The moderate increases in the European Central Bank’s interest rates are far from being brutal but the writing is on the wall that Europe’s monetary party is about to end, and Southern Europe has remarkable parallels to Mexico and Latin America in the 1980s. [...]
Deregulation, privatisation, lower taxes, free trade, and openness to trade and investment may have fallen out of fashion recently. We need to bring them back into fashion to cope with our many economic challenges. Deregulation, privatisation, lower taxes, free trade, and openness to trade and investment may have fallen out of fashion recently. We need to bring them back into fashion to cope with our many economic challenges. [...]
Three Waters is about everything. It is about the government’s new race-relations agenda. It is about the Ardern Government’s direction for the country. It is about the divide between Wellington and the regions. It may even be a little about water. [...]
The strategic implications of Putin’s war against Ukraine keep evolving as the conflict enters its fourth month. As yet another unintended consequence, it has broken the anti-EU axis between Warsaw and Budapest. [...]
Stability is the task for which central banks were established. But by becoming involved in social, indigenous or environmental policy areas, central banks lost sight of it. [...]
In Māori mythology, the hero Māui once used a magic jawbone to slow the sun. If New Zealand is to avoid galloping inflation, the RBNZ governor will need to devise some similar trickery soon. [...]
Of all the developments triggered by Putin’s war, the left's departure from pacifism may be the most surprising one. It will be interesting to see whether only the left in Europe will focus on security in this way. [...]
International junkets for public servants are not my cup of tea. But I will make an exception for the New Zealand Transport Agency, Waka Kotahi. Let’s send their infrastructure team to Ukraine. [...]
When it comes to their foreign policy issues, you might not think Germany and New Zealand have much in common. But the parallels in both countries’ international positioning are astonishing. [...]
Successful economies have low unemployment. However, these are no ordinary times, and New Zealand’s ultra-low unemployment rate of 3.2% should worry everyone. [...]
Europe will face difficult monetary conditions for years to come. If the bank is unlucky, inflation expectations will solidify, and rapid price increases will become a permanent feature for the Eurozone. [...]