How to preserve the social market economy in a modern Europe.
Listener: 30 July, 2005.
Keywords: Labour Studies;
Reform is a weasel word, avoiding specifics because advocates are either not sure what it means or they don’t want others to know. So, when the German Government and the Goethe-Institut offered me the opportunity to study the German economy, I just had to look at the reality of its “reforms” debate. Some of the implemented ones – pressures on the unemployed to take up work – seem not too different from ours. But some proposals have the ideology underpinning our Employment Contracts Act (ECA).
Presentation to the Wellington WEA, 25 July 2005.
Keywords: Social Policy;
There is one outstanding fact about New Zealand poverty. Choose any reasonable poverty line, and you will find that over 80 percent of the poor are children and their parents. The figure would be even higher if one included other adults living in households with children. The economic problem of poverty is overwhelming children and the families they live in.
This note was prepared on request of a educationalist who is writing a history of some aspects of the school for its 125th anniversary in 2006
Keywords: Education;
The mid 1950s must have been a pivotal time for Christchurch Boys’ High School. A number of new high schools opened up in Christchurch – Aranui, Cashmere, Linwood, Riccarton, Shirley Boys’. The challenge was not the drawing off of students, for this was a time of the ‘bulge’, and the reputation of the school was such that it still attracted a high proportion of the best students. But new schools need teachers. CBHS lost a number of its better younger ones to senior positions in the new schools. Their promotion at CBHS had been blocked by the older generation, many of whom had been there for decades, perhaps after returning from the Second (or even First) World War. Those teachers, near retirement, were too often tired and bored, at best teaching solidly rather than inspiringly.
Keywords: Regulation & Taxation;
Other articles on the 2005 Election Tax Debate
This is for the record, rather than of any great moment. The July 18 edition of “The New Zealand Farmers’ Weekly” included an extract from my In Praise of Fiscal Sustainablity, and a reply by National’s spokesperson on Finance, John Key. I reluctantly replied as follows.
Listener: 16 July, 2005.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
Unless major decisions are made this month, the Doha Round of international trade negotiations may be in trouble, and the New Zealand economy along with it. Although negotiations are occurring largely beneath the radar of most media, a good outcome is vital to New Zealand. Our economy has been doing well in recent years. The most important reason – other than we have not been doing anything too stupid – is the higher prices for our farm exports, a consequence of the Uruguay Round trade negotiations of the 1990s, which reduced some of the rich world’s subsidies on farm products, lifting world export prices, giving a boost to our farm and farm-processing incomes, and to the overall economy.
Listener: 16 July, 2005.
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
New Zealanders largely see Europe from the Atlantic offshore. Few – myself included, until the German Government and the Goethe-Institut enabled me to spend two weeks in Germany last month – would know about the “Battle of the Nations”. In 1813, Austria, Prussia, Russia and Sweden decisively defeated Napoleon’s army, just outside Leipzig – the monument is pure megalomania. Because Britain was not involved, it hardly registers to us. Yet, with the end of the Cold War, the centre of Europe is moving east, evident in the reconstruction of Berlin as its transport hub.
Tuesday Lecture Series, ‘THE STATE OF THE NATION: Issues for the 2005 Election’, St Andrew’s Trust for the Study of Religion and Society. 12 July 2005.
Later articles on the 2005 Election Tax Debate
Keywords: Regulation & Taxation;
A central election issue is whether promised substantial income tax cuts are affordable – fiscally sustainable? ‘Fiscal’ refers to government revenue and spending and the difference between them – the fiscal deficit. ‘Sustainable’ refers to a fiscal stance which does not get out of control and which does not damage the economy. The answer is ‘yes’, income tax can be affordable but only if there are major cuts in government spending to offset the loss of tax revenue. There is no room for unilateral tax cuts funded by borrowing.
But it’s still Ja for the European Project.
Listener: 2 July, 2005.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Political Economy & History;
When New Zealand voted on MMP in 1993, many people said they voted “yes” because the Business Roundtable told them “no”. Whatever their logic, the example illustrates that voters do not necessarily vote on the precise referendum question before them.
