Listener: 1 October, 2011. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; The world’s economic difficulties arise because so many balance sheets are badly balanced. A balance sheet – of a person, a business, a financial institution, a government or a country – consists of the entity’s assets on the left and its liabilities on the right. (Accountants are…
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Listener: 17 September, 2011. Keywords: Environment & Resources; Governance; The cinema may give a good idea about the sewers of Paris and Vienna, but I have little idea what goes on underneath the city in which I live. I just pull the plug or chain and the waste magically disappears. For the citizens of Christchurch,…
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Thiis was prepared for an essay competition on Chemistry, However it did not meet the competition rules. The ‘Listener’ column it refers to is ‘My Chemical Romance’ at http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=934 Keywords: Miscellaneous; The Listener economics column which follows this introduction was published in a January when I write columns which, while covering an economic topic, are…
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Letter to Herald on Sunday, published 4 September 2011 Keywords: Political Economy & History; Debrioh Coddington said I blamed ‘Rogernomics for Pike River’s 29 miner deaths’. (Herald on Sunday, 28 August) I did not and have not. I await the outcome of the Royal Commission which is far more expert and informed than I am….
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Listener: 3 September, 2011. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Does New Zealand deserve the Rugby World Cup? No, I am not concerned about who wins it; I hope the best team wins, and you know who that is. But do we deserve to be hosts? Compare our feeble efforts with other big tournaments whose hosts deliberately…
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Spirited Conversations: Nelson 24 August, 2011 A revised version of this column is at http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1549. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Macroeconomics & Money; Tonight I want to talk to talk about our economic priorities. I’m going to differ from the conventional wisdom by arguing we should pay less attention to the growth of…
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Listener: 22 August, 2011. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; How much theatre was involved in the congressional fracas over the raising of the US debt ceiling is hard to tell. Had the ceiling not been lifted, the unthinkable – or, at least, the unpredictable – would have happened, so perhaps the politicians were posturing, expecting a…
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This article by John McCrone, features writer of “The Christchurch Press”, was published on 20 August in the Mainlander Section of “The Press”. It was also published by “The Dominion Post” on the same day under the title ‘Legacy of Rogernomics: Less Red Tape But More Heartache and Financial Disasters’. It is republished here because…
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The Fine Line Between Gambling and Investment Listener: 3 August, 2011. Keywords: Business & Finance; Various people have produced their slant on the global financial crisis. The film Inside Job had little new in it, although some found it valuable. I greatly enjoyed the Circa play-reading of David Hare’s The Power of Yes – it…
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Paper to Treasury Seminar: 26 July, 2011. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History; Introduction I am writing a history of New Zealand from an economic perspective. Thankyou for the opportunity to present some of its material; it may have a contemporary relevance. I want particularly to thank John Whitehead, who…
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The Reserve Bank’s cobbled measures got us through the 2008 crisis Listener: 23 July, 2011. Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Political Economy & History; 1878: While Julius Vogel was on a ship to London, the City Bank of Glasgow crashed. The London money market – the financial centre of the world – plunged. Although we were…
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A Research Gathering: Viewing New Zealand’s Social, Economic and Political History Through the Eyes of the CPI; 15 July, 2010 Keywords: Political Economy & History; Statistics; My task today is to convey that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) occurs in an economic, political and social context. That does not mean that the statistic lacks authority,…
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This note was originally much more elaborate, because I had a very complicated account of what I thought McIlraith was trying to do. And then I worked out the following. A bit of a let down, but here to save others doing the same. Keywords: Statistics; James Wordsworth McIlraith (1877-195?[1]) is best remembered for his…
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Policies formed in Opposition can bite a new government. Listener: 9 July, 2011. Keywords: Political Economy & History; Jim Anderton once said that a bad day in Government was better than a year in Opposition. But decisions made in parliamentary opposition may end up as many bad days in government, for that is where election…
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Ministry of Culture and Heritage History Seminars: 6 July 2011 Keywords: Political Economy & History; Today I want to talk about my current project: writing a history of New Zealand from an economics perspective – it has the tentative title Not in Narrow Seas. It may seem over-ambitious to take on such a challenge, since…
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Keywords: Growth & Innovation; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; The Asia New Zealand Foundation kindly made a grant to enable me to visit India. Here are the columns I wrote: A CLASH OF TITANS (22 January, 2011) http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1416 GOD’S OTHER COUNTRY (19 February, 2011) http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1435 INDIA’S UNMET DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENT NEEDS…
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India is a country of the past, but it is also a country of the future. Listener: 25 June, 2011. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; Many New Zealanders find India mysterious, for we don’t have much to do with it – unfortunately it is just out…
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Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; I should like to begin by congratulating the organisers of the conference. There has been an open, vigorous and flowing debate, reminiscent of the New Zealand economics community of the 1960s and 1970s, where a wide range of views were presented as diverse as Wolf Rosenberg on the left through to…
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Some Preparatory Notes: ultimately not used. Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Macroeconomics & Money; I am not sure you have asked the right person to be on the panel, since the topic is policy; my interests are research. So I thought I would consult an old friend, Cassandra. Fortunately I dont have to channel her; she…
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Letter to The Dominion-Post, 10 June, 2011. Keywords: Governance; Lacking the impetus to chase hard stories, the ‘Dominion-Post’ ran a survey of government departments last Tuesday based on the rankings of an arbitrary panel. At the bottom was the Ministry of Culture and Heritage scoring 3.18/7. This reflected that the panel did not contain the…
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