A report on social services by the Productivity Commission raises serious problems about the quality of analysis in New Zealand.
Read MoreEconomy
The Future of Trade Agreements
Given a long history of numerous trade agreements, why has the public become especially concerned about the TPP?
Read MoreFeeding the world
New Zealand is leading the way in sustainable agriculture, and that presents an opportunity to cash in
Read MoreThe TPP, Sovereignty and Copyright
While TPP – any trade deal – compromises sovereignty it does not mean we cannot respond constructively to unsatisfactory aspects such as those involving intellectual property.
Read MoreThrive: The Power of Psychological Therapy: Richard Layard & David M Clark
The book’s ‘message is as compelling as it is important: the social costs of mental illness are terribly high and the costs of effective treatments are surprisingly low'. Daniel Kahneman (psychologist and Nobel economics laureate).
Read MoreLessons From Greece
Travel extends the mind. Here are some of the things I learned from a recent trip to Greece: about the age of the human condition, about how civilisations end with environmental depletion, about the stresses to the current Greek economy and about how trivial are New Zealand news websites.
Read MoreWe need to talk about the one per cent
One per cent of the world's population now control half its wealth.
The concentration of more and more resources in fewer and fewer hands has actually accelerated since the global financial crisis. This is no accident. It is the outcome of policy decisions made – or avoided – by political leaders either unable to learn the lessons of the crisis or unwilling to act on them.
Read MoreWhere is the world economy going?
The more one is certain about the state of an economy, the more one is likely to be wrong; the more one is certain about the state of an economy, the greater the media coverage. No wonder the public is confused.
Read MoreOwning New Zealand
How Much of New Zealand Has to Be Owned and Controlled by Foreigners?
Read MoreSuccess - everyone equally unhappy
TPP can help lift incomes in New Zealand but to make a difference for people, there’s a lot more work still to do.
Underlying Trade Deals
This was an introduction to a presentation by Stephen Jacobi: "TPP – Where to from Here (And How Did We Get Here Anyway)?" To a NZIIA lecture, 2 September 2015. (Some editing)
Read MoreFlagging Design
The flag debate tells us something about the quality of design in New Zealand
Read MoreThe State of the Economy: August 2015
Notes for Radio NZ Nights with Brian Crump: 11 August, 2014
Read MoreMore milk, less honey
As the milk price falls, Fonterra needs to react by rethinking its strategy
Read MoreConfusion about TPP
Trust Us?
Read MoreOutsourcing.
Why does it occur, when does it work?
Read MoreWhat Happened to Peak Oil?
Fracking has changed the energy outlook, with major geopolitical implications
Read MoreBubble, Bubble, Boil and Auckland Housing Trouble.
Treating the Auckland housing bubble as a supply-side problem doesn’t work; neither does blaming some group without a careful analysis of what is happening. What might work?
Read MoreIs the Economy Heading Into a Recession?
Whatever the answer, what are we going to do about it?
Read MoreLet’s Not Turn Greek Debt into a Democratic Deficit.
We need to distinguish the sovereign state from the people it governs, and the other political institutions between.
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