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Wellington (Wednesday, 22 July 2026) – Two weeks ago, New Zealand by Numbers asked whether New Zealand was improving. A new report from The New Zealand Initiative asks a harder question: is it keeping up? Read more
BOLD Hey Jamuel, I've just put it up on UAT now: Heading 1 bullet number link herald Wellington has its share of urban legends, most of them false.test One of the more popular ones, and a recurring social media trope, claims that America’s Army Corps of Engineers was prepared to build a proper motorway between Wellington and Auckland after the Second World War. And that the New Zealand government turned them down. Read more
When the Commerce Commission was looking into retail grocery competition, my shop urged the Commission to check on something important. As best we could tell, it would be effectively impossible for a new large-format supermarket chain to open in New Zealand. Read more
Dr Eric Crampton talked to Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB about ACT's proposal for innovation trials, which would let the government temporarily suspend regulations to test new technology such as driverless cars, AI and drones. Dr Crampton supported the idea and said New Zealand should go beyond it by also recognising products already approved overseas, pointing to geothermal energy abundance and clinical trial abundance as promising areas to trial. Read more
In 1973, 843 people died on New Zealand roads. Last year, with far more people driving far more cars, the provisional toll was 272. Read more
Wellington (Wednesday, 8 July 2026) – Is New Zealand a country in decline or a quiet success story? A new report from The New Zealand Initiative argues it is neither. Read more
Dr Oliver Hartwich talked to Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB about the New Zealand Initiative's new report tracking the country's progress across more than 100 measures. Dr Hartwich explained that gains like fewer road deaths and longer life expectancy have happened almost automatically through better technology and medicine, while the areas that need bold reform, such as housing affordability and productivity, keep lagging, with Erica Stanford's education changes a rare exception. Read more
Every July, members of the New Zealand Association of Economists – academics, practitioners, and officials – meet to tell each other what they’ve been working on. Work presented tends to be work-in-progress. Read more
Choice, competition and open markets provide strong consumer protection. The risk that a customer might shift to a competitor, or to another type of product entirely, provides discipline. Read more
National promises that, if re-elected, it will make KiwiSaver compulsory. The case for compulsion is weaker than most assume. Read more