Now here’s an economic policy idea: What if we strategically placed a few pocket-sized atomic bombs around New Zealand and detonated them?

Not too devastating to wipe the country off the face of the earth, of course. But strong enough to cause significant damage to the infrastructure of our cities, destroy some residential housing and leave behind a lot of rubble to be cleaned up.

If this sounds like madness to you, you are absolutely right. In any case, as a German I probably should not even have suggested it (“Don’t mention the war!”).

But essentially, the same logic lies behind claims that the Canterbury rebuild, and the ‘stimulus’ it allegedly provides, are an exciting opportunity to the economy, so presumably the earthquakes were a good thing after all.