Two books analysed the US presidential election outcome before it happened
Listener: 18 December
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
Politically, Americans are not like the rest of us. Personally, they have been as courteous and hospitable to me visiting them as a Fulbright New Zealand scholar, as I expect New Zealanders to be to American visitors. But their re-election of George W Bush illustrates the underlying political differences, for, in some ways, challenger John Kerry was to the right of, say, our National Party, while the US Congress became dominated by the Right in 1994.
Globalization in Historical Perspective, a National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report, edited by M.D. Bordo, A.M. Taylor and J.G. Williamson. (The University of Chicago Press, 2003)
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
The public, which has firm, uninformed, and confused views on globalisation, would be astonished as to what the scholars think about the topic, although perhaps less surprised as to what they do not (yet) know.
Paper for the “After Neoliberalism? New Forms of Governance in Aotearoa New Zealand” Symposium, Auckland University, December 13, 2004.
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
The policy clash in the 1980s and the 1990s was more complex than a Left-Right divide. At the very least it was tripartite. One group we might call the ‘conservatives’, many of who were on the Left, who wanted to defend the existing economic and social policies whose beginnings go back to the 1930s – making minor modifications from those which we associate with Muldoon. The concerns of the nostalgic Left has been more about human rights, foreign affairs and redistribution, than about economic policy, the main concern of this paper.
My oration for Mum at her memorial gathering at the Thelma Easton Library, Hillmorten School, 11 December 2004.
Keywords: Miscellaneous;
Tena kotou katoa. Friends of my mother, and so friends of mine and of her family, welcome to this gathering to remember and honour Dorothy Thelma Easton. I’ll call her Mum, because that is what she was to me.
Listener: 4 December, 2004.
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
Almost 50 years ago, the guest speaker at my school prize-giving was telling the boys how we would experience a number of different careers in our lifetime, unlike our fathers, who seemed to have only one.
Listener: 20 November, 2004.
Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;
About this time each year I am asked about the merits of the various university economics departments. Typically, someone’s daughter or nephew is thinking about studying economics. This year, the questioner frequently adds, “Isn’t there some official ranking of economics departments?”
Submission to the Select Committee on Health In Regard to the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Amendment Bill (2004, No 3) by Brian Easton and Alan Gray.
Keywords: Health; Social Policy;
Summary of Submission
We support the general approach of the Bill to remove the notion of fault in medical misadventure and to extend rehabilitation and compensation to all those who suffer treatment injury. However, we do not believe there should be any exemption for treatment injury as a result of resource shortages. This is inconsistent with the Bill’s general principles.<
Imbalanced tax cutting is like pouring petrol on a blazing barbecue
Listener 6 November, 2004.
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;
With the general election just a year ahead, I have, as usual, reviewed my approach. My strategy is always to help readers try to understand economic issues, rather than tell them which way to vote. Next year I may have to modify it.
The Trekka Dynasty, by Todd Niall (Iconic Publishing, $29.95)
Listener 6 November, 2004.
Keywords: Business & Finance; Political Economy & History;
Making the boxy Trekka the centre of New Zealand’s contribution to the 2003 Venice Biennale bemused New Zealanders, as well as those who visited. Apparently artist Michael Stevenson saw it as a story about a small nation building an industrial economy, to be swept away by 1984. An easy image perhaps, but a superficial one.
The retirement debate depends on a disagreement between economists.
Listener : 23 October, 2004.
Keywords: Social Policy;
About 30 years ago economics sharpened its theory of behaviour with the assumption that everyone took economic decisions that gave them the best outcome. We might call this the “neoclassical paradigm”. It simplifies analysis enormously, and was used in policy extensively in the 1980s and 90s. In practice, the paradigm recognises that individuals don’t actually maximise, but it assumes that people are always taking actions that move them closer to the optimum, so the assumption of best outcomes is near enough to be true.
