Travel extends the mind. Here are some of the things I learned from a recent trip to Greece: about the age of the human condition, about how civilisations end with environmental depletion, about the stresses to the current Greek economy and about how trivial are New Zealand news websites.
Read MoreEconomy
We need to talk about the one per cent
One per cent of the world's population now control half its wealth.
The concentration of more and more resources in fewer and fewer hands has actually accelerated since the global financial crisis. This is no accident. It is the outcome of policy decisions made – or avoided – by political leaders either unable to learn the lessons of the crisis or unwilling to act on them.
Read MoreWhere is the world economy going?
The more one is certain about the state of an economy, the more one is likely to be wrong; the more one is certain about the state of an economy, the greater the media coverage. No wonder the public is confused.
Read MoreOwning New Zealand
How Much of New Zealand Has to Be Owned and Controlled by Foreigners?
Read MoreSuccess - everyone equally unhappy
TPP can help lift incomes in New Zealand but to make a difference for people, there’s a lot more work still to do.
Underlying Trade Deals
This was an introduction to a presentation by Stephen Jacobi: "TPP – Where to from Here (And How Did We Get Here Anyway)?" To a NZIIA lecture, 2 September 2015. (Some editing)
Read MoreFlagging Design
The flag debate tells us something about the quality of design in New Zealand
Read MoreThe State of the Economy: August 2015
Notes for Radio NZ Nights with Brian Crump: 11 August, 2014
Read MoreMore milk, less honey
As the milk price falls, Fonterra needs to react by rethinking its strategy
Read MoreConfusion about TPP
Trust Us?
Read MoreOutsourcing.
Why does it occur, when does it work?
Read MoreWhat Happened to Peak Oil?
Fracking has changed the energy outlook, with major geopolitical implications
Read MoreBubble, Bubble, Boil and Auckland Housing Trouble.
Treating the Auckland housing bubble as a supply-side problem doesn’t work; neither does blaming some group without a careful analysis of what is happening. What might work?
Read MoreIs the Economy Heading Into a Recession?
Whatever the answer, what are we going to do about it?
Read MoreLet’s Not Turn Greek Debt into a Democratic Deficit.
We need to distinguish the sovereign state from the people it governs, and the other political institutions between.
Read MoreDoes Income Inequality Reduce Equality of Opportunity?
Recent publications suggest that the children who live at the bottom in economies with high inequality have reduced life chances.
Read MoreExplaining the New Zealand economy to a Latin American
The following response to three questions (in italics) was published in a prestigious Uruguayan weekly newspaper Brecha. It may be of interest because I am responding to the Latin American economic debate which is slightly different from the New Zealand one (but only slightly). Sorry for the included material necessary for an audience outside New Zealand. Thankyou. Nicola, for checking the translation from Spanish.
Read MoreWhat Is Left For the Left?
Those on the left of politics have a choice between defending their past achievements or taking up the challenges which face us.
Read MoreWhat Is Left For the Left?
Those on the left of politics have a choice between defending hteir past achievements or taking up the challenges which face us.
Read MoreAre We Saving the Right Way for Retirement?
Should membership of Kiwisaver be compulsory? Research on how humans behaviour, some of it thirty years old, points in that direction.
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