Year: 2014

Business Spectator

Miracles and mirages in the eurozone wonderland

10/04/2014
In that faraway wonderland that it is the eurozone, nothing is quite what it seems. It is a strange place where half-bankrupt governments can plan a return to capital markets at moderate yields, and a central bank is able to impress analysts by talking about things it cannot do. Both instances are patently absurd, but just because something is absurd has never stopped it from happening in Europe.

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National Business Review

MMP means much more puzzlement

04/04/2014
Personally, I find it perplexing why any country would import the mixed member proportional electoral system from Germany. Maybe the German political landscape looked superficially stable and efficient around the time New Zealand considered alternatives to its traditional Westminster-style first-past-the-post system.

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Business Spectator

France is Europe’s largest time bomb

03/04/2014
Published in Business Spectator (Melbourne), 3 April 2014 By all measures, it was a defeat of historic proportions for President François Hollande and his Socialist Party. Last weekend’s French local elections have turned the country upside down, or rather shifted it to the political right. It is also a reminder that of all the time bombs […]
Insights

‘E’ is for entrepreneur

28/03/2014
So next time you are looking for a better bargain, or a new job, you may feel a little like Gordon Gekko, Citizen Kane or Mr Burns: we are all entrepreneurs now … even the French.

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Insights

Still a long path to an NZ/EU free-trade deal

28/03/2014
There are at least three obstacles that are in the way of a free trade agreement with the Europeans. First, Europe has other priorities at the moment. Second, the EU remains an organisation with protectionist instincts. And third, we may have more to gain from a deal with the EU than vice versa.

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Business Spectator

Why government spending doesn’t pay

20/03/2014
Markets are very good mechanisms for allocating resources via the price mechanism. By destroying the price mechanism, and by also undermining the incentives to disciplines of the market place, government almost by definition weakens the economy’s potential.

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Insights

‘C’ is for competition

14/03/2014
To promote competition, the most important things regulators can do is to just let it evolve. Competition does not need encouragement, nor does it need to be mandated. It is just what happens naturally when scarce resources meet unlimited demands. Rainforests do not need gardeners, either.

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Business Spectator

The slow death of Europe’s utility icon

14/03/2014
In witnessing the first annual loss of RWE, we are watching the decline of a once great company. It has been brought down not by mismanagement but by political forces beyond its control. As such, it is a textbook example of political risk.

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Business Spectator

Europe’s para-democratic madness

06/03/2014
Far from being a celebration of democracy — the European elections are actually the second-largest democratic elections in the world after India — they will only emphasise what is wrong with Europe.

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