Transformed: An Untold History is a compelling account of the interaction between humans and the environment. We would be unwise to ignore it.
Read MoreTrump's UN vote a defining act that points to day of reckoning for NZ
A look at Donald Trump’s seismic foreign policy shifts and what America’s controversial vote at the United Nations alongside ‘strongman’ nations means for New Zealand
Read MoreThe Cult of Generic Management
As Lady Bracknell almost said, ‘to lose one may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.’ And so a second Government Statistician has made a hasty exit, The official reason in each case was the management of the population census but the cult of generic management is the underlying failure
Read MoreTrumping Tariffs
A Bully in a China Shop?
Read MorePreparing for the Next Financial Earthquake
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?
Read MoreThe Yes Prime Minister
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.
Read MoreThe Proposed Regulatory Standards Bill
Do its Property Right Provisions Make Sense?
Read MoreHow Important is Regulation to Economic Performance?
The invitation to comment on the proposed Regulatory Standards Bill opens with Minister David Seymour stating ‘[m]ost of New Zealand's problems can be traced to poor productivity, and poor productivity can be traced to poor regulations’.
Read MoreBack on Track?
The state of the current economy may be similar to when National left office in 2017.
Read MoreA Bully of Billionaires
Can we trust the Trump cabinet to act in the public interest?
Read MoreQuality Ministers
While we may not always have quality political leadership, a couple of recently published autobiographies indicate sometimes we strike it lucky.
Read MoreThe Wing Parties’ Economic Policies.
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.
Read MoreForeshadowing HYEFU 2024
The closest parallel to the current economic situation may be after Ruth Richardson became Minister of Finance in late 1990.
Read More