Reports & Media

Admittedly, Europe’s migration crisis is far more interesting and important, but we have to talk about Greece again. Amid all other crises plaguing Europe at the moment, the financial problems engulfing Athens had temporarily slipped off the front pages. Read more

The flagship policy in Labour’s ‘State of the Nation’ speech was the announcement to roll out three years of free tertiary education should Labour get in power at the next election. It is good politics since it will increase the party’s appeal to young people – and probably also to their parents. Read more

While traffic-bound Aucklanders celebrated the announcement last week that central government was bringing its funding for the City Rail Link (CRL) forward by two years, I could not help but feel that New Zealand has lost the infrastructure plot. Politically, this was a savvy move by Prime Minister John Key. Read more

Interest-free student loans have been very costly. The billions spent over the past decade subsidising student loans is only part of it. Read more

There are many things that are great about our cool little capital: Wellington’s wind, its regular earthquakes, and of course the Sevens. Though we can’t do much about the former two, at least we can destroy the latter. Read more

Is there anything in the world duller than cricket?* Cricket is one of those sports that is so painfully slow, that commentators have nothing to do but talk about the crowd. Or the weather. Read more

Last week, I wrote about the sorry state of Europe and the person most responsible for it: Angela Merkel (A mess of Merkel’s own making, January 28). This week, we will take a closer look at the German Chancellor, her record — and her prospects of staying in power. Read more

You may have heard last week that 62 individuals have the same wealth as the bottom half of humanity. That is, there are 62 people with the combined total wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion people in the world. Read more

The Greens’ proposal that election campaign promises be costed has drawn the praise it is due: it is an excellent proposal. But it is a harder job than it might seem. Read more

There is nothing wrong with being an old grump. With a lifetime of disappointments to reflect on, old grumps have earned the right to grouse about how things used to be back in their day. Read more

Retirement savings, lavish family holidays or private dance lessons: these are some of what the cost of a private education in New Zealand could buy according to the New Zealand Herald's calculations. The paper ran a story last Sunday questioning why New Zealand parents choose private schools for their kids. Read more