Listener: 4 April, 2009. Keywords: Regulation & Taxation; At a recent conference sponsored by the Centre for Accounting, Governance and Taxation Research, the first two expert speakers each had 25 years’ experience in taxation reform, one in Australia, the other New Zealand. But if they haven’t got it right after a combined 50…
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Writings to the end of March 2009 Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; The following is a summary of my writing on the Global Financial Crisis beginning in August 2007, when it became evident that the world financial system (and probably the world economy) was going to face great stress. I compiled it to enable me to…
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This letter is discussed in What Happened in July 1984: and the Aftermath: (OCR of Original) Keywords: Political Economy & History; DAVID SHEPPARD’S LETTER OF JULY 13, 1984. DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS 13 June, 1984 The Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Muldoon Minister of Finance, Parliament Buildings, Wellington Dear Sir…
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A memoir as explained below. Keywords: Political Economy & History; The 2006 biography, Roderick Deane: His Life and Times by Michael and Judith Bassett twice mentioned me. On both occasions the statements were wrong on matters of fact. Had anyone believed the claims they would have thought ill of me. While the facts related to…
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Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; In his blog of 26 March 2009, Paul Krugman pointed out that Anton Kaletsky was wrong when he claimed that John Maynard Keynes did not have an economic model when he wrote his General Theory. (Kaletsky is not always right when he criticises economists he disagrees with.)…
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Listener: 21 March, 2009. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Until recently, government revenue was in the happy position of being a little more than government expenses. But, unfortunately, the forecast is ominous. The Treasury is picking that government expenses will continue growing after 2008, broadly following the trend of the past few years,…
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NZ Institute of International Affairs: Wairarapa 18 March, 2009, Masterton (revised). A slightly shorter version was presented to the Wellington WEA on the 23 March. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; The International Financial Crisis By way of context the world economy faces the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression in the early 1930s…
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Paper for the 6th Annual Policy Evolution Conference; 16 March, 2009, Wellington (Revised) Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Regulation & Taxation; The International Financial Crisis I have but a short time for my presentation, so I am going to focus on a single facet of the macroeconomics of social policy, the coming fiscal crisis. By way…
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Listener: 7 March, 2009. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; We face two conflicting messages over how to behave in current economic circumstances. One is that we should continue to consume and invest. If we don’t, spending and in production will fall, workers will be laid off, investment will taper off, the economy will contract,…
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Statement of Evidence of Brian Henry Easton in an Appeal Under The Resource Management Act 1991 between Margaret and Stephen Thompson Marlborough District Council (Env-2006-WLG-000038) Keywords: Environment & Resources; Regulation & Taxation; Introduction I. My name is Brian Henry Easton. I am an independent scholar with particular expertise in economics, social statistics…
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Presentation to ‘Connecting the Dots’ a conference to celebrate the 30th anniversary of global standards (bar codes) in New Zealand. 25 February 2009. Keywords: Business & Finance; I cant remember bar codes and scanners being introduced into my shopping life. Except when I try really hard I cant REALLY remember what went before. Thirty years…
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This is a report I prepared for GS1 to celebrate their 30th birthday in February 2009. . The full report is available from http://www.gs1nz.org/ Keywords: Business & Finance; : Business & Finance; Executive Summary This report is about the GS1 Universal Product Code, its history, its uses and its future uses. There are three basic…
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Is the entire financial system just one big pyramid scheme? Listener: 21 February, 2009 : 21 February, 2009Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; : Macroeconomics & Money;Carlo Ponzi was an Italian migrant to the United States who, after a career of petty larceny and time in prison, thought there was an opportunity to make a fortune from…
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Paper to ‘Drinking Liberally’ forum, 12 February 2009. The paper is in two parts. Part I Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; To summarise what I was saying before the liberal drinking. The international monetary system is not working because of the large quantity of unknown and unlocated toxic assets on the balance sheets of its…
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Paper to ‘Drinking Liberally’ forum, 12 February 2009. The paper is in two parts. Part II Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; The world economy is in an extremely unsatisfactory state – some would say it is teetering on the edge of a depression comparable to that which occurred in the 1930s. There are no quick…
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Presentation to the NZIIA, February 10, 2009. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; September 2008 – or perhaps August 2007 – is likely to remembered in a manner similar to the Wall St crash of October 1929, or the terrorist attack of 9/11. It was the point at which it became clear to all but…
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What goes down may well come back up, but who knows when? Listener: 7 February, 2009 Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; The economic situation, both locally and internationally, is in such a state of confusion that anyone who says they know what is happening doesn’t understand the mess we are in. This…
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Paper to the Wellington Statistical Group, 2 February, 2009. (With Quan (Ryan) You Analyst, Centre for Social and Health Outcomes Research and Evaluation (SHORE), of Massey University.) Keywords: Health; Statistics; In 2007 the Ministry of Health commissioned Massey University’s Centre for Social and Health Outcomes Research and Evaluation (SHORE) and Te Ropu Whariki…
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If it weren’t for good old chemistry, where would New Zealand be? Listener: 24 January, 2009 A background to this column is ‘My (Almost) Chemical Career’ at http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1541 Keywords: Education; Growth & Innovation; I almost became a chemist. In the upper forms at Christchurch Boys’ High School I had an inspiring chemistry teacher, Alan Wooff….
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Calculating the human condition Listener: 10 January, 2009 Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Social scientists use American psychologist Abraham Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs” as a way of characterising the human condition. Self-actualisation ▲ Esteem ▲ Love ▲ Affection & Belonging ▲ Safety Needs ▲ Physiological Needs Often…
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