Brian Easton

Listener 27 March 1999.

Keywords Business & Finance; Regulation & Taxation

Just suppose there was no government agency concerned with accurate weights and measures. How would you know that the `kilogram’ of the bananas you were buying weighed a thousand true grams? You could carry you own scales. Not trusting the draper when you want to buy two metres of cloth, better carry your own ruler. A few percent difference – the butcher’s thumb on the scales – may be the difference between profit and loss, between whether the customer gets a fair deal or is ripped off.

Listener 13 March, 1999

Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;

Sometimes public comment on forecasts focuses on the statistics, and ignores that there ought to be an underlying account of the state of the economy. With the March quarter round of forecasts underway, it may be useful to set down the some of the questions that top forecasters are pondering.

Invited Presentation to the Jubilee Conference of the New Zealand Statistical Society, 5-7 March, 1999, Wellington.

Keywords Political Economy & History; Statistics;

Fabian ‘… unless you do redeem it by some laudable attempt either of valour or policy.’
Sir Andrew Auguecheek ‘An’t be any way, it must be with valour; for policy I hate; …”
Twelfth Night

Introduction

Thankyou for the honour of being invited to speak to the Jubilee Conference of the New Zealand Statistical Association. My associations go back only two-thirds of its history, but they are experiences and friendships I greatly value. Indeed, had there been an academic career path in social statistics, I may well have ended up pri