Carefully designed changes to the electricity-generation industry could make it work better. Listener: 25 May, 2013 Keywords: Business & Finance; Regulation & Taxation; Discussions on what to do about electricity have been so political and self-interested that almost all the public economic analysis has been puerile. So let’s begin with some basics….
Continue reading this entry »
Driving the state asset share floats is a government that is happy to subsidise business. Listener: 13 April, 2013 Keywords: Business & Finance; Why has the Government not made a case for its partial privatisation programme? The failure is a contrast to the privatisations of the late 1980s and early 1990s, although…
Continue reading this entry »
Managers don’t always do what their shareholders want, which may explain the SkyCity deal oddities. Listener: 30 March , 2013. Keywords: Business & Finance; Governance; Richina Pacific has hardly reported to its shareholders since 2008, according to NZ Herald business columnist Brian Gaynor. By ignoring them, Richina Pacific gave no information to…
Continue reading this entry »
New technologies and light-handed regulation are a recipe for disaster. Listener: 16 March , 2013. Keywords: Business & Finance; Regulation & Taxation; The leaky-building debacle involved homes and commercial and public buildings being built with new technologies that the builders were not competent to use, coupled with weak supervision and regulation. The…
Continue reading this entry »
Sarah Miles: The Christchurch Fiasco: The Insurance Aftershock and its Implications for New Zealand and Beyond. Dunmore Publishing, 2012 ($37.99) New Zealand Books: Volume 23, No1, Issue 101, Autumn 2013. Keywords: Business & Finance; Political Economy & History; Given New Zealand’s reputation as ‘The Shaky Isles’, together with its accompanying history of…
Continue reading this entry »
Listener: 15 September, 2012. Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich coined the expression “iatrogenic medicine” to describe illness generated by the actions of physicians. An example is when the doctors prescribe some medicine, with resultant side effects, which are treated by further medication. The cycle repeats until a specialist reviews the patient’s entire record and stops all…
Continue reading this entry »
A note prepared for discussion in September 2012. Keywords: Business & Finance; Distributional Economics; Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money; What is the Purpose of the Economy? * The purpose of the New Zealand economy is to maintain and increase the wellbeing of all New Zealanders. It is neither the…
Continue reading this entry »
Listener: 18 August, 2012. One of the reasons King Charles I was beheaded in 1649 was that, without Parliament’s approval, he raised taxes and spent the proceeds. Forty years later, after the Glorious Revolution, the English Parliament passed the Bill of Rights, requiring that the Crown tax or spend only with Parliament’s approval. That act…
Continue reading this entry »
Listener: 26 May, 2010. Keywords: Business & Finance; Governance; Regulation & Taxation; The row that has erupted over the proposed SkyCity convention centre in Auckland involves gambling, but there are deeper fiscal issues. But this is not a column about gambling, even though a study I was involved with found that pokies were the most…
Continue reading this entry »
Listener: 14 April, 2012. Keywords: Business & Finance; Regulation & Taxation; Last year, this column argued for the mixed-ownership model of some state-owned enterprises as a means of deepening the capital market for private savers. Even then, it argued that not all partial privatisations were sensible. It depends on the market structure and the way…
Continue reading this entry »
The Fine Line Between Gambling and Investment Listener: 3 August, 2011. Keywords: Business & Finance; Various people have produced their slant on the global financial crisis. The film Inside Job had little new in it, although some found it valuable. I greatly enjoyed the Circa play-reading of David Hare’s The Power of Yes – it…
Continue reading this entry »
Those who favour privatisation can be divided into four camps … Listener: 5 March, 2011. Keywords: Business & Finance; Governance; Macroeconomics & Money; Ideologues who hate the Government succeeding and want to scale it back, even if it is costly, as was privatising the Telecom monopoly. They would do the same to the three electricity…
Continue reading this entry »
The Great Gatsby recognises the essential role of the economy in human experience. Listener: 8 January 2011 Keywords: Business & Finance; Literature and Culture; Political Economy & History; On occasions, Auckland has outbreaks of Great Gatsby parties. This name alludes to the classic F Scott Fitzgerald novel, narrated by Nick Carraway who lives on New…
Continue reading this entry »
For the 131st AGM of the New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association, 13 September, 2001 in Christchurch. (Revised) Keywords: Business & Finance; Globalisation and Trade; Growth & Innovation; This presentation takes place barely a week after the Great Canterbury Earthquake. It is a tribute to the fortitude of those who are here and their ancestors…
Continue reading this entry »
Selling products around the world is much more complicated than it once seemed. Listener: 4 September, 2010 Keywords: Business & Finance; Globalisation & Trade; There is no problem understanding why Fonterra exports milk products to China. New Zealand is a very efficient producer of milk, and it sells its large surplus offshore. But why does…
Continue reading this entry »
Plan for the inconceivable, so you don’t get caught up the creek without a Plan B. Listener: 12 June 2010. Keywords: Business & Finance; In November 1967, the inconceivable happened: the UK devalued the pound. The following weekend Leyland Motor Corporation implemented its Plan B, announcing new offshore prices for its cars. Much later, British…
Continue reading this entry »
Why more townies should spend an occasional day on a farm. Listener: 17 April, 2010. Keywords: Business & Finance; Occasionally a townie should go to a field day on farming, as I did recently at Glenside Station, near Gladstone in the Wairarapa. Covering 1125ha and carrying about 10,000 stock units – mainly sheep and beef…
Continue reading this entry »
Is the Government tipping the balance away from consumers? Listener: 18 April 2009 Keywords: Business & Finance; Some years ago I was involved in a merger case before the Commerce Commission. The chief executives of the firms involved did not know whether to co-operate, which was the (desired) outcome if the commission…
Continue reading this entry »
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…
Continue reading this entry »
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…
Continue reading this entry »