Douglas Adams, despite being very highly rated, remains underrated. His Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a masterpiece. Read more
New Zealand has built one of the most complex executive governments in the developed world. With 81 ministerial portfolios spread across 28 ministers and 43 departments, we operate with more than three times as many ministerial portfolios and nearly twice as many departments as peer nations like Ireland, Norway and Singapore. Read more
Fifteen years ago, as Greece teetered on debt default, I started covering European affairs in my columns. Readers may remember the emergency summits, riots in Athens, and financial bailouts from 2009 to 2012. Read more
In my last Insights column, I explained what grade inflation is and why it’s bad. I also surveyed research showing that grade inflation is a problem at universities in the US, the UK, and Australia. Read more
When council rates rise at five times the rate of inflation, while water pipes burst and potholes multiply, something has gone very wrong. Council rates jumped 12% last year, the steepest increase in decades, and will on average increase 9% this year. Read more
Auckland desperately needs homes. Under thirties are giving up on finding homes while politicians promise solutions. Read more
At universities across the English-speaking world, grades have been going up. At US colleges, As (A+, A or A-) are now the most common grade. Read more
Last week, New Zealand’s Reserve Bank (RBNZ) cut interest rates to 3.0 percent. The government was quick to take the credit. Read more
When a constitutional law professor warns of “dangerous foes” threatening New Zealand’s legal system, you might expect concern about genuinely destabilising forces – political interference with judicial independence, or threats to the rule of law itself. You would be wrong. Read more
“Artificial unintelligence more like it.” So declared a reader of The Australian after one of my recent columns on artificial intelligence. Another chimed in with this observation: ‘AI can NOT work out what is a Spam or Phishing E-Mail, something that a human can do at just a glance.’ I stared at these comments, genuinely bewildered. Read more
It is hard to tell whether politicians have forgotten New Zealand’s pioneering work in inflation targeting and the central bank independence needed to back it up. Or if they simply fail to see the risks. Read more
Everyone is familiar with the term ‘monopoly’. It gets used a lot, often inappropriately. Read more
Learning to read is the first step in school education. It is essential to later learning. Read more
When government makes it hard for a start-up company’s investors to sell up and move on, it simultaneously warns other investors to steer clear. Or, as economists sometimes put it, barriers to exit are barriers to entry. Read more
It takes talent to lose listeners in a medium still drawing three and a half million Kiwis a week. But Radio New Zealand has managed it with aplomb. Read more