Monthly Archives: February 2002

The Macroeconomics Of the Superannuation Fund

This entry was posted in Macroeconomics & Money, Social Policy on by .

This was a note I prepared: 24 February 2002.

Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Social Policy;

Unfortunately the debate on the superannuation fund established by the Labour-Alliance Government in 2001 has largely ignored its macroeconomic effects. This paper takes the orthodox position that a government has to manage its fiscal position, including its deficit or surplus. There is no necessary rule – such as that propounded by the US right – that sets an a priori level for the fiscal position – such as the government should be in exact balance.

Terrorism and the WTO: The Importance Of the Rule Of Law

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Listener, Political Economy & History on by .

Listener 23 February 2002

Keywords Globalisation & Trade; Political Economy & History

I fear the terrorists have won. Oh sure, they may all be eventually eliminated by the efforts of the Western Alliance, but another generation will rise, who will have had confirmed that the methods of bullies and thugs are justified. …

Mind Your I’s and Q’s

This entry was posted in Labour Studies, Political Economy & History on by .

Book Review of Capitalism and Social Progress: the Future of Society in A Global Economy, by Phillip Brown & Hugh Lauder (Palgrave, $67.95)
Listener 16 February, 2002.

Keywords Political Economy & History; Labour Studies

The book recalls ‘in the aftermath of the Second World War the state emerged with a new mandate to create greater economic security and opportunity, where all would see their slice of the cake increase even if some were getting more than others.’ It was a ‘“Golden era” of western capitalism … built on “walled” economies of massed-produced goods and services which offered a decent family wage to low-skilled workers. … Much of the prosperity in this period depended on a political settlement between the state, employers and workers.’

The Other Side Of the Ditch Cartoon Exhibition

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Literature and Culture on by .

Notes for Panel Discussion, National Library, 14 February, 2002.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Literature and Culture;

The superficial relationship between Australia and New Zealand was captured by last night’s Evening Post article ‘Why do We Hate Australia?’. The short answer is, of course, if the ‘we’ refers to New Zealanders, that we dont hate Australians – we have a complicated relationship with them which is similar to a couple of siblings living with one another in the same unfashionable corner of a city.

Dont Cry for Us Argentina

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Macroeconomics & Money on by .

Listener 9 February 2002.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Macroeconomics & Money

Street demonstrations and the fall of four presidents in a fortnight tell us something is desperately wrong with the Argentine economy (which, with 56 million people, is the world’s 17th largest economy on some measures). It is a century since the expression ‘as rich as an Argentinian’ was in vogue, and many things have gone wrong since. But the precipitant of the recent crisis was the ‘currency union’ with the United States. The Argentinians had abandoned an independent currency and locked their peso to the US dollar. This ‘dollarisation’ is much stronger than pegging the exchange rate, as occurred in New Zealand before 1984. In a currency union there is a common currency – in effect the US dollar was the Argentinian currency, although they used a ‘currency board’ so that while there was a local currency, the ‘peso’, all financial contracts were effectively written in US dollars. The arrangement has the advantage of price stability if prices in the primary currency (the US dollar) are stable.

Gambling in New Zealand: an Economic Overview

This entry was posted in Regulation & Taxation on by .

Draft Chapter in Bruce Curtis (ed), Gambling in New Zealand (Dunmore Press, 2002) Chapter 3, p.45-58.

Keywords Regulation & Taxation

While the practice in New Zealand is to define the gambling industry as that which the Department of Internal Affairs is involved with – including casinos, the TAB, gaming machines, the Lotteries Commission and a host of raffles and housie evenings – it is not immediately obvious why the share market or the insurance industry should be excluded.(1) Both involve the purchase of entitlements with uncertain outcomes, and each involves some of the regulatory problems of ensuring the purchase being honestly managed. Moreover, much of the gambling industry uses the terms such as ‘investment’ with the implication that, say, backing a geegee is not very different from investing in GG Corp. However this chapter focuses on the DIA defined industry, perhaps because it is seen as recreational compared to insurance and equity investment, although their regulatory lessons will not be ignored.