Author Archives: Brian Easton

1966 and All That

This entry was posted in Literature and Culture, Macroeconomics & Money on by .

Listener 12 May, 1979

Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;

The terms of trade measure the value of our exports. In the 1950s and the early 1960s they were high, which meant that we were able to buy a lot of imports for each tonne of wool, meat or butterfat. It may well be that for those 18 years we experienced the longest period of high terms of trade in our entire history .As a result New Zealand had one of its most sustained periods of prosperity. Not the least of the achievements were moderate economic growth, low inflation and negligible unemployment.

What Are Mothers Worth?

This entry was posted in Listener, Social Policy on by .

Listener 17 March, 1979, republished in The Listener Bedside Book 2 (1998) p.209-11.

Keywords: Social Policy;

Sentiment sings that one’s mother is worth more than all the world, but we don’t always follow our singing. Anyway, for social policy purposes we need a more hard-headed assessment of the worth of mothers.

A. W. H. Phillips: 1914-1975

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

Listener 18 November, 1978.

Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;

Bill Phillips was born near Dannevirke, 64 years ago this week. The beginnings of New Zealand’s most distinguished economic theorist were academically inauspicious, if picaresque, He left school at 15, became an apprentice engineer for the Public Works Department. and in the following 14 years had a variety of jobs (including crocodile hunting) in New Zealand, Australia and Britain, where he qualified as an engineer.

The Economics of Children

This entry was posted in Social Policy on by .

In April 1978 I presented this paper to the Extension Course of the Auckland Primary Principals Association. It was published in “Impact the Burden of Choice”, Volume 14 (pp.17-34). In 2014 the hard copy was converted into an electronic one. Optical Character Readers are not perfect, and Elizabeth Caffin kindly checked the preliminary text. In…
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The Lost Fortnight

This entry was posted in Health, Regulation & Taxation on by .

Listener: 11 March, 1978, republished in Economics for New Zealand Social Democrats.

Keywords: Health; Regulation & Taxation;

Note: The numbers in this column are out of date, but the sentiment remains true.

‘The trouble with New Zealand,’ he said as he leaned on the bar, ‘is that we have far too many scrounging on the state.’

I had heard it all before, and was absent-mindedly gazing at the jugs of beer in front of him. A variety of news items flitted through my mind. The traffic officer who thought half the accidents he attended involved a drunken driver. The Auckland policeman who said nights were easy while the beertanker drivers were on strike. The orthopedic surgeon whose ward is 60 per cent full of the consequences of accidents involving alcohol. The hospital which has 25 per cent of its non-geriatric beds filled with patients directly suffering from the abuse of alcohol. The 53,000 New Zealanders who are alcoholics. The half a million New Zealanders who have a close friend or relation who is a liquor addict. The loss of production from hangovers and deteriorated performance from drinking is over eight times the loss of production from industrial disputes.

The Third Great Depression

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

Listener 10 December, 1977. This is the first of my Listener columns

Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History;

New Zealand is in the middle of its third great depression. Our first, the long depression, commenced in the late 1860s and finished in the 1890s. Our second, the inter-war depression, was from 1921 to 1939. The third comrnenced in the mid-1960s; its end is not in sight.

Lenin As a Statistician

This entry was posted in Statistics on by .

New Zealand Statistician, vol 8, May 1973, p8-9.   Keywords: Statistics;   It may seem strange that V.I. Lenin, (1870-1924) should be treated as a statistician. However, in its section on statistics the Soviet Encyclopedia [1] gives considerable prominence to Lenin. Undoubtedly this is partly the required acknowledgement to one of the founders of the…
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Class and Sport

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

This is an inset that was published with my ‘Social Class: Jack and his Master’ published in “New Zealand Today” (Universal Books 1973) p.83. There have been a slight change in layout. The original had three columns

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

Class appears in New Zealand sporting activities. In List I below, the 1972 New Zealand rugby league team are seen to be mainly factory, sales and clerical workers. In List II the 1972 All Black test team plus reserves are seen to be mainly professional men and farmers. The third List is a representative set of occupations for New Zealand men in their twenties [based on the 1971 Census]. By comparison it can be seen that the rugby league team is more representative of New Zealanders in this respect than the All Blacks.