Monthly Archives: May 1996

Psst, Have You Heard?

This entry was posted in Distributional Economics, Listener, Political Economy & History on by .

The Rich: A New Zealand History by Stevan Eldred-Grigg (Penguin, $34.95)
Listener: 25 May, 1996.

Keywords: Distributional Economics; Political Economy & History;

Is this book anything more than tattle-tale? Significantly it ends with the words”What, above all, would I have done with Felicity Ferret?” Admittedly The Rich does not descend to assisting the semi-literate by putting names in bold: the better schooled may dip into the index of around one thousand names.

Ex-Fortex

This entry was posted in Business & Finance, Listener, Macroeconomics & Money on by .

Newspaper commentators failed to reveal that the former company of the year was in dire straights.
Listener 18 May, 1996.

Keywords: Business & Finance; Macroeconomics & Money;

The Fortex Group, a South Island meat company went into receivership in March 1994. Two years later its managing director, Graham Thompson, was jailed for six and a half years. General manager Michael Mullin had been jailed for four years. The newspaper files which record how the company became the darling of meat industry commentators, give little hint that the company was in trouble, until right at the end. (Unsourced quotations come from journalists, who would prefer not to be remembered.)

Risky Retirement

This entry was posted in Listener, Retirement & Savings, Social Policy on by .

What You Get Out is What You Put in is A Worrying Principle for A Retiement Scheme.
Listener: 4 May, 1996.

Keywords: Social Policy;

When I began preparing this column the political party ACT had a well established policy, based on principles with which if one did not agree, at least one could understand. They have since changed their leader who has announced that parts of the policy would be changed to make them electorally attractive. Thus far their policy on retirement has not been altered, but it may be. However I am more interested in the principles. Because the ACT proposal is (or was) the most extreme scheme, it nicely illustrates key issues.