Month: May 2019

For politicians wishing to understand how to use moral psychology to their electoral advantage, there could be no better starting point than re-reading Jonathan Haidt’s ‘The Righteous Mind’.

Scott Morrison kam als Übergangs-Premier ins Amt. Mit seinem guten politischen Instinkt dürfte er dort noch lange verweilen.

Nothing in my work in Germany, Britain, Australia and now New Zealand has given me reason to doubt my basic beliefs: incentives matter; councils can work effectively when given the right incentives; and decision-making removed from the people it concerns creates problems.

The Reserve Bank should allow itself and the public more time for consultation on new capital requirements for banks.

May’s abject failure to deliver Brexit would always pulverise her party and the political system with it. Somewhat naively, I thought she and her party would not let it come to that. How wrong I was.

It took the Australian Government years to decide whom to task with building its next generation submarine fleet. It was still not enough time to prepare them for the cultural clash that followed.

Haidt is one of America’s most important and innovative thinkers, contributing regularly to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. With his plea for people to disagree more constructively with one another, he has an important message for New Zealand as we deal with our own divisions.