Category Archives: Portraits

IN OPEN SEAS: PART III: Paddling (1986- )

Brian Easton (Journalist) Interviews Brian Easton (Economist) Part I is IN OPEN SEAS: PART I: On the Seashore: (1943-1970);  Part II is IN OPEN SEAS: Part II: Launched (1970-1986). Part II and Part III were  going to be published as a companion pieces in Asymmetric Information but there have been no issues since August 2021 Why did…
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IN OPEN SEAS: Part II: Launched (1970-1986)

Brian Easton (Journalist) Interviews Brian Easton (Economist) Part I is IN OPEN SEAS: PART I: On the Seashore: (1943-1970) This was going to be published as a companion piece in Asymmetric Information but there have been no issues since August 2021 From Sussex University to Canterbury University? It was very different economics department in 1970…
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David Ian Pool: The Father of Aotearoa New Zealand Demography: (22 November 1936 – 28 April 2022)

Waikato Times May 21 2022 The University of Waikato made an inspired choice when it appointed Ian Pool to a chair in sociology in 1978. Strictly, he was not a sociologist. His masters degree had been in geography at the Auckland University College; his 1964 PhD in Demography was at the Australian National University under…
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Reviews of Autobiographies by Politicians

Jim Bolger Fridays with Jim (September 2021) Simon Bridges The Ambiguity of Labels (April 2020) Michael Cullen In Defence of Social Democracy (July 2021) Michael Cullen’s Policy Achievements (July 2021) Review of Michael Cullen’s Autobiography (November 2021) Chris Finlayson Liberal-Conservatives And Social Democrats: The Future Of Māori (September 2021)

Review of Michael Cullen’s Autobiography

New Zealand International Review November/December 2021 Vol 46, No 6 p.26-7. LABOUR SAVING: A Memoir by Michael Cullen (Allen and Unwin, Auckland, 432pp, $50) In the 40 years since Muldoon’s reign, the predominant form of national political leadership has been a dual premiership in which, broadly, the prime minister manages the politics and the co-premier…
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FRIDAYS WITH JIM

Conversations about our country with Jim Bolger: David Cohen (Massey University Press, Auckland, 287pp, $45.) NZ International Review (September/October 2021) p.29-31 James Brendan Bolger presents a paradox. When he became prime minister, a Tom Scott cartoon presented him as a kind of Forrest Gump; in 2017 he outshone his other three panellists: Helen Clark, Geoffrey…
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IN OPEN SEAS: Part I: On the Seashore: (1943-1970)

Brian Easton (Journalist) Interviews Brian Easton (Economist) Published in Asymmetric Information, Issue 71 August 2021. You grew up in Christchurch? In Somerfield, in the south of the city, in a state house the family bought. Dad was an electrician who in the middle of his life became a psychopaedic nurse. Mum was a clerical worker…
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We Must Avoid Treating Māori As Living Fossils.

There are times when tikanga needs to be broken for tikanga to survive. I recently gave a presentation on Māori economic history based on my Not in Narrow Seas. Its most important message was that Māori proved to be a very adaptable people continually evolving as new opportunities arose. The European tradition recalls the Duke…
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Good and Faithful Servant: Jas McKenzie 1939-2020

Policy Quarterly Vol 16 No 3 (2020) p.79-80. The earliest assessment of Jas that I recall is that he was ‘New Zealand’s John Stone’, referring to a towering secretary of the Australian Treasury. When I told Jas this, he was appalled because their political views were very different. I explained that the comparison arose because…
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David Mayes: 1946–2017

David Mayes, Professor of Finance at the University of Auckland, died on November 30, 2017, aged 71. Asymetric Information No 61, April 2018, p.6 David studied for a PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) at the University of Oxford, graduating in 1968, before completing his PhD at the University of Bristol in 1971. Much of his…
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Those Who Shaped New Zealand Make an Impression.

An interview by Emma Beer, published in ‘The Wellingtonian’, 24 November, 2011. Keywords: Literature and Culture; Political Economy & History; What begins with Michael Joseph Savage and Gordon Coates and ends with Rob Muldoon and Roger Douglas? A new exhibition that catalogues 60 of the most important makers of modern New Zealand, curated by Wellington…
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60 Makers Of New Zealand: 1930-1990 at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery

Keywords: Literature and Culture; Political Economy & History; 60 Makers of New Zealand: 1930-1990:  is at the New Zealand  Portrait Gallery from 24 November 2011 to 12 February 2012. It was curated by Brian Easton. The following is a list of items on the website. At the end is the list of individuals who are…
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The Panels for 60 Makers Of Modern New Zealand: 1930-1990.

60 Makers of New Zealand: 1930-1990:  is at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery from 24 November 2011 to 12 February 2012. It was curated by Brian Easton. Keywords: Literature and Culture; Political Economy & History; The following are the panels to go with the portraits. (Each is constrained to 250 words.) They are also tell…
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