Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio.

I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Given that global trade has had something of a tumultuous year, you might expect that shipping companies would be having a tough time.

Not so. The notoriously behind the curve industry seems to be navigating the rough seas just fine.

On the other hand, museums are struggling, and now's the time if you're in the market for some high-end art.

Many are selling off some of their finest works.

We look into how art's cultural value can be overlooked or undersold in times of crisis.

But first... This weekend, New Zealand's Labour Party swept to a fairy tale victory.

The end of the stage, the undefeated, and still the Prime Minister of New Zealand, the right-operable Jacinda Ardardin,

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, beamed as a rapturous crowd applauded, beginning her speech with a thankful Maori greeting.

Ms Ardurne promised a big tent kind of administration.

And governing for every New Zealander has never been so important, more than it has been now.

We are living in an increasingly polarized world,

a place where more and more people have lost the ability to see one another's point of view.

Having come in for criticism during the campaign on failing to address housing shortages and poverty,

she acknowledged there were difficulties ahead.

And over the next three years, there is much work to do.

We will build back better from the COVID crisis.

Better, stronger, with an answer to the many challenges New Zealand already faced.

Challenges or no, the scale of the win came as a surprise even to her supporters.

Probably the easiest way of describing it is that it was unparalleled in modern New Zealand history.

...