Svoboda | Graniru | BBC Russia | Golosameriki | Facebook

GOD’S OTHER COUNTRY

The Keralan remittance and tourist economy is rather like many Pacific Island ones.
Listener: 19 February, 2011
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
The huge South Asian peninsula has a larger population than Europe and about six times the population density. Both have suffered a high degree of political fragmentation. Even under the British Raj, a myriad of South [...]

19th February 2011 | Comments Closed

IMBALANCES IN A SMALL OPEN ECONOMY: NEW ZEALAND AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Paper to the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic and Business History Conference,  San Francisco, February 2011. (Revised March 2011)[1]
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History;
The International Context
There is a considerable – and partly contested – historiography of the interpretation of the events which surrounded the worldwide Great Depression. It is usually said to have started with [...]

18th February 2011 | Comments Closed

DB, NORDMEYER AND ME

Keywords: Miscellaneous;
In July 2009 I was approached by Colenso BBDO in regard to an advertisement they were doing for DB involving the 1958 ‘Black Budget’. They explained they wanted to promote the contributions of Morton Coutts, the man who – among other things – sometime earlier invented the continuous fermentation method of brewing beer. (He [...]

11th February 2011 | Comments Closed

THE FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL WELFARE IN NEW ZEALAND

Paper to a Student Group from Carleton University, 10 February 2011.
Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; Social Policy;
Europeans were greatly puzzled by the American debate over President Obama’s health reforms, for almost everyone there assumes the public sector should actively promote universal health care. Clearly that is not the [...]

10th February 2011 | Comments Closed

POSSUMS IN THE HEADLIGHTS

We need to do what is necessary now, before we head down Greece and Ireland’s path.
Listener: 5 February, 2011.
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;
If you look at countries’ foreign liabilities in relation to the size of their economy, you will see several were bunched together in 2009: Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and New Zealand. Oh, I know, [...]

5th February 2011 | Comments Closed

WHAT CHANCE A GENUINELY CREATIVE INTELLECTUAL COMMUNITY?

Management Magazine, February 2011, p.9.
Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;
While like Colin James in his November column (Management Magazine), I would be delighted if New Zealand were to produce a economist or philosopher of the international quality of David Hume or Adam Smith – the leaders of the Scottish enlightenment – the prospect is [...]

1st February 2011 | Comments Closed