Managers don’t always do what their shareholders want, which may explain the SkyCity deal oddities. Listener: 30 March , 2013. Keywords: Business & Finance; Governance; Richina Pacific has hardly reported to its shareholders since 2008, according to NZ Herald business columnist Brian Gaynor. By ignoring them, Richina Pacific gave no information to…
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New technologies and light-handed regulation are a recipe for disaster. Listener: 16 March , 2013. Keywords: Business & Finance; Regulation & Taxation; The leaky-building debacle involved homes and commercial and public buildings being built with new technologies that the builders were not competent to use, coupled with weak supervision and regulation. The…
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The confidential details you provide in next month’s census forms will prove valuable. Listener: 2 March , 2013. Keywords: Statistics; On Tuesday, March 5, millions of New Zealanders will fill in census forms on behalf of themselves, their children and their dwellings. They will do so out of a civic duty, although…
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It is said social scientists don’t live dangerously, but here’s one who did. Listener: 16 February, 2013. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; Miraculously, all four Jewish schoolboys in the picture (which accompanied the column) taken in Berlin in about 1930 escaped the Holocaust, which killed…
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A Government surplus means little when private sector borrowing is rampant. Listener: 30 January, 2013. A little complacency seems to have crept into the latest Government economic forecasts. In its December outlook, the Government promised to get its books into surplus in the 2014-15 year, the first time in seven years. It might just make…
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The available text of Shakespeare?s Timon of Athens is a bit of a mess. It was all the compilers of the 1623 Folio edition of Shakespeare?s plays had when it was published, but it is almost certainly an early draft by its two playwrights (Thomas Middleton wrote about half of it), replete with inconsistencies that would have been dealt with when the play was staged. This may justify more freedom than modern directors regularly take with Shakespeare; the British National Theatre seized the opportunity last year with a stage production (right), also on film, located in London after the global financial crisis.
During Rugby World Cup 2011, historian and editor of online encyclopedia Te Ara Jock Phillips searched for the “real New Zealand”. He trotted around museums and other earnest alternative exhibits, often rugby-related, reporting on what the non-rugby elite thought was important.
He won the battle for the White House, but Obama’s fiscal war continues. Listener: 13 December, 2012. The day after Barack Obama was re-elected President, attention turned to America’s “fiscal cliff”, despite there being nary a reference to it in the campaign. Another reminder that elections are rarely about the real issues: recall how when…
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What we really need to do to get house prices back on track. Listener: 29 November, 2012. A friend was enthusiastic about various unorthodox money measures, such as quantitative easing and cutting the official cash rate. I asked him how they would work. He had no idea. His was the New Zealand way: “Bugger the…
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Canterbury earthquake victims might have received quite different help but for a 1990 change in the political landscape. Listener: 15 November, 2012. In 1988, a ministerial paper proposed reforms to New Zealand’s earthquake insurance. It came 44 years after the Government had established the Earthquake and War Damage Commission that would pay out for damages…
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Meddling ministers and overzealous case managers are undermining ACC. Listener: 10 November, 2012. Once upon a time, accident victims had to go through a long, complicated legal process to obtain compensation, with the possibility of an arbitrary and unfair outcome. In 1967 a Royal Commission chaired by Owen Woodhouse recommended an alternative that focused on…
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The just-departed Reserve Bank Governor had less power than people think. Listener: 27 October, 2012. Alan Bollard, the just-retired Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, is a genial man with a wry sense of humour. He is also a great public servant for whom we have much to thank. He will be best…
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We need a child-focused approach to dealing with poverty. Listener: 13 October, 2012. Around 40 years ago, social scientists estimated that well over half of New Zealand’s poor were children and their parents, and pointed out the lack of sufficient income would stifle the development of these children. To this day, children and their parents…
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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…
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Listener: 15 September, 2012. Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich coined the expression “iatrogenic medicine” to describe illness generated by the actions of physicians. An example is when the doctors prescribe some medicine, with resultant side effects, which are treated by further medication. The cycle repeats until a specialist reviews the patient’s entire record and stops all…
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Listener: 1 September 1, 2012 New Zealand ran out of farmland in the mid-1950s. Of course, it has always been limited, but the opportunities to create new farms ran out and the existing ones were getting bigger, so the job opportunities on them did not increase. Countries short of farmland used to acquire more by…
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Listener: 18 August, 2012. One of the reasons King Charles I was beheaded in 1649 was that, without Parliament’s approval, he raised taxes and spent the proceeds. Forty years later, after the Glorious Revolution, the English Parliament passed the Bill of Rights, requiring that the Crown tax or spend only with Parliament’s approval. That act…
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Listener: 4 August, 2012. This column has previously advocated making greater use of market mechanisms to allocate the use of water. New Zealand has a comparative abundance of water, but we benefit if it is allotted as efficiently as possible. Those familiar with the issue acknowledge the argument, but many point out that the “P”…
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Listener: 21 July, 2012. Fortunately, the recently instituted deep-earth monitoring observed the magma slowly working its way to the surface. Breaking out, it pushed up a cone not unlike its twin, Rangitoto (some 600 years older), erupting to fill the skies with ash, bombs, rocks and poisonous gases. Given the warning, few lives were lost….
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Listener: 7 July 7, 2012. I am appalled by the Prime Minister’s deferral of consideration of the age of entitlement for New Zealand Superannuation. Many think it should be raised from 65 years. Key said he was more focused on immediate issues than on longer-term ones. That is an appropriate attitude for a money-market dealer,…
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