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HER MAJESTY THE CONSUMER

The producer is no longer king.
 
Listener: 29 December, 2007.
 
Keywords: Business & Finance;
 
It’s been a long way from the Agricultural Development Council (ADC) of 1963 to last month’s Primary Industries Summit – in both time and head space.
 
The ADC focused on the pastoral sector. In those days, dairy, meat and wool made up almost 90 percent [...]

29th December 2007 | Comments Closed

PUBLIC DEBATE? YEAH, RIGHT

Current economic debate rarely extends beyond hearsay and uninformed opinion. 
 
Listener: 15 December, 2007. 
 
Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; 
 
Thirty years ago, a large majority of New Zealand economists argued for greater use of the market to regulate the economy. Prime Minister Rob Muldoon was sympathetic, but after almost losing the 1978 [...]

15th December 2007 | Comments Closed

THE GLOBALISATION OF A WELFARE STATE

Chapter 3 of New Zealand, New Welfare, edited by N. Lunt, M. O’Brien & R. Stephens. (Cenage Learning, 2007)
 
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Labour Studies; Social Policy;
 
In March 1952, just two men were on the Department of Social Security’s unemployment benefit. The rules of entitlement partly determine the numbers, but those registered with the Department [...]

13th December 2007 | Comments Closed

RECESSION PROCESSION

Ignore the happy brigade. The forces of recession are already in motion. 
 
Listener: 1 December, 2007. 
 
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; 
 
Larry Summers, the best economist ever to have been Secretary of the US Treasury, points out that major international financial crises occur about every three or four years. The last – the Enron bust – was five years [...]

1st December 2007 | Comments Closed