Our current fiscal settings promise that we will eventually face a public debt explosion. A major cause would arise from the ...

This review of ‘Conversations about our country with Jim Bolger’ by David Cohen was first published in the ‘NZ International ...

Should we pursue a ‘Golden Rule’ where any public borrowing for consumption is temporary? This columnist is a fiscal conservative who is cautious about government borrowing for public consumption. I ...

Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them? Every decade or so the ...

Today’s mañana strategy will lead to a crisis for the oldest elderly. It is said that the only certainties are death and taxes, but a lack of each causes uncertainties. As longevity increases, the ...

Winning office is not the same as achieving change. A recent Economist columnist divided politicians and their political advisers into either ‘jock wankers’ or ‘nerd wankers’. It’s a distinction which ...

This column started out to explain how the proposed structural outsourcing of public surgery was partly a consequence of the peculiarities of our fiscal borrowing practices. In summary, the ...

We should begin by properly acknowledging loss. The death of Act’s Port Waikato candidate, Neil Christensen, is a tragedy for his family and friends. Me tangi, kāpā ko te mate i te marama. However, ...

There is a constant theme from the economic commentariat that New Zealand needs to lift its economic growth rate, coupled with policies which they are certain will attain that objective. Their ...

The picture the commentariat presents of Winston Peters is a misleading caricature. If we don’t try to understand the complexity of the man, we cannot understand what is going on in New Zealand ...

Following the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families ...

The book I am currently working on – tentative title ‘In Open Seas’ – looks at the current and future New Zealand. One chapter describes the policy towards Covid using the trope of warfare. It covers ...