Brian Easton

By R. Grynberg, D. Munro & M. White
Listener 26 April, 2003

Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;

Those involved – including Fijian coup leader and subsequently Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rambuka – were anxious not to have too public the story of the financial crisis of the National Bank of Fiji (NBF). Instead the authors – then academics at the University of Fiji although two have since left – pieced it together from the public record and the investigative reporting of a few courageous journalists. Their story goes like this.

General
In Stormy Seas: The Post-War New Zealand Economy Chapter 11: Industry and Energy (1997)
Capital and Technological Change: Some International Comparisons From In Stormy Seas Chapter 14 (1997)

Electricity
The Maori Geothermal Claim: A Pakeha Economist’s Perspective (September 1993)
Future Shocks (November 1996)
Risking Dialogue: Electricity Outages Show How Consumers are Powerless (August 1998)
Electric Rhetoric: Sneering Instead of Thinking (July 1999)
Air Force: An Answer to Our Power Needs May Be Blowing in the Wind (March 2003)
Power Games: The Electricity Crisis is the Result of Bad Economics (May 2003)

Oil
Postcard from Arabia (April 2000)
Rhetoric and Iraq: Arab Brothers and Oil Sisters (October 2002)
New World Disorder (April 2003)
A Note on Iraq, Oil and the US Dollar (April 2003)

Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;

The Left and Economics: Are They Today’s Conservatives? (May 2002)
What Might A Left Wing Economic Policy Begin to Like? Some Notes (April 2002)
New Zealand in a Globalised World (September 2001)

The Third Way
Road to Damascus: What is the Third Way? And What Were the First Two? (December 1999)
At the Crossroads: Three Essays by Jane Kelsey (June 2002)

Bruce Jesson
His Purpose is Clear: Reflecting a Life of Thought and Experience (February 1999)
Global Warning: What would have Bruce Jesson have said about APEC (September 1999)
Nationbuilding and the Textured Society (Bruce Jesson Memorial Lecture, October 2001)
The Nationbuilders Envoy (November 2001)

Karl Marx
Marks of Change (May 1990)
A Pantheon of Seven …. (March 2000)

Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;

It is best to think of this as a draft – and very preliminary. Comments welcome. Further of my writings on the left will be found at Economics of Socialism (Index).

The Listener column, ‘The Left and Economics (3 May 2003) elicited a number of the readers of the draft version asking me what a modernised economics of the left might look like. My response was ‘Who me? I’m only an economic columnist’. In any case few would put me among the Left, other than those who are so far to the right they object to the road rules.

Listener: 19 April, 2003.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Macroeconomics & Money;

We see only vaguely the world order which will follow the flames of Iraq. The whole episode has confirmed the American (Hard) Right’s suspicions of the old order, based on alliances and multilateral institutions, which Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman (and, indeed Peter Fraser) contributed to creating after the Second World War. They argue the case for, what amounts to, an American imperium – a world empire over which it wields unqualified power. With President Bush they have an administration which could pursue such a unilateralist goal, with profound international political and military implications. But as this is only a short economics column, the focus is on the economic and financial ones.

Note in response to questions arising from the ‘Disorder Afterwards’ Listener Column of 19 April, 2003

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Macroeconomics & Money;

In the past few weeks I have been asked by a number of people about published opinions that argue the US is invading Iraq in order to get access to its oil, and to strengthen the role of the US dollar, it being noted that a few years ago Iraq decided to settle its oil deals would be transacted in euros.

Listener 5 April, 2003.

Keywords: Environment & Resources; Growth & Innovation;

Lincoln University meteorologist, Neil Cherry, wonders aloud whether New Zealand is too windy to convert its wind power into electricity. Germany with the most wind power installations has winds averaging 6 metres/second. Denmark, the world leader in wind turbine manufacturing, has sites up to just over 7m/s, as has California the biggest wind power state in the US. A typical New Zealand site is 10m/s, which yields at least twice as much power. That means much more stress on the machinery. Half the European made gear boxes on one New Zealand wind farm had to be replaced within the guarantee period (and ten percent of them re-replaced).