Regardless of whether the executive committed felonies, the company broke fundamental laws.
Listener: 28 January, 2006.
Keywords: Business & Finance;
I don’t know whether Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, top executives of Enron, the giant US energy company that crashed in 2001, will be found guilty of the various felonies for which they are about to be tried. That is a question of what they did, and the intricacies of any statute law that they may have broken.
Poor economic performance is the consequence of poor economic thinking
Listener 14 January, 2006.
Keywords: Growth & Innovation;
I am even gloomier than the latest report from the New Zealand Institute (NZI), Dancing with the Stars: The International Performance of the New Zealand Economy. Its sobering conclusion is that, compared to the economies we desire to emulate, our global connectedness is near the bottom.
Listener: 31 December, 2005.
Keywords: Literature and Culture;
In the 1950s, Maori, then mainly a rural people, began their great migration into the Pakeha cities. Ans Westra, 21 years old when she arrived from Holland in 1957, photographed it.
This note was prepared for a client in mid December 2005
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;
Listener: 17 December, 2005.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
The World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference, to be held in Hong Kong December 13-18, will be a desperate attempt to get the Doha Round’s trade liberalisation back on track.
This Note was written in early December 2005, to clarify some issues in my mind about exchange rate policy
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;
Why is the exchange rate high. The short answer is that the New Zealand economy is badly imbalanced, and the imbalance vents through the foreign exchange market into a higher exchange rate.
Presentation to the Browning Institute, of Public Affairs forum “The WTO in Hong Kong: Make or break time for neo-liberalism?”, 14th of December, McKenzie Room, St John’s in the City, Wellington.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
If New Zealanders are to do what they say they want to do, the New Zealand economy is going to have to specialise in what it is good at, to obtain the dynamic economies of scale which give the high productivity which can underpin New Zealanders’ desire for a rich, sustainable and varied material and non-material life. The New Zealand economy will then have to trade much of what it specialises in, for that which it cannot produce so well. That rules out autarchy and puts us squarely into a world of international economic engagement.
A response to a comment by Rosalie Sugrue in Broadsheet: The Newsletter of the Churches’ Agency on Social Issues, December 2005 (Issue 105).
Keywords: Literature and Culture;
In my youth, Guy Fawkes was more explicit on the Fifth of November than today, often with a dummy of the guy being pushed round in a wheelbarrow. We sung jingles like “Please remember/The Fifth of November/With gunpowder treason and plot/I see no reason/Why gunpowder treason/Should ever be forgot’.
Listener: 3 December, 2005.
Once in the heart of our cities were department stores. Many readers will have visited them as children, accompanied by mother, aunt or grandmother. Perhaps you played in the children’s area while they were shopping. There was the excitement of the lift with its own operator, and one even had an escalator that was so grand to ride. And sometimes – not always, and you had to be especially good – you were taken to the graciously tableclothed tearoom for orange cordial and a generous slice of that very special cake.
Response to Paul Spoonley’s Paper, SAANZ conference, 27 November 2005
Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;
Let me begin by saying that while I welcome Paul’s paper, it suffers from a major deficiency when it claims that sociology should be a core social science discipline, but does not define the subject. When I was at the University of Sussex, the social sciences scrapped vigorously between themselves as to their importance and their relationships. Sociology was one, but even a subject led by Tom Bottomore had difficulties defining what was its core. My observation of New Zealand sociology – say characterised by the subject of papers at this conference – is that it would have considerable difficulties defining a core here too: defining the minimum that a graduate sociologist should know. I may be wrong, but to the outsider sociology often seems social studies, which is a subject, not a discipline.
Keynote address to the 2005 Conference of the Sociology Association of Aotearoa New Zealand, 25 November, The Eastern Institute of Technology, Napier. [1]
Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History;
In Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, the tramps abuse one another: ‘Moron!’, ‘Vermin!’, ‘Abortion!’, “Louse!’, ‘Sewer-rat!’, ‘Curate!’. Then Estragon says with finality ‘Critic!’. All Vladimir can reply is ‘Oh!’. The text says ‘He wilts, vanquished and turns away’.
Listener: 19 November, 2005.
Keywords: Business & Finance; Political Economy & History;
One might think there is a standoff between government and business. A fortnight before the election, a Business Herald “Mood of the Boardroom” feature showed that many chief executives were antipathetic towards the Labour-led government and willing to say so in public. The impression was reinforced by leaks showing that business and a business lobby group had been involved in the making of Don Brash, leader of the National Party.
Listener: 5 November, 2995.
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
Once upon a time, economics was “political economy”. It was not only interested in the technical issues of how the economy worked but also its impact on politics and society (assuming they can be distinguished). David Ricardo (1772-1823), for instance, developed a theory about rents on lands, wages and profits, because they were the foundations of the power of landlords, capitalists and workers.
This report, commissioned by Pharmac, reviews the report by Castalia Strategic Advisers New Zealand Pharmaceutical Policies: Time to Take a Fresh Look. Keywords: Health; INTRODUCTION In August 2005, Castalia Strategic Advisers, published a report New Zealand Pharmaceutical Policies: Time to Take a Fresh Look. The report was commissioned by Pfizer New Zealand…
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‘Writing the Recent Past’: A New Zealand Book Council Seminar, 1 November, 2005.
Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History;
Let me begin by saying that although I am not a trained historian – two courses in economic history being my total at university – I read history for pleasure, I use history in my research and writing, and I recommend students do history to broaden their perspectives. However, today we are talking about contemporary history, which comes out from another profession.
Listener: 22 October, 2005.
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;
Monetary activity is dominated by capital flows. Its interaction with the trade of goods and services may seem marginal, but a financial crisis in the monetary system threatens the payments system, and could lead to a depression. This is especially true internationally because of the foreign exchange requirements of trade.
Listener: 8 October, 2005.
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;
In a few months, the 2005 election debate may be forgotten, as we focus on the real economic issues that were hardly addressed during it. The most salient include:
Some material I prepared just before the election, which my son put on his Vorb website, where there are the graphs and some subsequent comments.
Keywords: Political Economy & History; Statistics;
I thought you might be interested in the following two charts. They combine four polls (NZH, Fairfax, TV1, TV3), interpolate between polls and project after them (out to election day – a very foolish thing I add).
“Peak Oil: Economic, Political & Environmental Impacts” Monday 26th September, organised by the VUW chaplaincy.
Keywords: Environment & Resources;
When we were young we assumed that our parents will live for ever. As adolescents, we realise they will die one day, but at a time so far in the future it hardly seems relevant. As mature adults we realise that day is closing in, and we wonder what it will be like when they go. And so they pass on, but you survive in the world without them – perhaps, like me, missing them.