Listener 28 October 2002.
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;
Wanting to avoid the Great Depreciation of the 1930s, the leaders of the world established the International Monetary Fund in 1945. It has a number of purposes but a major one is to provide enough international liquidity should a 1930 type crisis ever occur again. Think of the IMF as the international equivalent of a reserve bank, and don’t confuse it with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (a.k.a. ‘World Bank’) whose purpose is to provide international capital for development investment, not short-term liquidity.
Should the Economic Reforms be Intensified or are New Policies in Order?
Listener 14 October, 2000
Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money;
There is a debate going on about what to do about the economy. The loudest view is that it is the fault of the new government, and that we only have to return to the policies of the last fifteen years and everything will come right. There are three reasons why this is not very compelling. First, the Labour-Alliance government does not seem to have changed policy that much. Second, the ‘collapse’ began in early 1999 or even 1998, well before the new government took power. And third, over the fifteen years the performance of the New Zealand economy has been the worse in the rich OECD, inflation excepted. So the past policies have failed, and are unlikely to succeed in the future.
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Volume Five (1941-1960), 2000, p.504-506.
Keywords: Political Economy & History
William Ball Sutch was born in Southport, Lancashire, England, on 27 June 1907, the third of five children. He arrived in New Zealand at the age of eight months, when his family migrated to Wellington. His father, Ebenezer (Ted) Sutch, was a journeyman carpenter, and his mother, Ellen Sutch (née Ball), a dressmaker. Both had determined characters, and were widely read in the social fields, despite having only elementary schooling. They were staunch Methodists and were involved in the United Ancient Order of Druids Friendly Society. The household allocated various tasks to each child, independent of gender. Bill’’s included making the soap, jam, pickles and Yorkshire pudding, polishing the floors, turning the mangle, bringing the findings (such as cotton thread) for his mother’’s work, and minding the baby. His strong-minded and financially canny mother, whom he adored, gave him a lifelong commitment to women’s causes.
