2012

Liberty muted by Germany’s lost loyalties

In the strange economic world of the global financial crisis, the complexity of our problems is enormous and the challenges are manifold: public debt, unsustainable welfare systems, ageing societies – to just name a few. These would be difficult enough to solve in societies in which broad political discussions still happened and involved large parts of the population. [...]

Four reasons the euro crisis isn’t over

In case you have not noticed it, the euro crisis is over. It must be because EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso, ECB President Mario Draghi and French President François Hollande all said so over the past six months. [...]

Final Insights for 2012

As you know, 2012 was an eventful year for The New Zealand Initiative, not in the least because it was our first. Following the merger of our two predecessors, The New Zealand Institute and the Business Roundtable, my team and I have worked hard to build a credible and exciting new think tank in New Zealand. [...]

Berlusconi battles towards an Italian liberation

Because of all his personal failings, it is unlikely the Italians will give Berlusconi a fourth chance to lead their country. But he will at least trigger a debate on the benefits of Italy’s continued eurozone membership, which may well end up with a divorce. [...]

Not quite Armageddon, but ugly enough

What Australia would need instead are the kinds of structural reforms that have been neglected for years. But unlike an interest rate cut, they cannot be delivered with the stroke of a pen. [...]

Who’ll pull the trigger on the eurozone?

One of the most oft-quoted sayings in economics is Herbert Stein’s famous dictum that if something cannot go on forever, it will stop. It is so often quoted because it is logically true. It certainly holds for the construction of the eurozone and the design of those policies to rescue it. [...]

TPP welcome, but no panacea

An extended TPP may have a positive effect on FDI – and New Zealand certainly needs to improve its FDI performance. But we should not expect the TPP to be a game-changer. Instead, we need to focus more on welcoming international investors, whether from TPP member countries or not. [...]

The Times, it is a changin’

The year 2000 was one of great optimism. Appropriately, it was also the beginning of an ambitious project: to launch a new business newspaper for Germany. Meant to be a local version of the distinguished Financial Times, the Financial Times Deutschland first hit newsagents’ shelves on February 21, 2000. [...]

Watching TV can change your life

Two recent studies on the subject caught my attention. Both deal with the impacts of TV; both are big, real-world experiments; and both reach some rather unexpected conclusions. [...]

How Merkel’s fiction is writing Greece’s future

The consequences of Merkel’s mismanagement of the Greek problem will be with the Greeks for years. They will eventually cost the Germans dearly and they have set a bad precedent for Europe’s other crisis countries. [...]