On Monday, Adrian Orr was interviewed on TV One’s Q+A programme. If you had not known that Orr is the Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, you could have mistaken him for a politician.Orr expressed clear views not just on monetary policy but on fiscal policy as well. He urged the Government to spend more, especially on infrastructure.The two policy areas are important to each other but they are not the same. Read more

When US President John F. Kennedy approved the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, he relied on advice from his staff, the defence force and the secret service. Nobody dared to voice any doubts this military attack on Cuba would be a success. Read more

When the smallish Skatbank, a direct bank based in Germany’s east, started charging its wealthy private depositors interest in November 2014, it made international headlines. It was the first German bank to do so, and negative interest rates were still regarded as a ridiculous aberration. Read more

A collegial relationship between Treasury and the Reserve Bank is a good thing in principle. Monetary and fiscal policy remain the most important levers of economic policy, and the two institutions in charge of those levers need to exchange their views. Read more

He famously claimed his chances of becoming Prime Minister were “about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive”. It probably means Boris Johnson will be a pizza topping in his next life. In the meantime, Johnson’s job as Theresa May’s successor will be dominated by sorting out Britain’s Brexit mess. Delivering Brexit would be difficult for any politician. Read more

All’s well that ends well. There is a temptation to sum up the resolution of the European Union’s personnel-finding troubles in such a Shakespearean way. Read more

In late June, the Initiative took a delegation of our members to Copenhagen.For a week, more than three dozen New Zealand business leaders traveled Denmark and South Sweden. We talked to business leaders, academics, journalists and politicians, and visited companies, education facilities, and government and non-government organisations.This was not a mission to find new trading partners but a search for policy inspiration. There were plenty of opportunities on our travels for inspiration, especially in infrastructure.In New Zealand, we know how... Read more

Next week, The New Zealand Initiative will be taking a delegation of more than three dozen senior business leaders to Copenhagen. Our members want to study and experience first-hand what makes Denmark one of the world’s most successful small countries.Denmark’s success may appear surprising given it is one of the most highly taxed countries in the world. It is often regarded as the social-democratic country par excellence, with a cradle-to-grave welfare state.There is a grain of truth in these clichés. Read more

English is not my native language – not that you can tell by my German name or accent. I did learn the language, but the journey was most unusual.My teachers were the strict-but-brilliant Frau Voß and Monty Python. The latter turned out to be particularly instructive since they also prepared me for the absurdities of British life. Without Monty Python, I would be even more hard-pressed to make sense of Brexit.Just think of the Conservative Party’s circus to find a... Read more

Denmark last Wednesday elected a Social Democrat-led government – so what else is new? Read more

Winston Peters’ comments on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre were candid. Where Western politicians have turned not upsetting China over its human rights record into an art form, the Foreign Minister left diplomatic niceties behind. In an interview with Magic Talk radio on Tuesday, the Foreign Minister was blunt. “Thirty years ago, about 10,000 people – we don’t know how many – lost their lives when Chinese army’s guns were turned on them, which is very, very... Read more