Category Archives: Business & Finance

Callovers, Chalkies & Chips:

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Once Upon A Time You Could See the Stock Market.
Listener: 19-26? April, 1997.

Keywords: Business & Finance; Globalisation & Trade;

While economists talk about “markets”, and business commentators personify them, it is rare to be able to see one as they are described in the textbooks. The stock market, which buys and sells company shares once had such a visible presence. David Grant’s book Bulls, Bears, and Elephants: A History of the New Zealand Stock Exchange is rich with stories of share market dealing – not all of which were honourable. It also pictures the stock market through time.

Profit or Public Good: There Is Logic to Roger Kerr’s Views on Business Respon

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Listener 15 March, 1997

keywords Business Economics & Finance; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy

This column agrees with Roger Kerr, the executive director of the Business Roundtable, that “we should not confuse corporate social responsibility with gestures such as saving endangered species or sponsoring Christmas concerts in the park. If they are honest, most businesses that make these efforts admit they do to add value to their firm or brand.”

The Political Economy Of Fish

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Dr Sutch Looked At Our Fishing Industry 35 Years Ago. What Would He Think Today?
Listener 18 January, 1997

Keywords: Business & Finance; Political Economy & History;

The fishing industry may not seem a likely paradigm for New Zealand’s economic history. Yet in January 1962, Dr Bill Sutch, public servant, economist, historian, writer, and New Zealand nationalist, persuaded a Nelson WEA summer school it was. Sadly, however, there is no written record of the speech. The challenge is to try to reconstruct it.

For Whom the Deal Tolls: (of Dogma and Dealers)

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Political Review July/August 1996., p.24-29. Also published in a symposium on The New Zealand Experiment: A World Model for Structural Adjustment by Jane Kelsey , published in the Electronic Journal of Radical Organization Theory (EJROT), (http://www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/leader/journal/ejrot.htm).

Keywords: Business & Finance;

It is sometimes hard to recognize the New Zealand which the enthusiasts for the recent economic reforms described by Kelsey portray.

Panic-mongers

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Politically Naive Dealers Could Cause Frenzy and Hysteria in the Financial Markets
Listener: 29 June, 1996.

Keywords: Business & Finance;

There is a real danger the financial dealers in our money markets will precipitate a serious financial crisis. Not all dealers, of course. The culprits are those who are comment in an uninformed and hysterical manner on political issues who are causing the increased market uncertainty. As I write they are frenzied about the possibility that Winston Peters may become prime minister, drawing parallels with Rob Muldoon.

Ex-Fortex

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Newspaper commentators failed to reveal that the former company of the year was in dire straights.
Listener 18 May, 1996.

Keywords: Business & Finance; Macroeconomics & Money;

The Fortex Group, a South Island meat company went into receivership in March 1994. Two years later its managing director, Graham Thompson, was jailed for six and a half years. General manager Michael Mullin had been jailed for four years. The newspaper files which record how the company became the darling of meat industry commentators, give little hint that the company was in trouble, until right at the end. (Unsourced quotations come from journalists, who would prefer not to be remembered.)

The Stock and Station Agent Industry

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Keywords Business & Finance;

This is the draft of an article on the Stock and Agent Industry. My interest in the industry arose from a minor involvement as an expert witness in the recent commercial litigation on the Wrightson/Dalgety merger. But that is not the focus of the study. Rather it is to examine the contemporary industry using some recently developed economic analyses, and look at its past and future.

Hype and Bust: a Sorry Tale Of Past Mistakes Contains Future Lessons

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Listener: 14 October, 1995.

Keywords: Business & Finance; Macroeconomics & Money;

Olly Newland’s Lost Property: The Crash of ’87 … and the aftershock is worth reading especially if you are thinking about investing in financial markets. It describes the founding and fall of his Landmark property corporation. The book cover describes the man as “one of the darlings of the New Zealand scene [in 1987] … wheeler dealer supreme. Banks almost (sic) queued at his door to lend him money; the media for his advice and comment. He had to field many requests to speak to investor groups.” Newland, would not be so immodest, but it is certainly true that there was a time when businessmen like him were flavour of the month.

