Year: 2022

Perhaps the most urgent task is to realise that demand-side stimulus cannot fix supply shocks. Ultimately, it took policymakers most of the 1970s to finally realise that.

Putin’s war on Ukraine, and Zelensky’s heroism, force us all to take a stand. It leaves no room for neutrality, even if dressed up as an independent foreign policy.

Targeting Putin and his supporters makes much sense. But demonising Russian culture more broadly is stupid, not least because it pushes Russians into line with the dictator.

Russia’s actions have set in motion a chain of events that could plunge the world into a serious economic crisis.

Putin’s attack on Ukraine was a complete miscalculation. But that now makes it our problem.

Challenges, threats, and severe risks abound. But does New Zealand have the institutions to handle them? Does the government have the necessary capabilities?

Germany has elevated security to the top of its political agenda. And it has finally dumped the weak, amoral, and irresponsible foreign policy of the Merkel years.

We must rediscover the cultural and political foundations of our civilisation. It is the Enlightenment values of freedom and peace that we must defend against illiberalism, both at home and abroad.