National Business Review

The real budget challenge

Make no mistake about it: New Zealand’s enduring economic viability depends upon the government’s ability to demography-proof public finances. And on living up to this task depends the Prime Minister’s historic legacy. [...]

The new thought leaders

The most interesting policy ideas nowadays do not come out of political parties research departments, let alone their front benches. [...]

Why aren’t migrants queuing to come here?

There is a paradox: New Zealand would welcome skilled migrants, and there are a growing number of mobile high-potentials. But these people are not coming to New Zealand and are moving elsewhere instead. [...]

Stop whingeing – and get back to work

Comparing Germany’s historical experience with New Zealand’s current dollar discussion, a few things become clear. A rising exchange rate certainly poses a challenge to exporters and manufacturers. But that does not mean that they will go out of business. [...]

The wrong kind of education

Today’s graduates are brought up and educated to believe that their imagined intellectual brilliance and personal exceptionality will make up for everything else they are lacking. [...]

Can the land of the free also be the land of the brave?

As our political and economic circumstances are among the best in the world, we need to fill them with life. The opportunities to create growth and prosperity are there, we now have to embrace the idea of a growing population to seize them. [...]

MMP struggles in Germany and here

Given Germany's experience, it is high time New Zealand starting thinking carefully about the future of its electoral system. Has MMP cured the ills it was meant to or has it just made the system more complex? [...]