New Zealand

The best we can do about Auckland’s housing shortage apart from building more houses is to establish a rational expectation that houses will be built in the future. […]

Is parity between the Kiwi and the Aussie dollars a reason to celebrate or a to be worried? And shouldn’t we just take the opportunity to reflect on how we got there? […]

This week, the Asia New Zealand Foundation released its annual survey of New Zealanders’ Perceptions of Asia and Asian Peoples. In some ways, its results are entirely unsurprising as a large majority of New Zealanders acknowledge the growing importance of Asia. How could anyone with only a cursory knowledge of economic realities disagree? […]

I am not from Auckland, nor can I claim to be an expert on port operations, but I cannot help but wonder whether instead of talking about an extension of the port we should be talking about an entirely different question: Is the Port of Auckland really in the right spot? […]

We may have believed that New Zealand was a rock star economy, but even rock stars have to learn new tunes every now and then. Learning how to be a service economy in the Asia-Pacific may be New Zealand’s next big challenge. […]

Speculating and commenting on central banks’ next moves is something for foreign exchange traders, not Prime Ministers […]

The New Zealand Super Fund’s battle with Portugal is the first major clash in the two countries’ history. Fortunately, we do not have to expect any kind of retaliation, nor will the two sole frigates in the Royal New Zealand Navy set sail for Lisbon anytime soon. […]

From a Swiss point of view, it must be hard to imagine how fascinating, thrilling and attractive the small-scale political structure of the country appears from the outside – and that foreigners looking at Switzerland may find the workings of Swiss cantons and councils interesting or even inspiring. […]