Are we evaluating the economy on the right criteria? Perhaps we should be paying more attention to rising overseas debt. The commentariat’s announcement last week that the New Zealand economy was in an ‘official recession’ by March 2023 – two quarters of output/GDP decline – was greeted with white faces by officials in the Reserve…
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Review in ‘Newsroom’ 9 May, 2023 In 1972, The New Zealand Journal of History published the article “Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Texts and Translations” by Ruth Ross (1920-1982). Its impact continues 50 years later, and is likely to remain significant in another 50 years. It’s one of the most influential pieces of work by a…
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Circulated 13 April 2023 There is a fetish for setting performance targets in, among other places, the education and health system. This note draws on economists’ experiences to caution about their use, and illustrates how this has mattered in the health system. The foundation principle is Gilling’s Law which states ‘how the game is scored…
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Working Paper for New Zealand Productivity Commission Introduction Unexpected shocks to the New Zealand economy are endemic. The numerous small ones have been dealt with by the local initiatives inherent in the market economy and by common sense. However, there are a few big shocks where national action has been necessary. Sometimes those actions have…
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Presentation to U3A Southland series on Housing in NZ, via ZOOM, 17 February, 2023. Throughout my life as a professional economist, I have been challenged by the question of whether goods and services should be provided privately or publicly. I recall in the 1960s, when there were strong calls for nationalisation of many things, the…
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Headlines Born March 1943 in Christchurch to Harry and Thelma Easton. Eldest of three. Keith (1944-2015), Jean (1950-) Married Jenny in 1966. We went our separate ways from 1996. Anita (1971-); Tama (1974-) Education 1947: Selwyn St Kindergarten 1948-1953: Somerfield Primary School 1954-5: Christchurch South Intermediate 1956-1960: Christchurch Boy’s High School 1961-63: University of Canterbury…
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Books The Future of New Zealand Medicine: A Progressive View (Peryer, 1974) 150pp – joint editor, with D.W. BEAVEN, and contributor. Social Policy and the Welfare State in New Zealand (Allen & Unwin, 1980) 182pp. (Japanese Edition, 1987) Pragmatism and Progress: Social Security in the Seventies (University of Canterbury, 1981) 128pp. Economics for New Zealand…
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Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society (1967-) Honorary Research Fellow, Research Project on Planning, Victoria University of Wellington: 1986-2000 Downing Professorial Fellow in Social Economics at the Department of Economics at the University of Melbourne: 1987 Social Science Research Fund Committee Hodge Fellow at Massey University: 1989- Associate, Institute of Executive Development, Massey University: 1993-2000…
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Brian Easton (Journalist) Interviews Brian Easton (Economist) Part I is IN OPEN SEAS: PART I: On the Seashore: (1943-1970); Part II is IN OPEN SEAS: Part II: Launched (1970-1986). Part II and Part III were going to be published as a companion pieces in Asymmetric Information but there have been no issues since August 2021 Why did…
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Brian Easton (Journalist) Interviews Brian Easton (Economist) Part I is IN OPEN SEAS: PART I: On the Seashore: (1943-1970) This was going to be published as a companion piece in Asymmetric Information but there have been no issues since August 2021 From Sussex University to Canterbury University? It was very different economics department in 1970…
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Thursday 24 November The Commission’s report on the seminar is here. It includes the my overheads which accompanied the presentation. Introduction I have been commissioned to prepare a report for the New Zealand Productivity Commission’s inquiry into economic resilience. The purpose of the report is threefold: 1. to describe how New Zealand has attempted to…
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Anderton: His Life and Times, by David Grant. (Te Herenga Waka Press) Published in READINGROOM Book of the Week: Oh, Jim. On Jim Anderton, the best PM we never had (October 27 2022). Despite the country being dominated by dreary politicians, two of the most charismatic of the last fifty years did not quite make…
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Kaitiaki Nursing New Zealand May 25, 2022 It was surprising that Finance Minister Grant Robertson, in a pre-Budget speech, said that he thought the current health system was “incredibly inefficient”. Of course there are some inefficiencies in health-care delivery, just as there are in private enterprise: mistakes happen, some treatments could have been managed better…
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Waikato Times May 21 2022 The University of Waikato made an inspired choice when it appointed Ian Pool to a chair in sociology in 1978. Strictly, he was not a sociologist. His masters degree had been in geography at the Auckland University College; his 1964 PhD in Demography was at the Australian National University under…
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This is adapted from a section of book, ‘In Open Seas’, which I am writing. I have published this extract because there has been some ahistoric claims about the characteristics of New Zealand’s public income support system. The 1972 Royal Commission on Social Security (the ‘McCarthy Commission’) pointed out that there was a case for…
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Jim Bolger Fridays with Jim (September 2021) Simon Bridges The Ambiguity of Labels (April 2020) Michael Cullen In Defence of Social Democracy (July 2021) Michael Cullen’s Policy Achievements (July 2021) Review of Michael Cullen’s Autobiography (November 2021) Chris Finlayson Liberal-Conservatives And Social Democrats: The Future Of Māori (September 2021)
Prologue This arises from an invitation by Head and Neck Cancer Support Aotearoa to set down my recent experiences. A writer always asks, who am I writing for? It would be pointless to write for those who have already had treatment; most will have had far more rugged experiences than I had. So I am…
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Jasfest, 7 December 2021 I apologise for not presenting this short tribute to Jas. I have had a tumour removed from my larynx. The prognosis is good, but it will take some time for my voice to recover sufficiently to be able to make presentations. I want to talk about Jas as a macroeconomist, but…
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New Zealand International Review November/December 2021 Vol 46, No 6 p.26-7. LABOUR SAVING: A Memoir by Michael Cullen (Allen and Unwin, Auckland, 432pp, $50) In the 40 years since Muldoon’s reign, the predominant form of national political leadership has been a dual premiership in which, broadly, the prime minister manages the politics and the co-premier…
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Conversations about our country with Jim Bolger: David Cohen (Massey University Press, Auckland, 287pp, $45.) NZ International Review (September/October 2021) p.29-31 James Brendan Bolger presents a paradox. When he became prime minister, a Tom Scott cartoon presented him as a kind of Forrest Gump; in 2017 he outshone his other three panellists: Helen Clark, Geoffrey…
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