The International Monetary Fund has concluded its 2018 visit to New Zealand, checking with a broad range of stakeholders on how things are going here. Executive Director Oliver Hartwich and I were happy to share our views with them last week. We argued that the most pressing issue facing New Zealand is housing. In addition to the obvious problems caused by housing shortages, they also fuel xenophobia. Read more

As recently as in the 1920s, cyclists in the Tour de France would take ‘smoking breaks’, assisting team-mates to light-up while still cycling. Since then, scientific research and evidence has well and truly debunked the myth that smoking is good for athletic performance.   In some ways, education today is like medicine was before science. It is vulnerable to emotions, ideologies and our individual beliefs: the prisms through which we view the world. Read more

The BBC recently reported that Dutch authorities had removed singing road lines one day after their installation. Special strips in the asphalt played the anthem of the Friesland province if motorists drove over them at the correct speed of 60 kph. The move was designed to promote safe driving at correct speeds. However, the noise drove neighbouring villagers to distraction. Some enterprising motorists drove over the strips at high speeds trying to play the music at double speed. Read more