Management Magazine, February 2011, p.9. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; While like Colin James in his November column (Management Magazine), I would be delighted if New Zealand were to produce a economist or philosopher of the international quality of David Hume or Adam Smith – the leaders of the Scottish enlightenment – the…
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Human “rights” are often riddled with ambiguity – which is why they can be such a worry. Listener: 29 May, 2010. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Maori; How is it possible to say New Zealand’s signing of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is of no great consequence (the Prime…
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Paul Samuelson, 1916-2009. Listener: 23 January, 2010 Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; We called it “Sam”, but its official title was Economics. Written by Paul Samuelson, it’s the book that – as author Robert Heilbroner put it – “changed our vision of economics from the dismal science to a study of social possibilities”….
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<a name=”TOP”></a> Conference to Celebrate 25 Years of the St Andrews Trust for the Study of Religion and Society, 7 November, 2009. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; I am traditionalist enough to begin a presentation in a church with a biblical text. Verses 5 to 10 of chapter 6 of the first pastoral…
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Spirited Conversations: Nelson, 29 October 2009. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; This evening’s presentation is about two terms which are homophones. I shall begin by talking about prophets – spelt p-r o-p-h-e-t-s. Later I shall talk about p-r-o-f-i-t-s. Both have a number of meanings, not least the…
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Paper to the Skeptics Society – 26 September, 2009 Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Today I want to reflect on the extent to which economics is a science and the extent to which it is not. In doing this I come from the approach of someone who was trained a scientist, who…
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Societies with great inequality are more prone to poor health, social hostility and crime. Listener: 29 August, 2009. Keywords: Distributional Economics; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; When I was working on the problems of inequality and poverty in the 1970s, my colleagues joked I was a social economist, even if they spent more time…
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Sea of Faith Conference: 18 July, 2009. Auckland Paul, Timothy Money and the Economy discusses the same biblical text, but in terms as to what it reveals about Paul’s views of the economy. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; I thought good context for today’s paper would be a biblical text…
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Tax, Saving Welfare and Retirement: Have We Lost our Way? Symposium, Retirement Policy and Research Centre, University of Auckland, 16 July, 2009 Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Maynard Keynes Keywords: Distributional Economics; History of Ideas, Methodology &…
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Paper to the 50th Anniversary Conference of the New Zealand Association of Economists: 1 July, 2009: Wellington. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Statistics; This paper looks only at the first 25 years of the New Zealand research program on economic growth. It focuses on the empirical analysis but refers…
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The Waikato Management School annually awards a prize in memory of Brendan Thompson to the to student in the international economics course. By coincidence I was in Hamilton for the 2009 School of Management Prize giving on 5 May, and again was asked to give the prize awarded in his memory ( 2008 speech.) …
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Café Scientifique; University of Waikato, May 5, 2009 Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; I was asked to talk about my time as a science student at school. I shall do a little of that, and also at university, but do so in order to provide a foundation for a discussion on…
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Presentation to begin a discussion on the Global financial Crisis; to the ‘God Talk’ series at the the Cathedral Church of St Peters, Hamilton Cathedral, May 3, 2009. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Macroeconomics & Money; I thought context for this evening’s discussion would be a biblical text – verses 6 to 10…
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Would you rather be comforted or told the truth? Listener: 2 May, 2009. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History; April 26 is the centenary of the birth of the great 20th-century newspaper columnist William Connor, who wrote under the byline Cassandra. The allusion is to…
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Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; In his blog of 26 March 2009, Paul Krugman pointed out that Anton Kaletsky was wrong when he claimed that John Maynard Keynes did not have an economic model when he wrote his General Theory. (Kaletsky is not always right when he criticises economists he disagrees with.)…
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Calculating the human condition Listener: 10 January, 2009 Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Social scientists use American psychologist Abraham Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs” as a way of characterising the human condition. Self-actualisation ▲ Esteem ▲ Love ▲ Affection & Belonging ▲ Safety Needs ▲ Physiological Needs Often…
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Revised version of the paper to 7X7 seminar, Wellington, 22 July, 2008 Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; What is the purpose of it all? For 200 years economists have assumed that the more material goods the better, and the purpose of the economy was to supply those goods. The notion that…
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Bill Phillips is Up There with the Greats. Listener: 12 July,2008 Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Macroeconomics & Money; Economists from all over the world are meeting in Wellington over the next couple of weeks to celebrate New Zealander Bill Phillips and the paper he published 50 years ago. This paper introduced what…
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The text of the display celebrating Bill Phillips, opened in the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Museum on 7 July, 2008. The text is written around various images, but may be of some value without them. I should like to acknowledge the Phillips Family, the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, the Reserve Bank Knowledge Centre, 3D…
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Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; Biographical Essays (October 2000) Entry in The New Zealand Dictionary of Biography (November 2001) Entry in Chapter 7 – early life to 1950 and Chapter 10 – later life from 1951 of The Nationbuilders (September 1998) Trying to Understand Dr Sutch (December 2001) Sutch…
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