Category Archives: Globalisation & Trade

After Uncle Sam

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Listener on by .

Listener 15 March, 2003.
This was a response to an invitation to envisage a world in which the United States was not as dominant economically.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;

The most likely scenario for a major and early demise of American financial and economic hegemony would be that the financial fundamentals of the private sector are already ruined, and that Bush’s tax cuts creates a government deficit which is as damaging to the public sector. This would be reinforced by the depleting resource base – especially for oil and water – which, coupled with an extraordinary vigour and optimism, has been the foundation of US economic development.

Abstract Of Research Proposal for Marsden Fund Application 14 February, 2003.

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade on by .

Diminishing Distance: New Zealand in a Globalising World

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;

Globalisation is the greatest challenge that economies and nations in the world economy face today. It impacts on where people can work and live, what jobs are available, where investment occurs, and the ability of the nation state to control its destiny – the very foundations of nationhood. It generates both prosperity and disruption, with an uneven impact. Globalisation is not new. It was as significant – some argue moreso – in the nineteenth century international economy. New Zealand is a response to that globalisation, and its destiny is intimately tied in with future globalisation.

The Washington Consensus: When Facts Get in the Way Of Economic Orthodoxies

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

Listener 8 February, 2003.

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

Overseas economists visit New Zealand regularly, seeing politicians, officials, business people, and even independent commentators. One, late last year, began his session with me, by saying that New Zealand’s economic relativity in the OECD had deteriorated throughout the last half century. The government wanted to accelerate our economic growth, he said ,but since coming to office it had
– delayed unilateral tariff cuts;
– raised income tax rates;
– ruled out further privatisation;
– toughened regulation;
– introduced a more active industrial policy ;
– re-regulated the labour market.
He concluded that he did not see a single policy change which would contribute to increasing economic growth.

Economic Globalisation and National Sovereignty (II)

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Governance, Political Economy & History on by .

Chapter for the New Zealand Government and Politics 2ed, edited by Raymond Miller (OUP). First Edition Chapter

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Governance; Political Economy & History;

In recent years there has been increasing concern that the phenomenon of supranational economic integration, popularly known as economic ‘globalisation’, is undermining the sovereignty of the nation state. In New Zealand, this has been symbolised by international agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and World Trade Organisation (WTO). This chapter will explore the economic context of the debate.

Different Kinds Of Countries and Cities: The Distances Between Them.

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Literature and Culture on by .

Cultures of the Commonwealth The Urban and the Rural No 9, spring 2003, p.25-35.(1)

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Literature and Culture;

Geoffrey Blainey titled his seminal history of Australia The Tyranny of Distance, arguing that

In understanding Australia’s history, the idea of distance may be as revealing as say Frederick Jackson Turner’s ‘frontier theory’ is in probing the history of the United States. Distance – or its enemy, efficient transport – is not simply an explanation for much that happened in Australia’s history. Once the problem of distance is understood it also becomes difficult to accept many of the prevailing interpretations of other events in Australia’s history. Distance itself may not explain why they happened, but it forces a search for new applications.(2)

He could have said the same for New Zealand. For if external distance tyrannised Australia, New Zealand was more distant – even from Australia. (The physical distance from Canberra to Wellington is roughly the same as from London to Moscow.)

Globalisation and the Labour Market

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Labour Studies on by .

Paper for the 2002 Labour Employment and Work Conference. 21 November, 2002. (1)

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Labour Studies;

It is argued that globalisation was a far more potent force in the nineteenth century, than it has been in the late twentieth, for then labour was highly mobile as well as capital and goods – although it was really only European labour which was mobile. Moreover, aside from initiative, the labour which migrated probably had similar characteristics to those which stayed behind.(2)

Economic Reforms: Index

This entry was posted in Business & Finance, Distributional Economics, Globalisation & Trade, Governance, Growth & Innovation, History of Ideas, Methodology, Philosophy, Index, Labour Studies, Macroeconomics & Money, Political Economy & History, Regulation & Taxation, Social Policy on by .

