If you want affordable housing, it isn’t a choice between building townhouses and apartments downtown or subdivisions at the city’s fringes. Cities need to be able to grow in all directions, guided by where people want to live and the cost of providing infrastructure. Read more

In my last column, I used a puzzling proverb to show that we can’t simultaneously have low inflation and cheap money. Today, I use the equally puzzling comment made by Adrian Orr in the OCR announcement that the government is ‘more of a friend than foe’ to explore the relationship between our government and the Reserve Bank. Read more

When I was a lad in the 1950s, I absorbed from adults the notion that it was shameful to be reduced to applying for a state handout. Self-reliance was virtuous. Read more

Last week Victoria University of Wellington announced that it was looking to cut some 230 to 260 jobs as part of its plan to tackle a $30 million deficit. The news followed an announcement by the University of Otago that it would shed ‘several hundred’ positions in an effort to fill a $60 million dollar hole in its budget. Read more