In August 2005 a Helios Airways airplane crashed killing 121 passengers plus air crew and leaving 33 orphans. Each orphan received about €1mn in compensation which carers mainly placed in bank accounts for when the children grew older. The Cyprus bailout means most of their money is now gone. This paper explains why and how.

(more…)

Where does the locus of control sit for the average New Zealand business? Do the people we look toward to create jobs and profits and to build and expand our economy believe that they are the masters of their own destiny? Or are they waiting for external circumstances to change,? In an attempt to answer this question I added a special query to the BNZ Confidence Survey of March 7.

(more…)

I gave a talk in Sydney this week and this is the very simple handout I made available for attendees.

This is the handout I made available covering what I spoke about at a housing affordability symposium of the Albany Campus for Massey University today.

The attached brief paper was prepared for a presentation in Auckland on July 4.

This is a paper prepared as a handout for talks delivered in London over October/November 2011.

This is a quick paper put together for the Forest Industries Expo in Rotorua this week.

Medium Term Economic and Trading Outlook for the Forestry Sector

Here is our analysis of the responses to our extra question in this month’s BNZ Confidence Survey regarding the one thing people would like to see the government do. Welfare reform and cutting spending come out well on top, but there is also strong support for training assistance, leaving KiwiSaver alone, tax reform, and stopping the exchange rate from rising. What Businesses Want

Here are some comments following thre days spent in Shanghai. On The Road 5

Here are some observations regarding the Hong Kong economy gleaned from meetings with various people duirng the week.