History
Sequencing (December 1983)
Freeze and Thaw
 (July 1984)
Ssh …It’s the Big ‘‘D’’ (August 1984)
Confidentially Yours (August 1984)
Devaluation!: Five Turbulent Days in 1984 and Then … (July 1985)

Economic Liberalisation: Where Do People Fit In?
 (May 1987)

From Run to Float: the Making of the Rogernomics Exchange Rate Policy (September 1989)
Liberalization Sequencing: The New Zealand Case (December 1989)

Towards A Political Economy of New Zealand: the Tectonics of History (October 1994)
The Wild Bunch?: An Inquiry is Needed to Restore Treasury’s Integrity (August 1996)
The Great Diversification: Ch 9 of Globalization and a Welfare State (December 1997)
The State Steps In: Michael Bassett Makes A Case for Intervention. (August 1999)
Remaking New Zealand and Australian Economic Policy by Shaun Goldfinch (August 2001)
The Treasury and the Nationbuilding State (December 2001)

Evaluation
New Zealand’s Economic Performance This is an Index
Economic and Other Ideas Behind the New Zealand Reforms
 (October 1994)
For Whom the Deal Tolls (Of Dogma and Dealers) (August 1996)
The Economic Impact of the Employment Contracts Act (October 1997)
Microeconomic Reform: The New Zealand Experience (February 1998)
Some Macroeconomics of the Employment Contracts Act (November 1998)
View From Abroad: What Do We Know about Economic Growth? (May 1999)
The Model Economist: Bryan Philpott (1921-2000) (August 2000)
Comparison with Australia: New Zealand’s Post-war Economic Growth Performance (August 2002)

The Debate
Waist Deep in the Big Muddy? (February 1991)
Friends in High Places: Rogernomic Policies Have Powerful Allies in Australia (April 1994)
Systemic Failure (December 1995)
Ignoring the Critics (February 1997)
A Permanent Revolution? (March 1997)
In the Dark: The State of Research Into the Economy is An Embarrassment (June 1997)
The New Zealand Experiment: A Model for World Structural Adjustment? (Review) (July 1997)
Out of Tune: Even the Officials Admit the Health Reforms Were Fatally Flawed. (December 1997)
Money for Jams: the Government Response to Roading Reforms is Commercialisation. (January 1998)
Reforms, Risks, and Rogernomics (March 1999)
The London Economist and the New Zealand Economy (December 2000)
Locked Out: of Free Press and Free Economics (May 2001)
A Surplus of Imitation (June 2001)
Government Spending and Growth Rates: A Methodological Debate (January-May 2002)
From Pavlova Paradise Revisited by Austin Mitchell (July 2002)
Manure and the Modern Economy: Has Economic Policy Hardly Changed? (September 2002)
From is This As Good As it Gets? (December 2002)
1999 and All That (January 2004)

Books
The Commercialisation of New Zealand (1997)
In Stormy Seas: the Post-war New Zealand Economy (Chapters 15-16) (1997)
The Whimpering of the State: Policy After MMP (1999)

The Bubble Bursts

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

Will the Recession Be So Severe That it Will Count As the ‘Millennium Depression’?
Listener 2 November, 2002.

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

There was increasing pessimism about the state of the world economy among the international economic commentators I admire. Those who are paid to talk up the financial markets continue to predict optimistically – so far, four of the last zero economic upturns.

Rhetoric and Iraq: Arab Brothers and Oil Sisters.

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

Listener 19 October 2002.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Political Economy & History;

It is easy to argue that US policy on Iraq is driven by its oil interests, especially since its president is from a Texan oil family who has surrounded himself with Texan oilmen. Thus the clever email about how the ‘Seven Sisters’ – the world’s great oil companies – are determining US policy which accompanies this column. If only it were so simple.

Jane Kelsey at the Crossroads: Three Essays

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

(Wellington, Bridget Williams Books, 2002), ISBN 1877 242918; $34.95

Review for AUS Electronic Newsletter

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Political Economy & History

Students and the general public have found invaluable the sequence of books Jane Kelsey has produced on contemporary New Zealand society and governance, beginning with a study of how the Labour Government dealt with Treaty issues, working through the New Zealand experiment and now a couple on New Zealand in a globalised world, the latest of which is three essays in At the Crossroads (although, curiously, the cover shows a signpost at Bluff, the end of the country). Reviews of her books usually go to the extremes of the paean or condemnation. ….

Towards an Analytic Framework for Studying Globalisation

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade on by .

Versions of this paper were presented to seminars of the Ministries of Economic Development and Foreign Affairs and Trade in May and June 2002.(1)

Keywords

The original invitation for this paper involved my setting out my work on globalisation, for which I had applied for a Marsden research grant. Alas, the applications which went into the second round do not include my one. Perhaps there are 137 more significant issues than globalisation facing New Zealand – which is scary. Even so globalisation is important to New Zealand’s future, to its very survival. This paper argues that not only is the issue important, but that research can progress our understanding of it. Such research should not be focussed on policy issues, but attempt to develop an intellectual framework, which policy makers will find useful. By eschewing policy conclusions it can go deeper, more analytic, and ultimately be of greater value.

Keep the Aussie Dollar at Bay

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Macroeconomics & Money on by .

