If New Zealand is heading for a housing market implosion, watch what you borrow. Listener: 24 June, 2014. Keywords: Business & Finance; Macroeconomics & Money; Regulation & Taxation; When commentator Jesse Colombo in business journal Forbes said New Zealand had a housing and credit bubble, Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce shot the…
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Symposium on Inequality: Causes and Consequences June 19, 2014 Keywords: Distributional Economics; Statistics; Introduction The purpose of this paper is to present some data on top market incomes in New Zealand. It updates an earlier paper by one year to 2011/2 and extends the estimates it back to 1936/7 . The background to…
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Wellington branch, NZ Shareholders Association, 10 June 2014 Keywords: Business & Finance; Macroeconomics & Money; My topic tonight is New Zealand as a bubble economy. But I need to start with a listener warning. I am an economist, not a financial adviser – registered or unregistered. Economic theory tells us something about the context of…
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It’s election year – should the government surplus be used to a) cut taxes, b) help the poor or c) repay debt? Listener: 5 June, 2014 Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Just before the Budget there seemed to be a public disagreement on economic policy between Prime Minister John Key and Finance Minister…
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nequality, poverty, and prospects for a better life A Spirited Conversation: 28 May, 2014, Nelson Keywords: Distributional Economics; Regulation & Taxation; Social Policy; I want to begin by talking about Stacey who was a 14 year old Aucklander I met a couple of years ago when I was working on a…
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This was not published: 22 May, 2014. Keywords: Distributional Economics; Political Economy & History; Thomas Picketty’s book Capital in the Twenty-First Century ‘has transformed our economic discourse; we’ll never talk about wealth and inequality the same way we used to’. So said Paul Krugman explicitly and ever so many other eminent economists implicitly…
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Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History; In the Saturday 17 May 2014 issue of “The Dominion Post Weekend” Vernon small wrote an article. “English emerges smiling from global meltdown: Finance minister one of a string of highly competent money men, New Zealand has been ‘lucky to have’.” In it he quoted me….
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If minority interests are to be met, how are they to be funded? Listener: 15 May, 2014 Keywords: Literature and Culture; Macroeconomics & Money; Except for talkback, one thinks of radio as an audience-passive medium. Radio New Zealand (RNZ) was reminded that this is not necessarily the case at an April meeting…
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Published as a briefing paper: 13 May, 2014 (A service being provided by AUT) http://briefingpapers.co.nz/ Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; The annual May budget is a public spectacle. The Minister of Finance is photographed holding aloft a copy of his speech while those from political parties and sectors dominate media discussions…
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The answer to cutting carbon emissions is to wallop shoppers in the wallet. Listener: 24 April, 2014 Keywords: Environment & Resources; Regulation & Taxation; Who pays beer tax? Technically, it is paid to the Government by the brewers. But they pass it on, so ultimately the tax is paid by beer drinkers….
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Chips with Everything It is a fallacy to claim the poor just need financial advice to improve their lot. Listener: 10 April, 2014. Keywords: Distributional Economics; Social Policy; I was working on a standard-of-living case and was shown figures prepared by an approved budget advisory service for Meg and her daughter Stacey…
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But is it Fair? Faith Communities and Social Justice edited by Neil Darragh and published by Accent Publications (Launched at Connolly Hall, 6.00 4 April, 2014). Keywords: Political Economy & History; Social Policy; I am not sure an economist should be launching this book. While economists are often treated as today’s secular theologians…
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It’s much easier to be environmentally pure in opposition than in government. Listener: 27 March, 2014 Keywords: Environment & Resources; Political Economy & History; Last year, a blogger argued that the Green Party did not need to engage with business interests while in opposition since whatever it did, it would win no…
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Statistical errors aren’t unusual – so it’s important to measure their effects. Listener: 13th March, 2014 Keywords: Distributional Economics; Statistics; There was a bit of flapdoodle recently when the Treasury and Statistics New Zealand owned up to having made an error in some household income statistics, which had a knock-on effect on…
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The following is extracted from a funding application. It says about where the book was in early March 2014. Keywords: Political Economy & History; Not in Narrow Seas, as its title, suggests is an ambitious history of New Zealand . It is written from an economic perspective. As such it covers many…
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Can economics make the case for propping up loss-making arts ventures? Listener: 27 February, 2014. Keywords: Literature and Culture; I indulge in the Metropolitan Opera of New York’s Live in HD, cinema releases of live productions for large-screen high-definition viewing. I’m not really an opera fan, but given their quality, I am…
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Paper to the Asia Pacific Economic and Business History Conference: 13-15 February, 2014.An earlier version is at http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/2013/11/the-economy-of-the-great-war-and-after/ Keywords: Political Economy & History; Introduction and Reflection Economic history sits in an uneasy position in the academy. It is, of course, a discipline in its own right but it is also an adjunct…
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Free trade is a fine ideal but comes at the cost of compromised sovereignty. Listener: 13 February, 2014. Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Once free trade agreements (FTAs) were about reducing tariffs on imports. But it wasn’t long before it became necessary to deal with other means of favouring domestic production: import controls,…
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Listener: 8 February, 2014. Keywords: Distributional Economics; Social Policy; I hope Brian Easton (Economy, January 25) is right that child poverty is at last accepted by the conventional wisdom. He made an early contribution to the debate. However, I fundamentally disagree with him that there has been a lack of quality research….
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Briefing to a Fulbright Orientation Panel: 7 February 2014 (Note there is a minor joke in this paper which New Zealanders may miss. Thomas Frank has written a widely discussed book about US politics entitled “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”. Keywords: Political Economy & History; Tena koutou katoa. Welcome to New Zealand. …
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