Peter Jackson took a few liberties with Tolkien’s text for the Lord of the Rings films. Most of them, I didn’t like. But one addition I rather liked came at the start. Frodo complained that Gandalf had arrived late, and Gandalf replied that a wizard is never late – nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to. Read more

Should you be familiar with German children’s literature, you would have encountered a curious character: the illusory giant (Scheinriese).In the works of Michael Ende, best known for his The Never-Ending Story, there is a fearsome giant called Herr Tur Tur. Just as all proper giants, Herr Tur Tur is so big and tall that he can be seen from far away.But there is something rather unusual about the giant Herr Tur Tur. Read more

If your main exposure to economics is hearing bank economists talk on morning radio, you might not have the most accurate picture of what economists do. Trying to guess what interest rates might do, or telling stories about the latest moves in the stock market, are not really what economics is about.To get a better picture, you could do worse than attend the New Zealand Economics Association’s annual conference. Read more

“Who will guard the guards themselves?” Plato asked in the Republic in 380BC. More than two millennia later, well-armed regulatory agencies, instead of armies, wield many of the powers of the state. But the question remains as relevant today as it was in ancient Greece. Whether it is the Commerce Commission, the Financial Markets Authority, or the Overseas Investment Office, the arsenals of our regulators are fully-loaded. They have powers to compel, powers to prohibit and powers to prescribe. Read more