The High Court recently decided that when the Ministry of Social Development calculates a social security beneficiary’s income any mortgage and credit cards loans she received were not income. Quite right, but it took a tortuous path to come to the right conclusion.
Read MoreEconomy
Is Democracy in Retreat?
A Harvard academic explains why some kinds of democracy are becoming less popular.
Read MoreTo Wed or not to Wed.
Why are we not worried by an unmarried mother leading the country? Once we would have been.
Read MoreBad Statistics
Mike Hosking’s statistical ignorance is so extraordinary that one’s immediate reaction is that a description of it was satire; nobody could be as ill-informed as that – and certainly not a major public commentator.
Read MoreHow’s the Government Doing?
The term of the 52nd New Zealand Parliament is a quarter of the way through. We ought to be getting some impression of the government by now.
Read MoreEnabling Us to Assess Government Performance Better
It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. I am quite sure that it is figures which show us whether it is being ruled well or badly. Goethe
Read MoreTrade Wars
How Can New Zealand Deal with a Trade War Between Elephants?
Read MoreCommon Good Economics
Another French economist contributes an uncommonly good book.
Read MoreOf Foxes and Hedgehogs
Hedgehogs thrive in New Zealand, more so than in Eurasia where they come from. Any foxes are in zoos.
Read MoreWhat does the Labour’s first budget tell us?
Was it National-lite or is it a new direction?
Read MoreHeke Tangata, Māori in Markets and Cities
My new book describes the great postwar Māori migration from the countryside into the cities.
Read MoreScoring Carbon Emissions.
A powerful social law suggests we often explain or do things the wrong way. This may be particularly true when we try to address Global Warming.
Read MoreImproving the Child Poverty Reduction Bill
Extract from submission to a Select Committee of Parliament (Social Services and Community Committee).
Read MoreSquaring the Budget Circle
Should the government borrow more, spend more, tax more?
Read MoreHow Open an Economy?
Does Trump’s toying with the US rejoining the TPP mean anything?
Read MoreTax isn't love, it's resentment
Rather than embracing tax like a beloved cuddly toy, we should pay it kicking and screaming and we'll be the better for it if we do.
Read MoreDo You Trust Your Community?
The history of licensing trusts leads to questions about the importance of communities to us. Will they survive?
Read MoreA Big Change in Monetary Policy?
The Government’s new arrangements with the Reserve Bank represent an explicit acknowledgement of a major shift in theoretical underpinnings; whether it makes much change to the Bank’s operations is another matter.
Read MoreResponsibility and Policy
Are we too relaxed about those who promote policy failure?
Read MoreAre We Boiling Frogs?
Environmental pressures have been steadily accumulating. Are we aware of them? Are we responding?
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