Market-oriented social engineering.
The political Right regularly accuses the Left of engaging in social engineering. Be it pushing such unnatural constructs as union and civil rights, health awareness and environmental concerns, the...
View ArticleLabour: locking in lose-lose
David Shearer says he won’t rule out buying back shares in state-owned power companies sold by the government. He won’t rule it in, either. Why? Does he need to consult his leader? There’s so much...
View ArticleEvaluating export growth.
Much has been made of the fact that since the entrance into effect of the bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China in 2008, New Zealand exports to China totaled NZ$33.7 billion in the six years...
View ArticleLoansharking Greece and odious debt.
I do not purport to be an economist nor would I ever want to be. Theirs is a world of implicit assumptions and pseudoscience that only a brave few have challenged from within. However, theirs is also a...
View ArticleToo Clever.
The TPPA signing came and went, as did the nation-wide protests against it. I did not think that the government was going to be swayed from publicly commemorating what it considers to be the crown...
View ArticleMedia Link: Political Risk and Sustainable Enterprise.
I was invited by the nice folk at sustainnews.co.nz to contribute a short essay related to sustainable economics from my perspective as a geopolitical and strategic analysis consultant. The essay wound...
View ArticleHalf as Long and Twice as Dull: The ACT Party and David Seymour
After previously examining the big four of NZ politics we now turn our eye to the first of the lesser denizens of the swamp called parliament and look at one species of creature soon to be extinct....
View ArticleTick, tick, tick…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/83951548/qv-stats-confirm-1m-average-for-auckland-but-growth-may-be-slowing Sooner or later. There are a rage of arguments and scenarios for how this will play out but...
View ArticleFrom failure, opportunity comes.
When President Trump signed the executive order withdrawing the US signature from the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TTPA), he signed the death warrant of that multinational trade deal in its...
View ArticleLiving within our means.
Years ago the Argentine sociologist Carlos Weisman wrote a book titled “Living within our Means.” It was a critique of Argentine society that focused on the paradoxical question of why, in a land of...
View ArticleMedia Link: Standing Places interview.
I did an interview with former student Ivor Wells for his Standing Places podcast out of London. The chat is a bit of rambling meander across several topics, with pauses and background interruptions,...
View ArticleMasking Alone.
A while back I was talking to a friend about the reasons why I believe that the US has failed so miserably in managing the Covid-19 pandemic. Our starting point was the idiocy surround the “masks...
View ArticleMedia Link: “A View from Afar” on supply chain bottlenecks, commodity (over)...
Selwyn Manning and I have created YouTube channels under our respective business names in order to promote the “A View from Afar” podcast series. The latest episode examines recent problems of global...
View ArticleMedia Link: “A View from Afar” year-end review.
Selwyn Manning and I wrapped up this year’s “A View from Afar” podcasts with a review of the past year and some speculation about what is to come. We meander a bit but the themes are clear. You can...
View ArticleA word on post-neoliberalism.
I recently read a critique of the market-oriented economic theory known as “neoliberalism” and decided to add some of my thoughts about it in a series of short messages on a social media platform...
View ArticleMedia Link: AVFA on Latin America.
In the latest episode of AVFA Selwyn Manning and I discuss the evolution of Latin American politics and macroeconomic policy since the 1970s as well as US-Latin American relations during that time...
View Article” A View from Afar” returns.
On Thursday May 11, 2023 at 12PM (noon) NZ time/8PM Wed 10th May US East Coast time/1AM Thursday London time/8 AM Thursday Singapore time and 10AM Thursday Sydney time, the A View from Afar podcast...
View ArticleSocial Media Link: 36th Parallel on South America’s “Strategic Paradox.”
I was asked to write a commissioned essay for a special issue on Latin America of a NZ international affairs magazine. I was told by the editor I could write on a specific subject of my choice. I...
View ArticleMedia Link: Post-pandemic economics and the rise of national populism” on “A...
On this edition of AVFA Selwyn Manning and I discuss post-pandemic economics and the rise of national populism. It seems that a post-pandemic turn to more nationalist economic policies may have...
View ArticleVoting as a multi-order process of choice.
Recent elections around the world got me to thinking about voting. At a broad level, voting involves processes and choices. Embedded in both are the logics that go into “sincere” versus “tactical”...
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