New Zealand Herald 07.05.2002

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Macroeconomics & Money

Should New Zealand form a currency union with Australia, just as until recently Argentina did with the United States dollar? A fixed exchange rate between two markets is clearly advantageous to the exporter, whose one ambition is to sell to Australia. But more than 80 per cent of exporters and 90 per cent of the economy have other ambitions.

Terrorism and the WTO: The Importance Of the Rule Of Law

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

Listener 23 February 2002

Keywords Globalisation & Trade; Political Economy & History

I fear the terrorists have won. Oh sure, they may all be eventually eliminated by the efforts of the Western Alliance, but another generation will rise, who will have had confirmed that the methods of bullies and thugs are justified. …

The Other Side Of the Ditch Cartoon Exhibition

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Literature and Culture on by .

Notes for Panel Discussion, National Library, 14 February, 2002.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Literature and Culture;

The superficial relationship between Australia and New Zealand was captured by last night’s Evening Post article ‘Why do We Hate Australia?’. The short answer is, of course, if the ‘we’ refers to New Zealanders, that we dont hate Australians – we have a complicated relationship with them which is similar to a couple of siblings living with one another in the same unfashionable corner of a city.

Dont Cry for Us Argentina

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Macroeconomics & Money on by .

Listener 9 February 2002.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Macroeconomics & Money

Street demonstrations and the fall of four presidents in a fortnight tell us something is desperately wrong with the Argentine economy (which, with 56 million people, is the world’s 17th largest economy on some measures). It is a century since the expression ‘as rich as an Argentinian’ was in vogue, and many things have gone wrong since. But the precipitant of the recent crisis was the ‘currency union’ with the United States. The Argentinians had abandoned an independent currency and locked their peso to the US dollar. This ‘dollarisation’ is much stronger than pegging the exchange rate, as occurred in New Zealand before 1984. In a currency union there is a common currency – in effect the US dollar was the Argentinian currency, although they used a ‘currency board’ so that while there was a local currency, the ‘peso’, all financial contracts were effectively written in US dollars. The arrangement has the advantage of price stability if prices in the primary currency (the US dollar) are stable.

Low Politics: Local Government and Globalisation

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Governance, Listener on by .

Listener 13 October, 2001.

Keywords Governance, Globalisation & Trade

‘Subsidiarity’ is an ugly word. It comes from Germany where they designed their governmental institutions on the principle that decisions should always be taken at the lowest practical level in the hierarchy. It is now a central principle of the European Union, so that Brussels may not make decisions which can be left to the individual member states, just as the German Federal Republic devolves political power to its constituent Lander (states).

Waltzing with Matilda

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Listener, Macroeconomics & Money on by .

Listener 15 September, 2002.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Macroeconomics & Money

A hundred years ago, New Zealand turned down the chance to federate with Australia – to become one of its states, rather remain than an independent nation. Ten years earlier there was a groundswell in favour, but the prosperity and the social consolidation of the 1890s gave us the confidence to go it alone. How different it is today. A survey of the New Zealand elite, by Bob Cately, professor of political studies at the University of Otago, found 88 percent believing that New Zealand would benefit from a single economic union with Australia, and 55 percent that economic amalgamation would lead to political union. (His book Waltzing with Matilda describes the elite as parliamentarians, ‘businesses, business organizations, trade unions and some media outlets.’ He does not mention senior public servants but my impression is that they would have responded similarly.)

New Zealand in a Globalised World

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

Presentation to the Wellington Labour Party Conference on Globalisation 1 September, 2001.

Keywords Globalisation & Trade; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy

I begin by affirming the central tenet of any realistic and fundamental analysis of New Zealand: The dominant single feature of New Zealand over the last two centuries has been its ongoing engagement with the rest of the world. Unless one understands that principle, New Zealand’s history makes no sense. Unless one uses the principle one cannot think realistically about the future, nor meet its challenge. Isolationist strategies are bound to fail. There have been isolationists of the Left, who have tried to isolate New Zealand from the world by a self-sufficient economy. But like the rest of us, their ideas came from overseas, they used imports unobtainable in New Zealand, and they travel overseas. There have also been isolationists of the right, the most recent of whom were the Rogernomes, who thought they could ignore the external sector, and by fiddling the financial sector gain us prosperity. They failed.

Globalisation: the Consequences in the Reductions in the Cost Of Distance

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade on by .

Quo Vadis (Trinity Methodist Church, Pakuranga, 2001) p.33-44. Revised version of the text of Brian Easton’s message at Trinity Church in July, 2001.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;

I originally undertook to talk about commercialization, but I have recently been working on another, although closely related, question – globalisation. I hope you will forgive me if that is what I talk about today, because it is very much on my mind. I will start by defining globalisation; then talk about two earlier periods of globalisation to see what lessons we can learn from those; then I will talk about some of the current issues.