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The #eFairnessNZ campaign says it wants to level the playing field between imported goods and those bought domestically by New Zealand consumers. Because it costs more to collect the tax on lower valued goods than the tax revenues are worth, GST is not charged on imported products valued at less than $400. Read more

Sometimes, it takes a Labour leader to point out the deadweight costs of taxation. And so there is a lot to like in Andrew Little’s economic policy statement. Read more

A few things puzzle me in the rights-holders' cease and desist letter to New Zealand ISPs offering "Global Mode" services. That's likely because I am not a lawyer. Read more

Radical leftists like the Greek government under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and nationalist right-wingers like France’s National Front do not have many things in common. However, they can both hope to be supported by Moscow. Read more

Maintaining fiscal discipline is certainly difficult. Resisting the temptation to increase spending, particularly during an economic boom, is something that governments worldwide grapple with. Read more

A higher kiwi dollar could boost New Zealand exporters’ productivity, leaving them better off in the long run. Earlier this month the kiwi reached a record high against the euro, trading at a whisker under 70c – the highest level the kiwi has been valued against European currency since its inception. Read more

Among the most sought after locations you find in Sydney is the inner-city suburb of Pyrmont. It is not only home to headquarters of major companies such as American Express, Accenture, Vodafone, and Google. Read more

If the latest signals coming from the Federal Reserve are anything to go by, it is only a matter of time until the US central bank increases its funds rate. Most likely it is going to happen some time over the northern hemisphere summer. Read more

When the new Greek government took office in late January, I wondered whether they might be trying to play the ‘madman strategy’ in a game of chicken (The euro crisis has become a game of chicken, January 29). Behaving erratically and seemingly irrationally, so I wrote, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his finance minister Yanis Varoufakis might just drive the other Europeans to insanity -- and force them to surrender to prevent the worst. Read more

It was an unfortunate coincidence that earlier this week two interviews were published almost at the same time that demonstrated the schism between European wishful thinking and Europe’s not-so-wishful reality. Speaking to German conservative broadsheet Welt am Sonntag, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called for a common European army. Read more