A free thinker turned the eccentric into good economics. Listener: 28 July, 2007. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; So many interesting and exciting things are happening in economics that topics for columns pile up. In the pile for a while has been Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets,…
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Can the British PM find a new way to be left? Listener: 14 July, 2007. Keywords: Political Economy & History; Although he was Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) for a decade, and had a free hand with the economy, new British PM Gordon Brown is still considered an unknown quantity. …
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This short speech was to open a session on the subject at Te Papa on Thursday July 3, 2007. (revised) Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Is economics a science? In a sound bite, the answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’. If you rely on the media for your knowledge of economics (and everything else),…
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The quality of mercy should never be strained, and businesses need to balance ethics and profitability. Listener: 30 June, 2007. Keywords: Business & Finance; The cause of Folole Muliaga’s death after a contractor for Mercury Energy cut off the electricity supply to her household remains uncertain, but the tragedy reminds us that…
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Listener: 16 June, 2007 Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; When the Reserve Bank Act was passed in 1989, there were those who warned that it would not work. To be sure, the principle of making the bank responsible for operating monetary policy while the government of the day set the policy objective is a…
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One small voyage for a ship, one giant leap for New Zealand. Listener: 2 June 2007. Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; Political Economy & History; This month, 125 years ago in 1882, the Dunedin docked at the Port of London with a cargo of meat from New Zealand that sold…
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Subsidies could help us save more – and boost economic growth. Listener: 19 May, 2007. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; New Zealanders are not saving enough. The consequence is that a high proportion of our most productive capital is becoming overseas-owned, as we use foreign savings to finance our new investment and sell existing assets to…
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Keywords: Education; Governance; Growth & Innovation; The judges of a singing contest, dissatisfied with the first diva, awarded the prize to the second without having heard her. The favouring of commercialisation in the late 1980s and early 1990s had a similar empirical base. We have now heard the second diva, and while she has…
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How our fondness for instant gratification challenges conventional economic thinking. Listener: 5 May, 2007. Keywords: Health; Social Policy; You go into the bar for a couple of drinks. The following morning you can’t remember how many you had, but your head and throat wish you had not. What intrigues an economist…
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A tribute to Wolfgang Rosenberg (1914-2007) – scholar, public intellectual and gentleman. Listener: 21 April, 2007. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; There were many tributes to Wolf Rosenberg when he died recently at 92. As well as his considerable achievements as a teacher, writer and activist, people recalled his commitment…
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Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; I was asked to provide the New Zealand equivalent in the graph showing US housing prices relative to consumer prices in Real Estate Roller Coaster . The longest housing price series I could find starts at the end of 1979 and finishes in late 2006. I wont go into detail but…
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Maori incomes are catching up, but there’s a long way to go. Listener: 7 April, 2007. Keywords: Distributional Economics; Maori; Sometimes I am proud of New Zealand’s achievements in race relations. Not that they are perfect; far from it. But we try, we acknowledge our past failures (sometimes reluctantly) and we can…
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The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception: Nicky Hager (Craig Potton 2006) 351pp, $35.00. An earlier version of this review was submitted to a history journal and rejected because ‘the points you’re making about history writing are so well known to our readers that they don’t need to be said in…
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You Can’t Talk About An “Underclass” Without Implying That There is Also An Overclass. Listener: 24 March, 2007. Keywords: Political Economy & History; Aside from those in the various communist parties, National’s John Key may be the first leader of a political party since Labour’s Harry Holland (who died in 1933) to…
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Revised commentary on “Energy Policy, Climate Change and Targets”, by Jonathon Boston. To the Institute of Policy Studies Roundtable on Energy Policy and Climate Change: Tuesday 20 March 2007. Keywords: Environment & Resources; Regulation & Taxation; Targeting is a form of indicative planning. What have we learned from past exercises? First we need a taxonomy,…
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Innovation and Independence: the Reserve Bank of New Zealand 1973-2002. John Singleton with Arthur Grimes, Gary Hawke and Frank Holmes. (Auckland University Press in association with the Ministry of Culture and Heritage). A longer version of the review published in New Zealand Books Autumn 2007. p.11. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; This history…
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Presentation to a Reserve Bank Seminar, 16 March, 2006 Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Introduction Later this year Auckland University Press is to publish my book Globalisation and the Wealth of Nations, which is the result of a project supported by a Marsden Fund Grant. It is a big book, as befits the…
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Are middle-income earners missing out as those at the top get richer? Not lately. Listener: March 10, 2007. Keywords: Distributional Economics; There is a theory that people on middle incomes are not doing as well as those at the top. Either their jobs are disappearing, their pay is being depressed, or both….
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By Brian Gould (Craig Potton 2006) 175pp. $29.95. Review for New Zealand International Review, March/April 2007. p. 29 Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; As an economics student I was struck by Paul Samuelson’s notion that the market place was a ‘democracy’ in which consumers expressed their preferences by their purchases. But it is a democracy…
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Keywords: Distributional Economics; Maori; Statistics; The following summarises the income statistics used in the Listener economics columns of the March 11 & 25, and April 7. The data is derived directly from the official Population Census for the relevant years. As the column details, it is reported income including social security benefits, before tax and…
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