Category Archives: Globalisation & Trade

Brexit: A View from Down Under

This was submitted to a British news publication in late December, but was not published.  Brexit is a great puzzle to New Zealanders. Britain and New Zealand are affectionate cousins with common ancestors back in the nineteenth century. We have gone our own ways; even so we have views of the other’s ways. New Zealand’s…
Continue reading this entry »

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Paper to the Fabian Society, 12 October, 2016   While we continue to chew over the carcass of the Fourth Labour Government – the Lange-Douglas one – we pay little attention to the subsequent Fifth Labour Government. Yet the Clark-Cullen one is greatly shaping the current Labour Opposition and the current National Government. It will,…
Continue reading this entry »

The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement.

Perhaps New Zealand’s acceptance of the TPPA will depend upon the outcome of the Northland by-election Prime Minister John Key shortened his trip to Japan and Korea in order to spend more time campaigning in the Northland by-election. Domestic affairs trumped international ones – for a short time anyway. He said he was going north…
Continue reading this entry »

WITH OR WITHOUT BRITAIN

The EU remains central to New Zealand’s destiny   Pundit: 23 December, 2014.   Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Political Economy & History;   Suppose Britain exited the European Union of 28 countries. I am not recommending it; they would probably be worse off economically. Nor am I predicting it, although sometimes politics produces odd outcomes….
Continue reading this entry »

The Elephant in the Room

Free trade is a fine ideal but comes at the cost of compromised sovereignty.   Listener: 13 February, 2014.   Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;   Once free trade agreements (FTAs) were about reducing tariffs on imports. But it wasn’t long before it became necessary to deal with other means of favouring domestic production: import controls,…
Continue reading this entry »

Economic Integration and Global Security

Asia-Pacific Integration: The Economic and Security Dimensions for New Zealand NZIIA Seminar: Wednesday, 13 November 2013 [1]   Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;   My theme today is on the impact of economic integration on global security. The thesis may be illustrated by the French political economist and diplomat, Jean Monnet who should have been awarded…
Continue reading this entry »

Culture of Dependency

We must remember the lesson of the 1960s and ensure the diversity of our exports and markets.   Listener: 22 August, 2013.   Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; Political Economy & History;   We learnt from the Great Depression of the 1930s that New Zealand was over-dependent on a few exports – wool,…
Continue reading this entry »

Globalisation and the Future World Order

  This paper was presented to the Curtin Sarawak Research Institute at Curtin University, Sarawak (Miri campus), 22 March, 2013. (And earlier version was presented to a politics class at Victoria University of Wellington). The Power Points are available on request. Keywords: Globalisation & Trade I am going to talk about globalisation. I am not using…
Continue reading this entry »

Another Financial Crisis on the Rise?

Listener: 29 September, 2012. The world economy remains fragile. There may be another major economic crisis, but if not, things will continue to drift – or possibly sink. Here are some of the major known unknowns facing the world – and us. It’s hard to say much about the United States economy. The country is…
Continue reading this entry »

A Framework for an Economic Strategy

A note prepared for discussion in September 2012.   Keywords: Business & Finance;  Distributional Economics; Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money;   What is the Purpose of the Economy? * The purpose of the New Zealand economy is to maintain and increase the wellbeing of all  New Zealanders. It is neither the…
Continue reading this entry »