Could New Zealand become a “Southern Rock”? Listener: 11 July, 2009. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Northern Rock, a British bank specialising in mortgages, nearly went bust a couple of years ago. It was getting a quarter of its funds from depositors, with the remaining three-quarters coming from the international money market –…
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Paper to the 50th Anniversary Conference of the New Zealand Association of Economists: 1 July, 2009: Wellington. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Statistics; This paper looks only at the first 25 years of the New Zealand research program on economic growth. It focuses on the empirical analysis but refers…
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Report prepared for the New Zealand Law Commission. Filed 30 June, 2009. Executive Summary Keywords: Health; : Health;1. The Policy Framework It is assumed that any review of the Sale of Liquor Act 1989 will continue the policy framework on which it was based. Previously, the implicit assumption was that almost all alcohol consumption was…
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Report prepared for the New Zealand Law Commission. Filed 30 June, 2009. The Executive Summary was reproduced in the Law Commission’s report Alcohol in Our Lives, p.172-175. The full report Keywords: Health; Conclusions – on the whole, much alcohol consumption is benign or even socially beneficial, but some generates very great…
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Report prepared for Te Maru o Ngati Rangiwewehi (June 2009) Keywords: Environment & Resources; Maori; Introduction My name is Brian Henry Easton. I am an independent scholar with particular expertise in economics, social statistics and public policy analysis. I hold a D.Sc. from the University of Canterbury and am an adjunct professor at the Institute…
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Paper to the summit “Reviewing New Zealand’s Accident Compensation System” Wellington, 29 June, 2009. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Social Policy; The world is facing a global financial crisis with the international system malfunctioning, as many banks – which provide the means of payment and facilitate investment – having to limit their lending…
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Appendix to Forecasting New Zealand’s Net International Investment Position Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; I really wanted to project foreign liabilities relative to all assets. It is a different story if the liabilities rise more slowly than the assets or vice versa. Statistics New Zealand provides estimates of ‘Net Capital Stock’ which is the accumulated sum…
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This paper was prepared in January 2009 and revised in June 2009. Its purpose was to clarify some issues. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Overseas debt had a significant role in the Long Depression of the 1880s and 1890s and the Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s. This suggests it would be helpful to be…
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When will the New Zealand recession end? Listener: 27 June, 2009. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; If the international recession is going to go on for some time (Economy, June 13), what about New Zealand’s? The forecasters expect New Zealand production to hit its lowest point towards the end of this year. Subsequent…
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I was unable to address the housing paper in my end of my seminar commentary at the RBNZ Professorial Workshop on the Current Financial Crisis (17 June 2009). This covers some of the things I wanted to say. By way of background Luci Ellis, whose paper this note covers, is Head of Financial Stability at…
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Contribution to the concluding panel of the RBNZ Professorial Workshop on the Current Financial Crisis: Historical Perspectives and Implications for New Zealand. 17 June 2009. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; I was recently involved in a non-government discussion about policy responses to the current recession which gave no attention to what was causing the…
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When will the global financial crisis be behind us? Listener: 13 June 2009. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Hucksters trying to sell you something will tell you the global financial crisis will soon be over. But what do we mean by “over”? If we mean it’s when the world economy reaches…
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When the economy is dire, first Budgets can be good, bad or an ugly shade of black. Listener: 30 May, 2009. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History; : Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History; The first Budget of a new government is a defining moment. The Key Government’s is on Thursday, May 28….
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Come Budget day, expect some wailing and gnashing of teeth. Listener: 16 May, 2009. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; We are in the recessionary equivalent of a phoney war. The economy is certainly in a recession – it began in early 2008 and is already one of our longest postwar ones. We may…
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The Waikato Management School annually awards a prize in memory of Brendan Thompson to the to student in the international economics course. By coincidence I was in Hamilton for the 2009 School of Management Prize giving on 5 May, and again was asked to give the prize awarded in his memory ( 2008 speech.) …
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Café Scientifique; University of Waikato, May 5, 2009 Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; I was asked to talk about my time as a science student at school. I shall do a little of that, and also at university, but do so in order to provide a foundation for a discussion on…
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Presentation to begin a discussion on the Global financial Crisis; to the ‘God Talk’ series at the the Cathedral Church of St Peters, Hamilton Cathedral, May 3, 2009. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Macroeconomics & Money; I thought context for this evening’s discussion would be a biblical text – verses 6 to 10…
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Would you rather be comforted or told the truth? Listener: 2 May, 2009. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History; April 26 is the centenary of the birth of the great 20th-century newspaper columnist William Connor, who wrote under the byline Cassandra. The allusion is to…
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One Stop Update for Accountants in the Public Sector 20 April 2009, Wellington. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Statistics; Balance sheets are integrally involved in the greatest economic crisis in our lifetime. So while my remit is to provide the conference with an economic context to its deliberations, I have to engage with accountancy….
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Is the Government tipping the balance away from consumers? Listener: 18 April 2009 Keywords: Business & Finance; Some years ago I was involved in a merger case before the Commerce Commission. The chief executives of the firms involved did not know whether to co-operate, which was the (desired) outcome if the commission…
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