BBC Russian

LOOSE REGULATIONS SINK ECONOMIES � AND BUILDINGS

Listener: 14 October, 2011.
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Regulation & Taxation;
I have been preoccupied by leaky building syndrome, which may have damaged up to 110,000 dwellings as well as costing considerable domestic stress and even lives. Commercial and public buildings have suffered, too. There were many causes of the disaster but it illustrates the failure of [...]

HOUSEHOLDS CAUSE BALANCE SHEET PROBLEMS

Listener: 1 October, 2011.
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;
The world�s economic difficulties arise because so many balance sheets are badly balanced. A balance sheet � of a person, a business, a financial institution, a government or a country � consists of the entity�s assets on the left and its liabilities on the right. (Accountants are such a [...]

INFRASTRUCTURE PROBLEMS IN NEW ZEALAND

Listener: 17 September, 2011.
Keywords: Environment & Resources;� Governance;
The cinema may give a good idea about the sewers of Paris and Vienna, but I have little idea what goes on underneath the city in which I live. I just pull the plug or chain and the waste magically disappears.
For the citizens of Christchurch, it did that [...]

DO WE DESERVE TO HOST THE RWC?

Listener: 3 September, 2011.
Keywords: Growth & Innovation;
Does New Zealand deserve the Rugby World Cup? No, I am not concerned about who wins it; I hope the best team wins, and you know who that is. But do we deserve to be hosts?
Compare our feeble efforts with other big tournaments whose hosts deliberately use it to [...]

US DEBT DEFAULT � WHERE TO FROM HERE?

Listener: 22 August, 2011.
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;
How much theatre was involved in the congressional fracas over the raising of the US debt ceiling is hard to tell. Had the ceiling not been lifted, the unthinkable � or, at least, the unpredictable � would have happened, so perhaps the politicians were posturing, expecting a resolution while [...]

GAMBLING WITH OTHER PEOPLE�S MONEY

The Fine Line Between Gambling and Investment
Listener: 3 August, 2011.
Keywords: Business & Finance;
Various people have produced their slant on the global financial crisis. The film Inside Job had little new in it, although some found it valuable. I greatly enjoyed the Circa play-reading of David Hare�s The Power of Yes � it may have been [...]

GREAT DAYS IN NEW ZEALAND BORROWING

The Reserve Bank’s cobbled measures got us through the 2008 crisis
Listener: 23 July, 2011.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Political Economy & History;
1878: While Julius Vogel was on a ship to London, the City Bank of Glasgow crashed. The London money market – the financial centre of the world – plunged. Although we were already over-borrowed, Vogel [...]

IN DANGER OF OVER-PROMISING

Policies formed in Opposition can bite a new government.
Listener: 9 July, 2011.
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
Jim Anderton once said that a bad day in Government was better than a year in Opposition. But decisions made in parliamentary opposition may end up as many bad days in government, for that is where election promises are formulated.
During [...]

INDIAN LISTENER COLUMNS

Keywords: Growth & Innovation; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History;
The Asia New Zealand Foundation kindly made a grant to enable me to visit India. Here are the columns I wrote:
A CLASH OF TITANS (22 January, 2011) http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1416
GOD�S OTHER COUNTRY (19 February, 2011) http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1435
INDIA�S UNMET DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENT NEEDS (16 April, 2011) http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1478
POOR [...]

AMARTYA SEN AND INDIA�S FUTURE

India is a country of the past, but it is also a country of the future.
Listener: 25 June, 2011.
Keywords: Growth & Innovation; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History;
Many New Zealanders find India mysterious, for we don�t have much to do with it � unfortunately it is just out of direct flight [...]

Brian Easton