Sometimes, being at the front of the queue isn't a good thing. Read more

To misquote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “Methinks today too many business leaders and politicians doth protest too much.” Read more

Taken at face value, the government’s zero-carbon bill is a toothless façade. On closer examination, it looks more like a Trojan Horse for dictatorial government by decree. Read more

Rabobank recently reported farmer confidence had plummeted in the September quarter. Some 41% of surveyed farmers expected the rural economy to worsen next year. Only 8% expected an improvement. That net negative response was 33%, far below a negative 2% in the June quarter. Read more

The apparently successful illegal occupation of private property in Auckland’s Ihumātao is potentially a serious setback for the rule of law, and thereby New Zealanders’ wellbeing. Also disturbing are the more immediate implications for Auckland housing and the Treaty of Waitangi claims process. Read more

In 1936, the father of Keynesian economics, John Maynard Keynes, used the term ‘animal spirits’ to refer to the fluctuating human emotions that can drive economic decisions in stressful times. Read more

What are budget advisers to make of the Reserve Bank governor’s call for increased public and private spending? Read more

These are strange times, even for economists. Fearmongers are urging governments to pump up their spending in order to maintain economic activity. Read more

Alan Duff’s latest book – A Conversation with My Country: Where we have come from. Where we can go. – takes a characteristically thoughtful and constructive look at the pockets of pathological behaviours our welfare state has nurtured for decades. Read more

We cannot vouch for the authenticity of the following conversation that mysteriously arrived in my Inbox. The sender’s name was Dante, surely a fake. Read more

The Organisation for Economic Corporation and Development’s latest economic survey of New Zealand was published last week. Read more