Can the British PM find a new way to be left? Listener: 14 July, 2007. Keywords: Political Economy & History; Although he was Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) for a decade, and had a free hand with the economy, new British PM Gordon Brown is still considered an unknown quantity. …
Continue reading this entry »
One small voyage for a ship, one giant leap for New Zealand. Listener: 2 June 2007. Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; Political Economy & History; This month, 125 years ago in 1882, the Dunedin docked at the Port of London with a cargo of meat from New Zealand that sold…
Continue reading this entry »
The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception: Nicky Hager (Craig Potton 2006) 351pp, $35.00. An earlier version of this review was submitted to a history journal and rejected because ‘the points you’re making about history writing are so well known to our readers that they don’t need to be said in…
Continue reading this entry »
You Can’t Talk About An “Underclass” Without Implying That There is Also An Overclass. Listener: 24 March, 2007. Keywords: Political Economy & History; Aside from those in the various communist parties, National’s John Key may be the first leader of a political party since Labour’s Harry Holland (who died in 1933) to…
Continue reading this entry »
Contribution to a Panel on ‘The Big Questions and Research Challenges in the economic history of Australia and New Zealand?’ AEHB Conference, Sydney, 14 February, 2007. Keywords: Political Economy & History; I have been asked to offer a New Zealand perspective on some of the big questions facing New Zealand economic history. My…
Continue reading this entry »
A RESEARCH CHALLENGE IN THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND: Paper to a workshop at the 2007 EHSANZ Conference, Sydney, 14 February 2007.[1] Keywords: Political Economy & History; Exceptionalism is the notion that one nation’s story differs qualitatively from others, because of its unique origins, national credo, historical evolution, distinctive political and religious…
Continue reading this entry »
The author has been awarded a 2007 Claude McCarthy Fellowship to develop a new economic history of New Zealand. This paper raises some issues. Keywords: Political Economy & History; General Histories of New Zealand New Zealand general histories tend to ignore the economy and its implications for the evolution of New Zealand….
Continue reading this entry »
Helen Clark and Michael Cullen have overseen a return to orthodox economic management. Listener: 30 December, 2006. Keywords: Political Economy & History; Asked to comment on Helen Clark’s performance, Roger Kerr said the Prime Minister had presided “over the continuation of the economic directions that the country moved towards in the 1980s…
Continue reading this entry »
New Zealand’s nationbuilders aren’t just figures from the distant past. Listener: 16 December, 2006. Keywords: Political Economy & History; Many myths portray one’s ancestors as giants, titans beside whom their descendants, including the myth-tellers, are tiny. Did I fall into that trap in my book The Nationbuilders, about New Zealanders who shaped…
Continue reading this entry »
Paper to Labour Employment and Work Conference 12, Wednesday 15 November. Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Labour Studies; Aging is a global phenomenon, that is it exists in may parts of the globe. This paper argues it is also a globalisation phenomenon, that is it involves the increasing interaction between national and regional economies…
Continue reading this entry »
In July 2006, I was approached by a team from the MSD involved in looking at past and future social issues to provide a context for social policy thinking. The following are revised notes from the 90 minute discussion. Contributors to the review are anonymous, but there was no objection to me publishing my thoughts….
Continue reading this entry »
This is a submission to the select committee considering the Electoral (Reduction in Number of Members of Parliament) Amendment Bill
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
1. I wish to make a submission on the Electoral (Reduction in Number of Members of Parliament) Amendment Bill. I do so because my book The Whimpering of the State: Policy After MMP, raised some matters which are pertinent to the deliberations of the committee.
The following was a contribution to the New Zealand Management cover story, “Big Ideas”, of the March 2006 edition. p.30.
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
Listener: 11 February, 2006.
Keywords: Maori;
I was appalled by the proposal that the government should ban the teaching of the Treaty of Waitangi. Repressing bits of disapproved history is the practice of despotic regimes, not of liberal democracies.
Keynote address to the 2005 Conference of the Sociology Association of Aotearoa New Zealand, 25 November, The Eastern Institute of Technology, Napier. [1]
Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History;
In Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, the tramps abuse one another: ‘Moron!’, ‘Vermin!’, ‘Abortion!’, “Louse!’, ‘Sewer-rat!’, ‘Curate!’. Then Estragon says with finality ‘Critic!’. All Vladimir can reply is ‘Oh!’. The text says ‘He wilts, vanquished and turns away’.
Listener: 19 November, 2005.
Keywords: Business & Finance; Political Economy & History;
One might think there is a standoff between government and business. A fortnight before the election, a Business Herald “Mood of the Boardroom” feature showed that many chief executives were antipathetic towards the Labour-led government and willing to say so in public. The impression was reinforced by leaks showing that business and a business lobby group had been involved in the making of Don Brash, leader of the National Party.
Listener: 5 November, 2995.
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
Once upon a time, economics was “political economy”. It was not only interested in the technical issues of how the economy worked but also its impact on politics and society (assuming they can be distinguished). David Ricardo (1772-1823), for instance, developed a theory about rents on lands, wages and profits, because they were the foundations of the power of landlords, capitalists and workers.
‘Writing the Recent Past’: A New Zealand Book Council Seminar, 1 November, 2005.
Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History;
Let me begin by saying that although I am not a trained historian – two courses in economic history being my total at university – I read history for pleasure, I use history in my research and writing, and I recommend students do history to broaden their perspectives. However, today we are talking about contemporary history, which comes out from another profession.
Some material I prepared just before the election, which my son put on his Vorb website, where there are the graphs and some subsequent comments.
Keywords: Political Economy & History; Statistics;
I thought you might be interested in the following two charts. They combine four polls (NZH, Fairfax, TV1, TV3), interpolate between polls and project after them (out to election day – a very foolish thing I add).
On Friday 23 2005, this was put on the No Right Turn website . It used the election night seat outruns. I have updated it to the final election seat outturns, and added a subsequent comment.
Keywords: Political Economy & History; Statistics;
One of the advantages of MMP is it enables us to think more systematically about the political process (although given much of the nonsense that is being written at the moment, it does not appear to force us to). What this note sets out is a a mathematical procedure which enables us to think systematically about coalitions (although, and as I shall explain, like most mathematical models it has imitations) .