Listener: 9 June, 2012. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity Despite the media extravaganza that still surrounds them, government Budgets are no longer the major economic statement of the year. The Government now has so many opportunities at…
Continue reading this entry »
Submitted to ‘New Zealand Herald’ but mot published. Keywords: Governance; Macroeconomics & Money; Could New Zealand have a financial crisis like the current Greek one? Anything is possible but the central government has a formidable series of institutional arrangements to reduce the probability of it happening together with prudently committed ministers of finance. History reminds…
Continue reading this entry »
PROBLEMS WITH EXPERTS New Zealand Books, Winter 2012, p.9. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Regulation & Taxation; The New Zealand Economy: An Introduction by Ralph Lattimore & Shamubeel Eaqub (AUP) 170pp. $34.99. ISBN: 978-1-869404-89-5 The New Zealand Tax System: New Zealand Taxes in Comparative Perspective by Rob Salmond (Institute of Policy Studies) 129pp. $30.00. ISBN: 978-1-877347-45-0…
Continue reading this entry »
Presentation for the Wellington Branch of the NZIIA, 15 May 2012 Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Macroeconomics & Money; Next week, the government will present its annual budget to parliament. There will be a lot more media space given to it than – say – to this paper, but its significance is much less than is…
Continue reading this entry »
Listener: 26 April, 2012. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money; New Zealand has had two great economic booms – during the Liberal era from about 1895, and from about 1935 while the first Labour Government was in power. In each case, per capita GDP doubled in about a decade; each followed a depression (since…
Continue reading this entry »
Listener: 17 Match, 2012. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Regulation & Taxation; Eminent economist James Tobin in 1972 suggested a financial transaction tax on spot-market currency conversions. Many others have supported him. That includes people who don’t like money and think of a financial transaction tax as a sin tax. (Tobin certainly did not. He was…
Continue reading this entry »
Presentation to the Golden Bay U3A, 6 March, 2012. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Macroeconomics & Money; This presentation was based upon a Spirited Conversation given at Nelson 24 August, 2011. The latest version of the paper is at http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1524
Listener: 3 March 2012. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Regulation & Taxation; Forecasts for the New Zealand economy have been wound back since last year. Given the deteriorating state of the world economy, they will probably be wound back even further. And that’s going to make it even harder for the Government to meet its election…
Continue reading this entry »
An appendix for Not in Narrow Seas: New Zealand History from an Economic Perspective The work was funded by a grant from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand which is not responsible for any errors or interpretations. A version was presented to an RBNZ seminar on 1 March 2012. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy…
Continue reading this entry »
Paper to the Australia and Pacific Economic and Business History Conference, 16-18 February, Canberra. Was broadly similar to a July, 2011 paper. http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1515. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History;
GERMANY MUST MAKES ADJUSTMENTS TOO Listener: 4 February, 2012. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; A decade ago, the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) replaced 17 European currencies with the euro, locking their nominal exchange rates together. Germany decided its wage and price structure was too high. This made it more likely Germans would buy imports and…
Continue reading this entry »
THE TOO HARD BASKET Listener: 19 January, 2012. Keywords: Environment & Resources; Distributional Economics; Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History; Regulation & Taxation; Social Policy; Every government has issues it hopes will go away. They don’t. Here are some for our one. Our Emissions Trading Scheme is looking like a dog’s breakfast, and/or something…
Continue reading this entry »
Listener: 22 December, 2011. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; It has been another difficult year for the world economy. Longstanding problems that were incrementally addressed include population growth, the depletion of limited resources like oil, the exploitation of free resources that threaten to make fish extinct and warm the planet, and the rebalancing of global power….
Continue reading this entry »
Listener: 10 December, 2011. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; The confidence of those lending their international money is fragile. The tougher standards of security they now demand is one reason many debtors around the world are having their credit ratings downgraded. Nowadays the lenders don’t look at just the state of a government’s books but at…
Continue reading this entry »
Fabian Society, Wellington, 20 October, 2011 (Note that this is a revised version of the paper at http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1524. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Macroeconomics & Money; Tonight I want to talk about our economic priorities. I’m going to differ from the conventional wisdom by arguing we should pay less attention to the growth…
Continue reading this entry »
Listener: 14 October, 2011. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Regulation & Taxation; I have been preoccupied by leaky building syndrome, which may have damaged up to 110,000 dwellings as well as costing considerable domestic stress and even lives. Commercial and public buildings have suffered, too. There were many causes of the disaster but it illustrates the…
Continue reading this entry »
Listener: 1 October, 2011. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; The world’s economic difficulties arise because so many balance sheets are badly balanced. A balance sheet – of a person, a business, a financial institution, a government or a country – consists of the entity’s assets on the left and its liabilities on the right. (Accountants are…
Continue reading this entry »
Spirited Conversations: Nelson 24 August, 2011 A revised version of this column is at http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1549. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Macroeconomics & Money; Tonight I want to talk to talk about our economic priorities. I’m going to differ from the conventional wisdom by arguing we should pay less attention to the growth of…
Continue reading this entry »
Listener: 22 August, 2011. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; How much theatre was involved in the congressional fracas over the raising of the US debt ceiling is hard to tell. Had the ceiling not been lifted, the unthinkable – or, at least, the unpredictable – would have happened, so perhaps the politicians were posturing, expecting a…
Continue reading this entry »
Paper to Treasury Seminar: 26 July, 2011. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History; Introduction I am writing a history of New Zealand from an economic perspective. Thankyou for the opportunity to present some of its material; it may have a contemporary relevance. I want particularly to thank John Whitehead, who…
Continue reading this entry »