New Zealand – Page 57 – Dr Oliver Hartwich

Folded copy of The National Business Review

MMP means much more puzzlement

4 April 2014

Personally, I find it perplexing why any country would import the mixed member proportional electoral system from Germany. Maybe the German political landscape looked superficially stable and efficient around the time New Zealand considered alternatives to its traditional Westminster-style first-past-the-post system.

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Insights

Still a long path to an NZ/EU free-trade deal

28 March 2014

There are at least three obstacles that are in the way of a free trade agreement with the Europeans. First, Europe has other priorities at the moment. Second, the EU remains an organisation with protectionist instincts. And third, we may have more to gain from a deal with the EU than vice versa.

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Is the boom here to stay?

28 February 2014

The New Zealand economy is undoubtedly in good shape but not all the factors behind the boom can or should be sustained indefinitely. This raises two questions: How much is temporary? What are the prospects once these one-off factors disappear?

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Insights

In the sweet spot of the global economy

21 February 2014

With our sound institutions and our growing integration into the Asia-Pacific economic region, if any countries are able to grow, they are New Zealand and Australia.

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Insights

Showering cash is no substitute for policy

31 January 2014

There is no shortage of issues in New Zealand that need to be tackled: the housing affordability crisis, or the challenges to our superannuation system, to name just two examples. But the opposition did not provide any game-changing policy ideas on either of them.

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Insights

Why ferries should not be a political issue

24 January 2014

A privatised Interislander would face the pressures of the market without any obstacles or lifelines from politics. It would also spare us from politicians judging or prescribing what ought to be commercial decisions of Interislander’s management.

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Interest.co.nz

Friday’s Top 10

17 January 2014

As lawyers have known since Donoghue v Stevenson, producers should not add dead snails to bottles of ginger beer or they can be liable for neglecting their duty of care.

As the Huffington Post reports, an American pimp serving a 100-year jail sentence is trying to add his own extended definition to tort law by suing Nike for US$ 100 million. Why? Because Nike failed to inform him that their shoes could be used as a weapon.

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Three big issues for 2014

2 January 2014

Parliaments may get elected, ministers and prime ministers change, bills become law but at the end of the day we are left with the same problems we have been discussing for years, if not decades:

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Insights

Good policy in times of rushed politics

20 December 2013

As we are about to enter an election year, political debate may focus more on the fight for power rather than the question of what to do with it once it is attained or secured. This does not make the job of think tanks like us any easier, but it makes our work all the more important.

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Stuff.co.nz

Foreign investment: Learning from the best

4 December 2013

Hong Kong and New Zealand are obviously very different economies with different political and social cultures. But if we want to make the New Zealand economy more attractive to job creating international investment, we might just try to learn a thing or two from the world’s best players in this business.

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