Category Archives: Globalisation & Trade

Heretic to High Priest: Krugman ‘sort of’ Predicted the Asian Crisis Three Years Earlier

This entry was posted in Business & Finance, Globalisation & Trade, History of Ideas, Methodology, Philosophy, Listener, Macroeconomics & Money on 15th August 1998 by Brian Easton.

Listener: 15 August, 1998

Keywords Business & Finance, Globalisation & Trade, History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy, Macroeconomics & Money

“A decade ago, he was the most celebrated heretic. Today, Paul Krugman is the high priest of economics, his career transformed by the unintended consequences of his own iconoclasm. Some of his radical instincts remain; but they now serve a different purpose. The vigour with which Krugman once probed the outer limits of economics is now used to protect its core values. Through his popular writings, he defends the dismal science by exposing fallacies in the public discussion of economics issues.” (Prospect, April 1998)

All for One: Robert Reich’s Recipe Living in a Globalized World

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Listener on 18th July 1998 by Brian Easton.

Listener 18 July, 1998.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;

Robert Reich, Clinton’s previous Secretary of Labour, is a living embodiment of his own theories. His The Work of Nations argued that globalization has made it is increasingly hard to say where a particular product is produced, because the various components are made in many different countries. A Japanese marque car may have more American content than an American marque which uses Japanese components. (Either may have New Zealand made wheel hubs.) It is also true for Reich, for his artificial hips come from Germany, and were designed in France.

Notes for a Presentation on Maori Exporting

This entry was posted in Business & Finance, Globalisation & Trade, Growth & Innovation, Maori on 10th June 1998 by Brian Easton.

Presentation to a TPK seminar. June 1998.

Keywords: Business & Finance; Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; Maori;

The Maori economy has made exceptional progress in recent years. Preliminary figures from the 1996 Population Census show that the numbers of Maori employed have grown considerably faster than the Maori adult population, and that additional employment has tended to be in the better quality jobs: more at the managerial level, more involving greater skills. Job growth has also been strong in those industries to which the Maori has given priority: agriculture, forestry, fishing, and tourism. (See the attached table.) In summary the Maori Development Strategy of upgrading Maori skills, increasing Maori work experience, and emphasising Maori business in key growth industries has been extremely successful.

Open and Closed: Is the US Economy a Good Model for New Zealand?

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Growth & Innovation, History of Ideas, Methodology, Philosophy, Listener on 25th April 1998 by Brian Easton.

Listener 25 April, 1998.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;

Numerous readers have asked me to reply to Debasis Bandyopadnyay’s review of my In Stormy Seas: the Post-War New Zealand Economy (7 March 1998). I do not think that quite appropriate, especially since dealing with the review’s errors and misunderstandings would be tedious to the reader. But he raised one issue so central to the economic debate, that it is useful to address it here. The review argued I was unaware of some of the current fashionable theories of the supply-side of economic growth. It did not say that I gave a quite different account of the growth process, based on the external demand side.

The Globalisation Of Rugby

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Listener on 11th April 1998 by Brian Easton.

Even the Most Sacred of Our Icons Cannot Avoid World Trends.
Listener 11 April, 1998.

Keywords Globalisation and International Trade

In an innovative and insightful article a couple of decades ago, sociologist Geoff Fougere pointed out that there was a sense in which non-Maori New Zealand was organized on a tribal basis, where the tribal areas was the rugby football provinces. A number of factors determined the regions: community of interest (parochialism?); geographic integration, for club teams would not want to travel too far; size to be financially viable, and to be able to compete effectively against the rest of the country. The regional structure of unions evolved. At late as 1985 North Shore split off from Auckland, while there was a continuing amalgamation among smaller unions no longer viable by themselves: Golden Bay and Nelson in 1969; Wairarapa and Bush in 1971.

Chapter 9: The Internationalization Of the New Zealand Economy

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade on 10th December 1997 by Brian Easton.

A chapter of Globalisation and Welfare State

Keywords:Globalisation & Trade;

The glacial shift to a fully market economy before 1984, was obscured by the draconian wage and price freeze form 1982 to 1984. It is important that it is noticed, for while the transformation after 1984 was faster, extremist, and ideologically driven, it was not a merely a political fashion. The external diversification of the 1970s was impacting back on the domestic economy. Before 1966 the economy had almost a dual structure in which the pastoral export sector and its suppliers were almost independent of the domestic sector. The connection was that the consumers dependent upon the incomes from exporting, were forced by imports, tariffs, and other interventions to give preference to domestically produced goods and services. (This enabled foreign exchange – in effect real incomes – to be transferred to the domestic sector and made average incomes of the two sectors more equal.) (1)

Chapter 5: The Great Diversification: 1966-1984

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Growth & Innovation on 10th December 1997 by Brian Easton.

