The meaning of independence
New Zealanders must realise that, in a less benign world, an independent foreign policy cannot mean neutrality. And the Prime Minister delivered that message loud and clear. [...]
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No amount of virtue signalling and cultural appropriation can be a substitute for good policy-making. [...] -
Māori are not responsible for a central bank that has lost its way. [...] -
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. [...] -
Reality obviously has not caught up with this Government yet. New Zealand is facing an economic crisis, but the Government is having none of it. [...] -
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. [...]