Few outcomes of the US midterm elections could have been predicted with certainty. Except that President Trump would call the result a “tremendous success” no matter what. And he did just that. If losing control of the House of Representatives is such a tremendous success, one might wonder what keeping it would have been. Semantics aside, the President has a point. From his perspective, it could have been a lot worse. Read more

Last month, I wrote why Angela Merkel’s days as Germany’s head of government were numbered. This month, it is time to speculate who might succeed her as leader of her CDU party – and ultimately as chancellor. Read more

Today is 2 November, and for conservative Christians among us that means All Souls. For the rest, it is just day two after Halloween. Halloween is a strange feast in our calendar. Nobody knows what is celebrated and why. But that, I would argue, makes it the perfect candidate for New Zealand’s next public holiday. We need more nonsensical feasts to guide us through the year. Read more

“Freedom or Socialism!” Behind this battle cry, many conservatives gathered during the Cold War. Read more

Political scandals usually have a policy core – unlike Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross’ falling out with his now former party, which appears to be about personal issues as much as anything else. Read more

According to Karl Marx, history repeats itself – the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. Looking at Italy’s looming debt crisis, he might have had it the wrong way around. Read more

Oil prices rising, the Kiwi dollar falling: these are the economic issues dominating our domestic headlines. It is understandable that New Zealanders follow such developments with eagerness. They directly feel the effects at the petrol pump and on their next international holiday. However, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reminded us this week, the world economy is undergoing fundamental shifts – and these transformations could dwarf the things we fret about. Read more

Few politicians reach influence and status like Angela Merkel. Leader of her Christian Democrat Party for 18 years and German Chancellor since 2005, Merkel has topped the Forbes list of the 100 most powerful women for seven consecutive years. In 2015, TIME magazine named her ‘person of the year’. Read more

It does not happen too often that politicians do what I want them to do. It is even stranger when this almost makes me change my mind. New Zealand First’s Respecting New Zealand Values Bill has achieved this remarkable feat. When I received my permanent resident visa three years ago, I wrote an NBR column about the experience. What irritated me at the time were two things. First, that I received it with no sort of welcome letter. Read more

It is a sure sign I am getting old. At age 43, I am still working and I do not think it is a problem. If I shared the attitude held by a growing number of much younger people, I would have retired three years ago. Yes, you read that right: Retired. At 40. Like so many other movements, the frugalist movement started in America. Also known as FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early), it has since gained followers worldwide. Read more

The hills were not alive with the sound of music last Thursday. That is when British Prime Minister Theresa May met with the European Union’s 27 other national leaders in the Austrian city of Salzburg.Promoted as an informal summit to allow the two Brexit sides to overcome their schisms, the summit only reinforced them. But maybe that was the whole point.The longer the Brexit negotiations drama goes on, the more observers might wonder what kind of game is being played here. Read more

It had to take an evolutionary psychologist and a lawyer to dissect (some of) the craziness of modern society and polity. Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s new book The Coddling of the American Mind is required reading for anyone wishing to understand 21st century politics, not just in the US but globally. At first sight, the book is about good intentions, bad parenting, and the education system. It shows how young people are being damaged by an emotional ‘safety first’ culture. Read more

In his latest 'Spotlight on Europe' column for Newsroom, Dr Oliver Hartwich explains just how undemocratic the European Union is, while at the same time it keeps trying to tell its members to be democratic.“I’d never join a club that would accept me as a member,” says Woody Allen’s character in Annie Hall. With the European Union, it is the other way around: The EU would reject new members as anti-democratic as itself.Nowhere is the EU’s democratic deficit more visible... Read more

“Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck.” This is how the late Donald Horne once described the West Island in The Lucky Country (1964). Half a century later, Horne’s double characterisation of the country and its political leadership applies more than ever. If proof was needed, it was provided by the overthrow of a sitting Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull by his own party last week. Read more

The New Zealand Initiative's CEO Dr Oliver Hartwich introduces his fortnightly 'Spotlight on Europe' column for Newsroom Pro this week. He describes himself as both a Europhile and an EU sceptic, and explains why New Zealanders should care about the continent where the modern world is crumbling.I was delighted when Newsroom offered me this new fortnightly column. From 2010 to 2016, I contributed a weekly Europe column to an Australian business magazine. Read more