Year: 2019

In a world in which it has become fashionable to blame markets and call for the government to fix problems, we should not let such empty rhetoric pass.

To be clear, protecting the environment is a laudable goal. But while a certain degree of naïveté may be endearing in young people, it is embarrassing for a profession that likes to call itself “learned”.

The reason for the Germans’ current Weltuntergangsstimmung (apocalyptic mood) is economic. A new book promising “The biggest crash of all time” before 2023 tops Amazon.de’s bestseller list. And now the Bundesbank, the country’s central bank, has joined the choir of doomsday merchants with its annual Financial Stability Report.

If you have never heard of a “carbolic smoke ball”, you are obviously not a lawyer. The 1892 British case Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company is a classic in the law of contract. After a new decision by New Zealand’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), we should reconsider it.

I am celebrating the anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Even though it is unnerving to realise that the 30 years that have passed have turned me into a political dinosaur at 44.

It is not enough to just say you care about the climate. We want to see effective and efficient measures to cut emissions. The Zero Carbon legislation does not deliver them.

To prevent the rise of polarisation, politicians must listen to people who think unlike themselves.

Mario Draghi might be remembered as the central banker who defended the euro while planting the seeds of its eventual destruction.