The tensions between different approaches to the economy are surfacing as the election nears.

Pragmatic analysis says maybe we should, but we should also consider nationalisation. We should certainly consider better regulation.

The pressure to globalise is consolidating towards a global world in which the US is a marginal player.

We should follow the Golden Rule of Fiscal Management and not borrow for consumption in the medium run.

Queen Elizabeth II famously asked about the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, ‘Why did no one see it coming?’

What do the 2025 Nobel awards in economics say to us?

This review of ‘Conversations about our country with Jim Bolger’ by David Cohen was first published in the ‘NZ International Review’ .

Our current fiscal settings promise that we will eventually face a public debt explosion. A major cause would arise from the aging population. Is there anything we can do?

With the passing of Jim Bolger, New Zealand has lost a politician defined by another era, but who helped usher in the modern age of coalitions and managers. A politician who was never popular but who has become increasingly admired

New Zealand has ‘Scandinavian ambitions in terms of quality of life, but a US attitude to tax’: Lara Clark.

It even happens in New Zealand. Local autonomy suffers.

What the latest Statistics New Zealand GDP figures might be telling us.

Big Corporations Are Not What We Think They Are

Do we need bigger multipurpose government mega-departments?

With his ‘I have the right to do anything I wanna do. I'm the president of the United States.’ Donald Trump is echoing Louis XIV who may have said ‘L’état, ce’est moi’ – ‘I am the state.’*

What are the economic and political implications if the New Zealand economy stagnates for five and more years?

A physician’s memoir describing a successful research program leads to pondering about research funding strategies. (The picture shows Eric Espiner with present and former colleagues celebrating his book launch.)

What can Econ101 tell us about Trump’s tariffs?

The Government’s Growth Strategy Seems to Have Little Analytic Content.

Angus Deaton’s ‘Economics in America’ challenges the direction that economics has taken.

Winning office is not the same as achieving change.

Why is the British Labour Government penalising its poor?

We should not assume that all adopted innovations are progressive. Jonathon Haidt’s ‘The Anxious Generation’ illustrates that sometimes they require social measures to enhance well being.

What can you do when you have hit your borrowing limit and still want to spend?

Why Government borrowing is limited

Trump may be accelerating the decline of US power.

The Government’s plans to remove the wellbeing provisions in the Public Finance Act represents a reversal of the way society is travelling.

ACT ‘s neoliberals are still trying to sneak in a change to the constitution.

Monopsonies – dominant purchasers – need to be restrained as much as monopolies – dominant sellers. That is what pay equity is about.

Perhaps the state of the economy is not as sound as we are being told.