Listener: 10 November, 2011. Keywords: Political Economy & History; What do we really think about economic issues? It is hard enough trying to answer that today, but if you are writing a history of New Zealand, as I am, it’s even harder. Commentators tell us what they think others think, but how do they know?…
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Stout Research Centre Research Roundup: 26 October 2011 (A previous version of this paper is at http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1504) Keywords: Political Economy & History; Today I want to talk about my current project: writing a history of New Zealand from an economics perspective – it has the tentative title Not in Narrow Seas. Economics is not much…
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Poverty in New Zealand, St Peters on Willis , Wellington, 17 October, 2011. (This followed a presentation by Stephanie McIntyre, the director of the Downtown Community Ministry.) Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; I want to begin by saying I have an enormous respect for Stephanie McIntyre, the team she…
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Letter to Herald on Sunday, published 4 September 2011 Keywords: Political Economy & History; Debrioh Coddington said I blamed ‘Rogernomics for Pike River’s 29 miner deaths’. (Herald on Sunday, 28 August) I did not and have not. I await the outcome of the Royal Commission which is far more expert and informed than I am….
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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…
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The Reserve Bank’s cobbled measures got us through the 2008 crisis Listener: 23 July, 2011. Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Political Economy & History; 1878: While Julius Vogel was on a ship to London, the City Bank of Glasgow crashed. The London money market – the financial centre of the world – plunged. Although we were…
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A Research Gathering: Viewing New Zealand’s Social, Economic and Political History Through the Eyes of the CPI; 15 July, 2010 Keywords: Political Economy & History; Statistics; My task today is to convey that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) occurs in an economic, political and social context. That does not mean that the statistic lacks authority,…
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Policies formed in Opposition can bite a new government. Listener: 9 July, 2011. Keywords: Political Economy & History; Jim Anderton once said that a bad day in Government was better than a year in Opposition. But decisions made in parliamentary opposition may end up as many bad days in government, for that is where election…
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Ministry of Culture and Heritage History Seminars: 6 July 2011 Keywords: Political Economy & History; Today I want to talk about my current project: writing a history of New Zealand from an economics perspective – it has the tentative title Not in Narrow Seas. It may seem over-ambitious to take on such a challenge, since…
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Keywords: Growth & Innovation; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; The Asia New Zealand Foundation kindly made a grant to enable me to visit India. Here are the columns I wrote: A CLASH OF TITANS (22 January, 2011) http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1416 GOD’S OTHER COUNTRY (19 February, 2011) http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1435 INDIA’S UNMET DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENT NEEDS…
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India is a country of the past, but it is also a country of the future. Listener: 25 June, 2011. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; Many New Zealanders find India mysterious, for we don’t have much to do with it – unfortunately it is just out…
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Listener: 28 May, 2011. Keywords: Political Economy & History; India told those negotiating the Doha Round – the multilateral attempt to liberalise world trade – it had over 700 million people dependent on subsistence farming, more than the entire populations of the European Union and the United States combined. It was not willing to sacrifice…
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Listener: April 16, 2011 Keywords: Political Economy & History; In 1947, newly independent India embarked on a strategy of economic self-sufficiency in which domestic industry was protected from external competition behind high barriers. That reflected the fashion of the times, but also that Indian industry had had a pretty rough deal under colonial rule. It…
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The Keralan remittance and tourist economy is rather like many Pacific Island ones. Listener: 19 February, 2011 Keywords: Political Economy & History; The huge South Asian peninsula has a larger population than Europe and about six times the population density. Both have suffered a high degree of political fragmentation. Even under the British Raj, a…
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Paper to the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic and Business History Conference, San Francisco, February 2011. (Revised March 2011)[1] Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History; The International Context There is a considerable – and partly contested – historiography of the interpretation of the events which surrounded the worldwide Great Depression. It is usually said to…
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Paper to a Student Group from Carleton University, 10 February 2011. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; Social Policy; Europeans were greatly puzzled by the American debate over President Obama’s health reforms, for almost everyone there assumes the public sector should actively promote universal health care. Clearly that is not…
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Chaotic capitalist India v orderly communist China. Listener: 22 January, 2011 Keywords: Political Economy & History; Some 125 million years ago a huge chunk of land broke off from Gondwanaland, drifting away at a rate of 20 cms a year (roughly five times the speed the West Coast is drifting north). About 50 million years…
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The Great Gatsby recognises the essential role of the economy in human experience. Listener: 8 January 2011 Keywords: Business & Finance; Literature and Culture; Political Economy & History; On occasions, Auckland has outbreaks of Great Gatsby parties. This name alludes to the classic F Scott Fitzgerald novel, narrated by Nick Carraway who lives on New…
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This is an appendix for ‘Not in Narrow Seas: New Zealand History from an Economic Perspective’, a book I am writing. It is published here so that people can access the technical material. The data is available on request. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History; Statistics; Over the last sixty years we have…
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We should be so Lucky. Listener: 25 December, 2010. Keywords: Literature and Culture; Political Economy & History; A country road. A tree. Evening. JOHN: Charming spot. Inspiring prospects. Let’s go. BILL: We can’t. JOHN: Why not? BILL: We’re waiting for economic growth. JOHN: (despairingly). Ah! (Pause.) You’re sure it was these policies? BILL: Which? JOHN:…
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