Listener28 June, 1997.
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;
The economy seems to have been in a growth slowdown. It is not easy to tell its current state because the data is incomplete. But as best can be judged, the upswing phase of the business cycle following the long recession of the late 1980s is over, and the economy is now expanding at a modest rate. The upswing was heralded by ideologues as a permanent and sustainable. The more cautious commentators recognised that this was a cyclical recovery, and economic growth would then slow down. It has. What does that tell us about the long term prospects of the economy?
In J. Davey (ed) Globalisation and Local Cultures: Emerging Issues for the 21st Century, the proceedings of a seminar is sponsored by the Federation of New Zealand Social Science Organisations, the Royal Society of New Zealand, and the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO. 27 June, 1997. p.20-27.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Literature and Culture;
Globalization might be justified by David Ricardo’s pregnant insight of 150 years ago, that it may be in the material interests of a region or country to withdraw from producing a product where it had an absolute advantage in production, in order to produce another commodity for which it had a comparative advantage. By trading the comparative advantage commodity to another region or country in exchange for the other commodity, both benefit. This suggests regions or nations will become increasingly specialized in the production of products which can be traded, presaging the globalization of the world economy which has been evolving since the nineteenth century, if not earlier.
Listener 21 June, 1997.
Keywords Health
New figures released this week indicate that tobacco and alcohol abuse cost the nation far more than hitherto thought. In my report The Social Costs of Tobacco Use and Alcohol Misuse, I estimate that the abuse of licit drugs costs the nation $38.6b(illion) in 1990. Some $22.5b is attributable to the costs of the use of tobacco, while $16.1b arises from the misuse of alcohol.
Listener: 14 June,1997.
Keywords: Business & Finance; Literature and Culture;
Once it was “knowledge is power”, so the powerful kept the knowledge from the populace. Integral to the evolution of democracy was the making available of that information to everyone. Perhaps the high point was the 1982 Official Information Act (OIA), which makes it much easier to find out what the government is doing – or not doing.
