A physician’s memoir describing a successful research program leads to pondering about research funding strategies. (The ...

Winning office is not the same as achieving change. A recent Economist columnist divided politicians and their political advisers into either ‘jock wankers’ or ‘nerd wankers’. It’s a distinction which ...

Angus Deaton’s ‘Economics in America’ challenges the direction that economics has taken.

What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions. I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on ...

While there have been decades of complaints – from all sides – about the workings of the Resource Management Act (RMA), replacing is proving difficult. The Coalition Government is making another ...

A previous column looked at Winston Peters biographically. This one takes a closer look at his record as a minister, especially his policy record.

On election night 2020 the sense of triumph around Labour was palpable, the grins as wide as the Waikato. Today’s Budget is why. After years of compromise, contradiction and incompetence, this is the ...

A bunch of legal and political studies academics think the proposed Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Bill (or, party hopping law) is a bad idea. Here's why.

There are three major but separate issues which constitute our housing problem: not enough quality housing; a speculative boom in house prices generating unsustainable inflation; an inability by ...

That said, the big question is whether having those select committees still carrying on their business provides sufficient mechanisms of accountability and scrutiny for the government’s actions.

The recognition that there is a media problem is correct, but the chosen solution is likely to be disastrous.

As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory ...