Category Archives: Political Economy & History

Bookmarking the Century

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Landfall, No 199, March 2000, p.54-55.

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

The editor of Landfall invited submissions of 500 words to identify the most important event to influence (in this case) the New Zealand economy in the twentieth century.

The twentieth century New Zealand economy was shaped by its ability to ship refrigerated products to Britain. Its beginnings might be symbolised by the Dunedin leaving Port Chalmers on 15 February 1882 with the first cargo of frozen meat for London. Barriers to trading at a distance were significantly reduced. New Zealand was no longer confined to a low-density population on extensive sheep stations – a Falklands of the South Pacific – as the depletables which sustained the nineteenth century economy seals, whales, native timber, gold, other minerals -were exhausted. Now there was the possibility of a sustainable settlement based on family-owned farms of crossbred sheep or dairy cattle, supporting towns and, later, cities.

Review Of The Pound: A Biography David Sinclair (century 1999).

This entry was posted in Macroeconomics & Money, Political Economy & History on by .

New Zealand Herald February 2000.

Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History;

I wanted this to be a good book. It was a super idea to have a “biography” of the British pound which has been around for a thousand years and was once the world’s most important currency. There is so much mystery about money, that a good book would improve public understanding and reduce the mysticism.

Growth Rings: New Zealander Of the Millennium: Tane Mahuta

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Listener 29 January, 2000

Keywords: Environment; Political Economy & History;

Perhaps our best image of a millennium is the polished cross-segment of one of those great kauri trees in many of our museums. At its centre is some date over a thousand years ago. The various growth rings around it are marked – the arrival of the Maori, the arrival of Tasman, and so on. The last ring is the year the tree was cut down, typically in the time of my grandfather.

The Centre Swings: Policies to Win 2002

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Listener 15 January, 2000.

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

While there appeared to be a big swing to the left in the 1999 election, the actual swing was only a little more than 2 percentage points. But the parties in the political centre between Labour and National, which won about 19 percent of the vote in 1996, won only 9 percent in 1999. The change of government reflects a massive shift of votes from these centre parties, notably New Zealand First, to Labour. The voters have got their desire 1996 election outcome, thwarted by the New Zealand First-National coalition, of a Labour-led government. But instead of it being pulled towards the centre by New Zealand First, the 1999 government is more pulled to the left by its Alliance and Green wings.

Orthodoxy Rules: OK

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Cullen, Anderton, English and Bradford Would Make A Great Team

Listener18 December, 1999.

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

Right to the last day before the election, business commentators presented their own self-interest disguised as ideology disguised as analysis, in a vain attempt to affect political outcomes. They symbolised the end of an era: out of touch with the polity, out of touch with the economy, arguing a case that was known to have failed, as if it is impossible to learn from experience.

Has New Zealand an Economic History?

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Paper to the Annual Conference of the New Zealand Historical Association, Hamilton, 7 December 1999.

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

The question of whether New Zealand has an economic history could be thought of as rhetorical, with an obvious answer of yes. But if we take it as a question about the state of current New Zealand historiography – asking whether historians include the economy in the stories which they tell about New Zealand – the answer is less obvious. If we look at many of the accounts of our history, be it the grand overview or a monograph or essay, we find them bereft of any conscious portrayal of the economy interacting with society and having some influence on the path which New Zealand takes. This is a very sweeping statement and there are exceptions – notably some of the work of John Gould, Brad Patterson and Russell Stone. Nevertheless this paper could take some standard histories and illustrate the broad proposition, including suggesting various insights the writers missed because they ignored an economic context.

Road to Damascus: What Is the Third Way? And What Were the First Two?

This entry was posted in History of Ideas, Methodology, Philosophy, Listener, Political Economy & History on by .

Listener 4 December, 1999.

Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History;

At the University of Sussex, where I taught in the 1960s, we talked about “the social control of industry, rather than social ownership.” This was a response to an ongoing debate in the British Labour Party, which had nationalised various industries in the 1940s, was nationalising more in the 1960s, and still had Clause Four in its objectives: “the social ownership of the means of production, distribution, and finance.” The point of the Sussex phrase was that ownership is a means to an end, and that there are other ways of pursuing it. In many industries, market competition will give society the outcomes it wants, far better than nationalisation and monopoly.

The State in New Zealand 1840-1984: Socialism Without Doctrines? (review)

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by Michael Bassett Archifacts, Oct 1999, p.60-65.

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

According to the author “[t]his book originated in a chance conversation I had in 1993 with Roger Kerr, Executive Director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable. In response to a question about my writing, I told him that I intended to recount the story of the Fourth Labour Government after 1984, but that I first had to understand how it was that New Zealand had come to the stage where drastic restructuring had become a matter of urgency. Roger Kerr suggested that I might undertake that initial study; the Business Roundtable would pay some of the expenses involved in the researching such a big project.”

The State Steps In: Michael Bassett Makes a Case for Intervention.

This entry was posted in Governance, Growth & Innovation, Listener, Political Economy & History on by .

Listener: 14 August, 1999.

Keywords: Governance; Growth & Innovation; Political Economy & History;

Michael Bassett’s book The State in New Zealand 1840-1984 is an assiduous, if somewhat erratic, compilation of state economic activity in New Zealand, the result of burrowing through masses of archives from government economic departments. The picture he presents, up to 1984 anyway, is that the government of New Zealand actively promoted industrial development. On more than one occasion private initiatives were failing, and the state stepped in to assist a now successful business.

The Whimpering Of the State: Policy After MMP

This entry was posted in Business & Finance, Distributional Economics, Education, Governance, Health, History of Ideas, Methodology, Philosophy, Literature and Culture, Macroeconomics & Money, Political Economy & History, Regulation & Taxation, Retirement & Savings, Social Policy on by .


Auckland University Press, 1999. 269pp.

The policy process has changed dramatically following the introduction of MMP. Fascinated by the theatre of politics, we too easily ignore the major changes in policy approaches and outcomes. Today, without an assured parliamentary majority the government has to consult over its policies rather than impose them. Along with the increasing recognition that the policies of the past have failed, the policy blitzkrieg has almost ceased and commercialisation is being shelved.

The Whimpering of the State looks at the first three MMP years with the same lively, broad -ranging and informed approach as Easton’s successful The Commercialisation of New Zealand, which described the winner-takes-all regime before 1996. Again there are case studies: health, education, science, the arts, taxation. retirement policy, and infrastructure. Policy possibilities are explored. Yet, as the title of the book suggests, any releif from the ending of Rogernomics is offset be a realistic pessimism arising from a shrewd analysis of the continuing deficiencies in New Zealand’s political and social structure. Although written for the general public, this book will also be read by politicians, policy analysts and students, and will shape policy thinking in the MMP era. Publisher’s Blurb

What Happened to the Nation Building State in New Zealand?

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Paper for the New Zealand & Australian Studies section of the Conference of the Western Social Sciences Association, April 21-24 1999, Fort Worth, Texas.

Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;

Brent McClintock’s “Gordon Coates and the Nation-Building State: 1920-1935”, which precedes this paper, also sets its stage. [1] In the interwar period there arose a group of New Zealanders who were committed to use the instruments of the state to build a New Zealand nation distinctive and independent (as much as it could be). Coates may have been the earliest, but numerous other New Zealanders in politics, the public service, corporations, and cultural life also participated. Most are recognized in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography and many have full biographies published or in the process of being written: politicians Peter Fraser, Apirana Ngata, and Walter Nash (as well as Coates); public servants Clarence Beeby, Joe Heenan, Alistair McIntosh, Douglas Robb, and Bill Sutch; businessmen James Fletcher and James Wattie; writer Rex Fairburn and Frank Sargeson (with prominent artists coming a little later). Even so, acknowledging such great totara trees but locates the bush over which they towered: that bush below was dense with others equally committed to the nation building state. Curiously, there are no obvious women for the list. The tallest was Te Puea, but her vision was to build the Tainui nation.

Michael Bassett’s Review Of in Stormy Seas

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Letter in New Zealand Journal of History@ 33, 1 (1999), p.134-135.       Keywords: Political Economy & History;   Michael Bassett’s review of my In Stormy Seas: The Post-War New Zealand Economy, opens with “[t]his book has had a bad press from economists and a business newspaper.” (NZJH Vol 32, No 2:222). I do not know…
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Reforms, Risks, and Rogernomics

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Invited Presentation to the Jubilee Conference of the New Zealand Statistical Society, 5-7 March, 1999, Wellington.

Keywords Political Economy & History; Statistics;

Fabian ‘… unless you do redeem it by some laudable attempt either of valour or policy.’
Sir Andrew Auguecheek ‘An’t be any way, it must be with valour; for policy I hate; …”
Twelfth Night

Introduction

Thankyou for the honour of being invited to speak to the Jubilee Conference of the New Zealand Statistical Association. My associations go back only two-thirds of its history, but they are experiences and friendships I greatly value. Indeed, had there been an academic career path in social statistics, I may well have ended up pri

His Purpose Is Clear: Reflecting a Life Of Thought and Experience

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Listener: 13 February 1999.

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

It was perhaps inevitable that Bruce Jesson, growing up in the Canterbury of the 1950s with a freezing worker father, would study Marx. Christchurch is often said to be our most class conscious city. Actually, all our big cities have acute class differences. In Wellington it matters whether you are a political insider or an outsider; in Auckland the measure is money. Because Christchurch does not have the politics or the easy money, its differences are more evidently social status.

Ashwin, Bernard Carl 1896 – 1975: Senior Public Servant, Economist

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Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Volume Four (1921-1940), 1998, p.21-22.

Keywords: Political Economy & History

Bernard Carl Ashwin played a key role in transforming the New Zealand government’s approach to economic management in the 1930s and 1940s. He was born in Paeroa on 22 September 1896, the second of eight children of Manley John Ashwin, a storekeeper, and his wife, Clara Elizabeth Foy. Ashwin left Cambridge District High School after two years, working initially for a local lawyer and a bank before becoming a cadet in the Department of Education in Wellington in 1912. By his own account his late adolescence was a time of sport rather than earnest endeavour. It was ended by the First World War, in which, as a sapper and driver in the New Zealand Divisional Signal Company, he was wounded shortly before the cessation of hostilities.

Remembering Peter Fraser (Review)

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New Zealand Studies, 2, September 1998, p. 26-28. (First presented at New Zealand Book Council seminar on Peter Fraser: Master Politician, 29 July, 1998.)

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

There is an Easton family tradition that when Peter Fraser was a carpenter in Auckland, he stayed with my great-grandfather when he came to Wellington on Red Fed business. Perhaps it is an exaggeration: he might have stayed once, or called in on a visit. The connection seems to have continued, for the tradition claims says that as prime-minister Fraser attended my great-grandfather’s funeral. Fraser was a regular attender of funerals so that is possible too.

Trying to Understand Dr Sutch

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Revised Version of the paper in the Stout Research Centre Seminar Series, Wednesday 2 September 1998.

Keywords History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History

William Ball Sutch, publicly known as “Dr Sutch” and privately as “Bill”, could be remembered as one of a handful of public servants who shaped economic and social policy between the 1930s and the 1960s, to become the father of the export diversification of the 1970s; he should be remembered for his contribution to the early years of the United Nations, especially in the creation of an independent international public service, and the continuation of UNICEF; he will be remembered for being tried and acquitted under the Official Secrets Act; he must be remembered as an intellectual who set down a distinctive and influential vision of New Zealand’s economic and social development.

Swing Low: a Short Economic History Of New Zealand

This entry was posted in Listener, Macroeconomics & Money, Political Economy & History on by .

Listener 1 August 1998.

Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History;

The Governor of the Reserve Bank finished a recent speech with “the sharp downturn in may of our export markets may well turn out to be the most serious shock to it the New Zealand economy since the oil shock of the seventies.” Here is a summary of the main shocks and recessions over our economic history.

Microeconomic Reform: the New Zealand Experience

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Microeconomic Reform and Productivity Growth: Workshop Proceedings, proceedings of a conference “Microeconomic Reform and Productivity Growth”: 26-27 February 1998. (Productivity Commission and ANU, 1998) p.155-181.

Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History;

Prologue

This being the first occasion which I have visited the Australian National University since the death of Professor Fred Gruen, may I briefly pay him a tribute. When we first met, Fred was suspicious of my approach, thinking I was anti-market. Over some long discussions he came to recognize I have a deep Marshallian respect for the market, even though we might not always agree on the details of policy. I would have appreciated a continuation of our intermittent dialogue with his response to this paper. It would have been thoughtful and shrewd. I would have responded in my revision, each of us shifting our position in the light of analysis and facts. I am sorry he is not here, except in spirit.

Introduction

Economic reform in New Zealand has been unusually comprehensive and thorough. For the scientist it provides a test of the theory which underpinned the reforms. The overt theory was essentially that which is known in Australia as “economic rationalism”, the consistent application of modern neo-classical market theory. At the practical microeconomic policy level this has been the withdrawal of government interventions which preferred one firm, industry, or sector (relative to others), in favour of market regulation of economic activity. Thus import licences have been abandoned, tariff levels steadily reduced, subsidies and tax incentives withdrawn, the tax regime made more uniform with exemptions barriers to entry eradicated, corporatization and privatisation of government trading activities, and greater reliance on competition law.1 There remain some (now much lower) tariffs, a few special taxes, occasional interventions, and so on. Nevertheless the extent of the microeconomic reforms is such to that they become a test of the theory which underpins them.

Twenty Years Ago: How Things Changed over Two Decades

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Listener 13 December, 1997.

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

Twenty years ago, in 1977, the main concerns in the newspapers included international terrorism, abortion and sex education, inflation, unemployment, and recession, and a mutiny in the National government. The pharmaceutical companies complained that the government was repressing drug prices, but otherwise there was almost silence on health policy and education. The Listener’s December editorials were on social ills, sport, Middle East peace, and social welfare at Christmas. The current account deficit of the balance of payments was a worry, while economists promised that next year the economy would be better. The papers I looked at made hardly any reference to the Maori (except in a context of crime) or the “Treedee”, as C.K. Stead calls it in a recent poem. Women were less evident too, except in women’s things. (There were but four in parliament – two in each party – 33 today.)