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There was something in the original plans for the post-earthquake Christchurch downtown rebuild that never really made much sense. Well, there were a lot of things that never made any sense, both in the plans and in practice, and that's why a lot of business fled to the suburbs. Read more

Over the past few months, you could not drive through any of our big cities without seeing some strange advertising messages. They were strange because, in our world of doom and gloom, they were spreading good news. Read more

The Ministry of Business’ Fair Pay Agreement discussion paper released last month took a long time coming. The ministry sat on it for 10 months following the release of the Bolger-led Fair Pay Agreement Working Group’s report last December. Read more

When the government presses ahead with incomprehensible proposals, you have to ask “Why?” A classic example is the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Discussion Paper, Designing a Fair Pay Agreements System. Submissions in response to the Discussion Paper were due earlier this week. Read more

Sometimes, being at the front of the queue isn't a good thing. If you lined countries up in a row, starting with the places least friendly to foreign investment, and ending with the places with the fewest restrictions, New Zealand would be near the front of the queue. Read more

The Government can pass whatever legislation it likes regulating the relationship between landlords and tenants. Some of it might make sense; some of it might wind up harming the people it’s intended to help. Read more

To misquote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “Methinks today too many business leaders and politicians doth protest too much.” Less lip service to virtue and more meaningful action might be a fine thing. Or, at least, the risk of having to act in accordance with professed virtues might temper such protestations. Read more

There was a great old The Three Stooges bit about plumbing that teaches us a lot about regulation. The Stooges were a trio of hapless idiots who produced comedy gold in the days before colour television. Read more