On Tue, 2 Apr 1996, Hugo Radice wrote: > I was recently at a workshop in Budapest on foreign direct investment > in the Visegrad countries (btw, that's Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, > Czech Rep], and to my surprise one of the papers was on "The role of > FDI in structural change: the lessons from New Zealand's > experience". The paper was given by David Mayes, a Brit who is now > at the Reserve Bank of NZ (he was previously at the National > Institute of Econ and Social Research in London, which co-sponsored > the workshop). The paper was 100% supportive of the change to > neo-liberalism in NZ. * * * I can't comment on the economics in the paper and in your post; however, my experience in watching and writing about New Zealand since 1989 is that the boosters of these economic changes have tended, with great consistency, to "adjust" their figures. A recent opinion poll on public attitudes towards changes in labour law there is a good example. The figures showed overwhelming support for the new law, and supporters of the changes have released the figures with enormous fanfare, including swish (grace a Bill Mitchell) pamplets trumpeting these results. The problem is that the pollsters have refused to release any information on their methodology. These results don't jibe with other credible polling. Second, just a few comments on some economics-related issues. One change that I understand has come about has been to contract the numbers of items made in New Zealand. This might not be a worry in other small countries which are in centrally located places, such as Wales, but for New Zealand, a small country at the end of long supply lines, not producing essential goods may be a worry. Jane Kelsey's book, Economic Fundamentalism (Pluto Press 1996) goes into a great deal of detail on economics and should be referred to by folks interested in the hows and whys of the triumph of these sorts of economic policies. Regards, ellen Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax: 619-696-9999
[PEN-L:3563] Re: State of the New Zealand economy
Ellen Dannin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Tue, 2 Apr 1996 07:49:37 -0800
