Author Archives: Brian Easton

The Personal Responsibility Of an Economist

This entry was posted in History of Ideas, Methodology, Philosophy on by .

Towards a Just Economy edited by Raymond Pelly, published by the Combined Chaplaincies, VUW, 1991. p.11-20. (Revised version of a lecture given April 1991)

Keywords History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy

Just over a year ago, on my birthday, I visited Majdanek, near the Polish City of Lublin, 160 kilometres south east of Warsaw and 80 kilometres from the Soviet border. Majdanek was a concentration camp. Its dead from starvation, infection, and execution – included 150,000 Poles, 125,000 jews, 70,000 Russians, plus those of other nationalities, a total of 360,000 souls – the population of today’s Christchurch or greater Wellington. The main memorial at the camp is a giant urn containing 7.5 tonnes of human ashes. The inscription reads “Los Nasz Dla Was Przesthorga” – our fate is a warning to you.

Evidence Of Brian Easton with Respect to Te Oneroa-o-tohe

This entry was posted in Environment & Resources, Maori on by .

This is a slightly revised version of the evidence submitted to the Waitangi Tribunal. As well as a number of minor ammendments read to the Tribunal, paragraph 4.4 has been substantially ammended and paragraph 3.21-4 has been added. 26 March 1991.)

Keywords: Environment & Resources; Maori;

1. Introduction and Disclaimer

1.1 My name is Brian Easton. By profession I am an economist and social statistician.

1.2 I have been asked by Counsel for the Muriwhenua Iwi to assist the Waitangi Tribunal by providing some guidance on the economic issues related to their claims about Te Oneroa-o Tohe (Ninety Mile Beach), and on other claims they have made in the area of the Aupouri Peninsula, based on breaches of the principles of the Tiriti o Waitangi, which they say have occurred.

Waist Deep in the Big Muddy?

This entry was posted in Growth & Innovation, Labour Studies, Listener, Macroeconomics & Money, Social Policy on by .

Listener 25 February, 1991

Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Labour Studies; Macroeconomics & Money; Social Policy;

A popular folk song on US campuses in the late 1960s was Pete Seeger’s “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy”. It described how one night an army platoon attempted to ford a swamp-river. The commander said he knew where he was going. It was just a matter of pushing on. Some of his troops were less certain, but were exhorted with such phrases as “don’t be a nervous nellie” and just show a little determination”.

Requiem to Rogernomics

This entry was posted in Listener, Political Economy & History on by .

Listener: 10 December, 1990 Keywords: Political Economy & History; We are likely to argue for decades as to why Rogernomics, the economic policies of the fourth Labour government, failed – and it is unquestionable that they did fail economically. Of its ‘big four’ objectives, only inflation performance might be said to have improved in six…
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A Big Think About Think Big

This entry was posted in Growth & Innovation, Listener on by .

Listener: 17 September, 1990 Keywords: Growth & Innovation; The disruption in the Middle East has once more raised the question as to whether a group of major projects, collectively called ‘Think Big’, were in the national interest. There has been no independent and authoritative analysis, for reasons I shall explain shortly, but there are a…
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The Maori Broadcasting Claim: a Pakeha Economist’s Perspective

This entry was posted in Environment & Resources, Maori, Political Economy & History on by .

Paper presented to the Waitangi Tribuna to assist an inquiry into a claim by the New Zealand Maori Council and Nga Kaiwhakapumau I Te Reo relating to broadcasting (Wai 150), October 1990, at the Waiwhetu Marae.

Keywords: Environment & Resources: Maori; Political Economy & History;

Introduction and Disclaimer

1.1 As the title of this paper emphasises that it is no more than an attempt by a Pakeha economist to write an account of the Maori claim to the radio spectrum and related broadcasting issues.

Disputing Figures

This entry was posted in Listener, Statistics on by .

Listener: 11 June, 1990 Keywords: Statistics; A Treasury working paper, released under the Official Information Act, appeared to indicate that government expenditure was out of control. It said that between 1984-85 and 1988-89 ‘net expenditure at 1989/90 prices’ had grown from $23,594 million to $27 ,877 million. That is an increase of 18.1 percent, or…
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Marks Of Change

This entry was posted in History of Ideas, Methodology, Philosophy, Listener on by .

Listener 28 May 1990.

Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;

The University of Sussex in Brighton, England, where I first taught, was deeply committed to the whole of the social sciences. In teaching, research and policy applications the staff believed in the importance of social sciences to social and personal understanding, and their contribution to building a better society. They partly summed this up in the phrase, “We are all marxists now.”

The Green Maori

This entry was posted in Environment & Resources, Listener, Maori, Political Economy & History on by .

Listener 14 May 1990.

Keywords: Environment & Resources; Maori; Political Economy & History;

THE PAKEHA asked the Maori, “Do you claim all the airspace?”

“We claim rangatiratanga of all the space between Papa and Rangi,”

“Even that which the Russian sputniks go through?”

“Yes, The Maori recognise no boundaries. Even for the realm of Tangaroa. Perhaps if the Maori had been negotiating the Law of the Sea, the outcome would have been different.”

The Pakeha looked at the Maori with amazement, concluding if I judge his expression right, that the rangatira – despite his American PhD – was not quite with it. The claim over expanses over which the Maori had no statutory authority and no means of policing seemed ludicrous.

The very same week the New Zealand Government signed an international declaration which prohibited driftnet fishing in waters well outside our 320km limit and far beyond any realm our navy could plausibly police, Yet no one, Pakeha or Maori, concluded the agreement was ludicrous or the Prime Minister who sponsored it – and also has an American doctorate – was not quite with it.

After the Party Was over

This entry was posted in Business & Finance, Listener, Political Economy & History on by .

Listener:  30 April, 1990 Keywords: Business & Finance; Political Economy and History; (When I was teaching political studies in the late 1990s, I found students who did not know who Rob Muldoon or David Lange were. Younger readers may need to know Geoffrey Palmer was Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister during Labour’s privatisation program;…
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For Whom the Treaty Tolls

This entry was posted in History of Ideas, Methodology, Philosophy, Listener, Maori, Political Economy & History on by .

Listener 5 February, 1990.

Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Maori; Political Economy & History;< Across the bay from the great Waitangi Marae is the picturesque town of Russell. A hundred and fIfty years ago Kororareka, as it was then, housed “the scum of the Pacific”: ruffians, rogues, and ratbags from Europe, prone to drunkenness, violence and turmoil. If Thomas Hobbes had been at the .signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, he would have looked at the unrest across the water and given a knowing smile.

Liberalization Sequencing: the New Zealand Case

This entry was posted in Growth & Innovation, Macroeconomics & Money on by .

Journal of Economic Growth Volume 4, No 1, Winter 1989-90, p.14-18.

Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money;

The economy of New Zealand first .surged forward under the Labour government, with registered unemployment falling from around 64 thousand at the time the new government took office in July 1984 to about 50 thousand a year later. As the restructuring took effect and firms dependent upon subsidies closed down, unemployment began to increase. By the end of 1989 it was close to 150 thousand with little prospect of significant reductions.

The Public Interest in Competition Policy

This entry was posted in Business & Finance on by .

The Economics of the Commerce Act. Ed A. Bollard (NZIER Research Monograph 52, October 1989) Chapter 4, p.66-88.

Keywords: Business & Finance;

4.1 Introduction

The merger provisions of the Commerce Act 1986 contain a two stage test for refusal. Section 66 subsection 7 states that the Commerce Commission shall give clearance unless it is satisfied that the merger or takeover would result in any person acquiring a dominant position in a market or strengthening an already dominant position.

From Run to Float: the Making Of the Rogernomics Exchange Rate Policy

This entry was posted in Macroeconomics & Money on by .

Chapter 4 The Making of Rogernomics (AUP, 1989) pp.92-113.

Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;

Beginning the run [1]

Whatever the political reasons for the calling of a snap election on Thursday 14 June 1984, there were many who thought that important factors were the state of the economy, the difficulty of locking up the Budget given the size of the deficit, the monetary stance, and the uncertainties of exchange rate policy.

Who Seen the Little Lamp?

This entry was posted in Listener, Literature and Culture, Macroeconomics & Money, Political Economy & History on by .

Listener: 17 December, 1988 Keywords: Literature and Culture;  Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History; I was unable to attend the entire Mansfield centenary conference but I did get to the opening lecture, a brilliant inaugural address by Vincent O’Sullivan, professor of English at Victoria University. Mansfield’s status as a New Zealander has always been…
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