Is it a good idea for New Zealand to try and resurrect the Trans-Pacific Partnership without the involvement of the USA? And, if it does so, will the Government have to go back to Parliament and ask it to change a Bill it's just agreed to?
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Restoring Fiscal Responsibility
The times are a’changing, as recent macroeconomic fashions are being abandoned and old verities are being restated.
Read MoreAngry People
The alienated Angries who supported Brexit and Trump are not going to go away.
Read MoreSo long, Leonard
Leonard Cohen has died. His music won't.
Read MoreWhen hate Trumps love – America's search for a DeLorean
Many thousands of Americans looked past Donald Trump's nastiness, abuse and incompetence in search of a time that has gone, tragically rejecting a woman with the potential to have made real change
Read MoreSub Lege
It is important that judges face criticism―but not attacks like those on the judges who decided the Brexit case
Read MoreJAFA Inequality
While overall income inequality may have been relatively stable over the last two decades, it appears to be increasing in Auckland (and perhaps in our other big urban centres).
Read MoreThey said I'd better take anything they'd got
A couple of interesting developments - one on the other side of the world and one here at home. Turns out that the UK's Parliament is still sovereign (who knew?). And I think Gareth Morgan should be given more praise than scorn for wanting to inject some thinking into New Zealand's political scene.
Read MoreKris Faafoi is no fun and I'm not playing with him anymore
The shame of the Saudi Sheep deal, or democracy gone to the dogs
Finally, we see the Auditor-General's report on the Saudi sheep deal and it's "significant shortcomings", and if you're not angry, you haven't been paying attention. Because here's the real story...
Read MoreMy hot takes on the Auditor General's "sheep-to-sand report"
The Auditor General has found that Murray McCully (and the rest of his National Party cabinet colleagues) are not corrupt criminals. They just entered into a deal with a Saudi businessman without really knowing why, what that deal would do, or the basis for giving him some $11 million or our money.
Read MoreWho Was Accountable for the Shambles?
A novel about an historical event reminds us of the health redisorganisation of the 1990s, raising issues remaining relevant to today.
Read MoreBill English admits his Government is a 'moral and fiscal failure'
New Zealand has fallen prey to penal populism: our prison population is at an all time high – driven by victims rights groups and the public's moral panic over violent crime
Read MoreSing me to sleep
The real scandal isn't that the Police set up a (probably) illegal drink driving checkpoint to get the names of elderly people interested in exercising control over the circumstances of their own death. It's that our law doesn't allow such people an option without having the Police stick their noses in to it.
Read MoreCan Te Awamutu Have its Own Independent Central Bank?
Pretending it can, or that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand can function independently from the rest of the world, could generate a financial crash.
Read MorePolitics ... coming soon to a screen near you
The Court of Appeal's decision on the Planet Key's legal status means that we are likely to see and hear a lot more political advertising. And it also renders the Government's just announced reforms of party political broadcasts completely out of date.
Read MoreThe Nobel for Economics?
What does the latest Economics Prize in honour of Alfred Nobel tell us about economics as a science?
Read MoreWhy do the write thing?
The reasons Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Andrew Butler give for their constitution-writing project are not convincing.
Read MoreDo We Need Poverty Targets?
No, but we need to address poverty. Focusing on poverty targets which are not to be achieved in the time of the government which sets them is wasting energy and opportunity.
Read MoreLessons from the weekend of politics
A few takeaways from the local body elections, including lessons for Labour and National and the start of 'The Phil & Bill Show'. Whoooo will win?
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