Why We Need Business Histories

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Archifacts October 1993, p.32-43.

Keywords: Business & Finance; Political Economy & History;

When invited to give an outsider’s, or even user’s, view of the role of business history in the wider intellectual community, I responded with some diffidence. When pressed I agreed to give a personal account, from someone who has been working in economics and related social sciences for a number of years, and who is not without a sympathy to history.

Fishing and the Chatham Islands

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AFFIDAVIT in the High Court of New Zealand BETWEEN Te Iwi Moriori Trust Board (First Plaintiff) Moriori Tchakat Henu Association of Rekohu Incorporated (Second Plaintiff) and The Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission (Defendant) (September 1993)

Keywords: Business & Finance; Environment & Resources; Maori; Statistics;

I, Brian Henry Easton, economist and social statistician of Wellington do swear

1. Following the obtaining of degrees in mathematics and economics I have practised for over 25 years in universities in New Zealand and overseas, in research institutions, and latterly as a private researcher and consultant. A copy of my short C. V. is attached. I have taught, researched, and written in many areas related to this case, including the economics of development.

2. I have been asked by the plaintiffs to assess the significance of the fishing industry to the Chatham Islands (Rekohu).

3. My basic conclusion is that the future of the Chatham Islands is vitally dependent upon its fishing industry, more so than any other region. I also indicate how a population based rule is especially against the interests of a region as dependent upon fishing as these islands.

The Decade Of Greed

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Listener: 6 February, 1993 Keywords: Business & Finance; Retiring BNZ managing director Lindsay Pyne will be remembered for his phrase, ‘The decade of greed’, well after his impressive achievement of turning around the Bank of New Zealand is long forgotten, The expression was used in an advertisement rejecting Winston Peters’s various calls for an inquiry…
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The Porter Project

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Listener 3 June, 1991.

Keywords: Business & Finance; Globalisation & Trade;

Flavour of the moment is Upgrading New Zealand’s Competitive Advantage, the report of the so-called Porter Project. Its 178 pages (plus appendices) are riddled with badly labelled graphs; portentous diagrams which, on reflection, say nothing; chummy references to “our country”, when two of the three authors are Americans; and platitudes dressed up as ‘deep and meaningful sentiments.

Stamp Collector Brierly

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Listener 6 May, 1991.

Keywords: Business & Finance;

It is a pity that Yvonne van Dongen did not write more about Ron Brierley the stamp collector in her book, Brierley: The Man Behind the Corporate Legend. He took up stamps at an early age, trading them at school – “Buy, sell or exchange stamps in room four during interval” – as the Kiwi Stamp Company. He even sent out reminder notices of debts owing -the headmaster is said to have been furious. “That boy Brierley is using the institution for his commercial gain. This business has got to stop.”

After the Party Was over

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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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The Public Interest in Competition Policy

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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.

Agriculture in New Zealand’s Economy

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Wallace, L.T & R. Lattimore (eds) (1987) Rural New Zealand~ What Next? Agribusiness & Economics Research Unit, Lincoln College, Discussion Paper 109. Arguably, agriculture has been the single most important factor in shaping New Zealand’s economy. Yet the intricacies of its influence on the macroeconomy have not been fully explored.              Agriculture in New Zealand…
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Highly Concentrated

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Listener: 28 February, 1981.

Keywords: Business & Finance;

With today’s fashion for advocating ‘more market”. it may be useful to consider the structure of New Zealand markets. A market may have one of many structures, and government intervention in each ought to reflect that.

If the market is highly competitive. with a large number of buyers and sellers, then much of the economic regulation may be left to it. With a single seller and many buyers, the government may have to limit the monopoly’s ability to abuse its own power There are many other market structures, including few sellers, many buyers and sole seller sole buyer.