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There was a whiff of Monty Python about the Brexit referendum. In Life of Brian, the People’s Front of Judea asks the famous question: “What have the Romans ever done for us?” As it turns out, very little – apart from providing Judea with sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, public health and peace. Read more

It is midday New Zealand time, and in Britain they have just started counting the votes of their referendum on EU membership. Polling day surveys show a narrow lead for the Remain camp. Read more

Groucho Marx did not want to belong to any club that accepted people like him as members. Next Thursday, the British will have to decide if they feel the same way about the European Union. Read more

Globally, growth in productivity and GDP has stalled. Much of the West and Japan suffer from rapidly deteriorating demographics and crippling levels of debt. Read more

Auckland’s housing crisis produces some strange side effects. One of them is that the word ‘boarding school’ might acquire a new meaning. Read more

It has now been a couple of weeks since we found out that the Overseas Investment Office was not being as thorough in its background character checks on investors as some might have wanted. Every day, I’ve been scanning the newspaper headlines, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Read more

It is a journalistic sin to come up with headlines such as “Small earthquake in Chile, not many dead”. With that in mind, you have to pity journalists trying to write about yesterday’s budget. Read more

In 1965, South Korea and Kenya had more in common than they have today. In summary, both countries were poor. Read more