A chapter of Globalisation and Welfare State

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation;

With the collapse of the price of wool in 1966, came the end of the economic miracle. Although the price collapse was rapid, it took longer for its implications to work their way through, while the inevitable noise obscured the long term trend.

Globalization and Local Cultures: an Economist’s Perspective.

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Literature and Culture on 27th June 1997 by Brian Easton.

In J. Davey (ed) Globalisation and Local Cultures: Emerging Issues for the 21st Century, the proceedings of a seminar is sponsored by the Federation of New Zealand Social Science Organisations, the Royal Society of New Zealand, and the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO. 27 June, 1997. p.20-27.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Literature and Culture;

Globalization might be justified by David Ricardo’s pregnant insight of 150 years ago, that it may be in the material interests of a region or country to withdraw from producing a product where it had an absolute advantage in production, in order to produce another commodity for which it had a comparative advantage. By trading the comparative advantage commodity to another region or country in exchange for the other commodity, both benefit. This suggests regions or nations will become increasingly specialized in the production of products which can be traded, presaging the globalization of the world economy which has been evolving since the nineteenth century, if not earlier.

Callovers, Chalkies & Chips:

This entry was posted in Business & Finance, Globalisation & Trade, Listener on 26th April 1997 by Brian Easton.

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.

In Dire Straights

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Listener on 19th October 1996 by Brian Easton.

In a World that Favours Large Industrial Economies, are the Cook Islands Viable
Listener 19 October, 1996

Keywords Globalisation & Trade

Take the 18,000 odd population of one of the smaller New Zealand district councils. Scatter them across an ocean larger than the New Zealand landmass in 18 islands and atolls, and add the responsibilities of national governance. Except for location – they are three flying hours north of New Zealand – you have the Cook Islands.

New Zealand Can Be Different and Better, by Wolfgang Rosenberg

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Growth & Innovation, Macroeconomics & Money on 1st December 1993 by Brian Easton.

Review published in , Vol 3, No 3, (Issue 11) Summer 1993, p.5-6.

Keywords:Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money;

Those who wish to challenge Wolfgang Rosenberg’s policy prescriptions must confront the outstanding performance of the New Zealand economy in the first part of the postwar era. In the three decades from the mid-1930s, following the recovery from the depths of the interwar depression: the economy grew as fast as – or faster than – the rest of the OECD; the rate of inflation was slightly below the average; the overseas debt was not compromising; and there was full employment, (Rosenberg puts the break point in 1975, although the last decade was not as good as the period up to 1966.)

The Economic Relationship Between Australia & New Zealand

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Growth & Innovation, Political Economy & History on 16th October 1991 by Brian Easton.

Australia-New Zealand: Aspects of a Relationship, Proceedings of the Stout Research Centre, Eighth Annual Conference, Stout Research Centre, 1991, 14pp

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; Political Economy & History;

The three most important characteristics for property – “position, position, position” – are not so important in international economics, as the close economic link between the United Kingdom and New Zealand for almost a century indicates. Similarly that Australia is New Zealand’s nearest neighbour does not closely link the two economies.

The Porter Project

This entry was posted in Business & Finance, Globalisation & Trade, Listener on 3rd June 1991 by Brian Easton.

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.

Sequences

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Listener, Macroeconomics & Money on 3rd December 1983 by Brian Easton.

Listener: 3 December, 1983.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Macroeconomics & Money;

The view that there is excessive intervention in the New Zealand economy is widely accepted. Even the 1983 Budget expresses sentiments along these lines in a number of places when it reports changing the form and level of protection, the review of export assistance, decision “to move toward less disparate rates of assistance” within the agriculture and fishing sector, the decision to free up internal transport, the extension of foreign exchange licences, and the tendering of government stock, for instance.

Island Industry

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Listener on 18th July 1981 by Brian Easton.

Listener: 18 July, 1981.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;

The islands to our north present New Zealand with a number of economic social and political problems – the problems of how to treat neighbours who are small in numbers and materially poor, but significant to us in human terms (and perhaps of strategic importance). It would be so easy to neglect them or to use them for our convenience. However, in 1976 we took a more positive Islands Industrial Development Scheme (PIIDS).