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Central government is squandering billions of dollars of householders’ income. It is doing so simply because it lacks the incentive to assess value for money with sufficient rigour. Read more

When you are in a hole, you should stop digging. What sounds like timeless advice apparently does not apply in the eurozone. Read more

Now that the Greek banks have re-opened, the third bailout package is on the way and something vaguely resembling normalcy is returning to Greece, we can finally deal with other things again: the euro crisis, for example. You may object that what kept us so excited, frightened and busy over the past few months was the euro crisis. Read more

As readers of this column will be aware, I am not Angela Merkel’s greatest fan. Nor do I think that her strategy on Greece has been particularly successful. Read more

With the exception of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, the Greek referendum did not produce any winners. But it had one big loser: German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Read more

Rapid technological change is more often than not a painful thing, littered with the bodies of those firms and industries that failed to adapt - just ask Kodak, Betamax and former mobile phone giant Nokia. That painful change is brewing again, this time in the form of next generation of transport technologies, such as the Uber. Read more

It is often easy to take for granted the strong institutional backbones supporting highly-developed, western democratic nations like New Zealand. Robust rule of law, separation of powers, governmental accountability, personal freedom, private property protection, bodily autonomy and social safety nets tend to exist with little conscious thought – or even appreciation – by many. Read more

As a researcher at a public policy think tank with a strong focus on economics, it is sometimes easy to take prices, and the influence they have on behaviour and innovation, for granted. Two recent incidents highlighted how powerful this mechanism can be. Read more