Author: Colin James

An Easter moral for companies

Easter’s just passed, a time to think of higher things — like whether capitalism can have a moral purpose. This has become a more common question since the global financial crisis (GFC).

Some neoliberals say there is a moral purpose: enrichment. Only after capitalism and its associates, innovation and productivity growth, got going did whole populations climb out of subsistence. Before then the quality and quantity of life for the great majority of populations in the great majority of areas waxed and waned with the weather, war and other wayward factors. read more

Some say it's time for a customs union with Australia

Here’s a picture of Australia that may not be familiar: average net household wealth fell 6.5 per cent in 2011 to be 11.5 per cent below the 2008 peak; house prices are falling and sales last year were at a 17-year low; mortgage arrears are rising; retailers’ profits have plunged; the construction industry is contracting sharply; GDP rose only 0.4 per cent in the December quarter. read more

Winston and the foregone-conclusion effect

One route to paralysis in decision-making and action is to assume a foregone conclusion.

Climate change apostles make this mistake when they say apocalypse is imminent. Most people then shrug, figuring nothing they do will stave off doom.

Sports teams make the mistake by relaxing when a long way ahead or thinking the other side inferior, then getting a shock. It was a foregone conclusion the All Blacks would eat France in the rugby world cup final — they scratched a one-point win. read more

Finessing leaders can beat beating them

One thing voters look for in a government is sure-footedness. Vacillation and uncertainty are the kid brothers of vote-killing disunity. They give oxygen to opponents.
One part of being sure-footed is skilled political management to anticipate trouble, intervene to avert it and, if something does go off the rails, quickly sort it and minimise damage, all while hewing to a defined course. read more

Need "results": let's have a 1980s restructure

A quote: “Restructuring is expensive and disruptive and can be counterproductive, at least in the short term.” So much for the sprawling realm John Key is aggregating for Steven Joyce.

And who said it? A niggling academic or unionist? Actually, the very “better public services” advisory group of big guns whose December report ministers say they are following. Ministers would not have had to read far: it is on the third page of the executive summary. read more

Where to find the workplace discontent

Spiders discomfort some people. Unions discomfort John Key. Unions are the antithesis of individualism and they get in the way. One got in the way of some film moguls so he changed workplace law to suit the moguls.
Unions are fomenting discontent by joining Greypower and other groups to get up a citizens-initiated referendum on state asset sales which could be a bit embarrassing. read more

Think national, act local — change is coming

Australia grows bananas (and is a republic in all but form). That might help explain its Monty-Pythonesque federal government and very high dissatisfaction ratings for the alternative Prime Minister. Contrast banana-less New Zealand’s in-gear government: green growth, asset selldowns, welfare, public service, local government. read more

When low interest rates might not be best

Alan Bollard delivers his third-to-last monetary policy statement this month. The good news is that last year inflation dropped into the bottom half of his 1-3 per cent target range. So, is he going out on a high?

Central banks are supposed to be dead boring. Over the past three years they have become truly central to much of the global economy, doing things sober central bankers are not supposed to do to remedy what market bankers caused by doing things they were not supposed to do. read more

The next public service

Comments by Colin James at launch of Bill Ryan and Derek Gill, Future State, 1 March 2012

This book comes at an opportune time, shortly before John Key announces what the government is doing with the “Better Public Services” advisory group’s report. Some talk of this report having been as groundbreaking as in the 1980s when, some say, including in this book, we led the world with new public managerialism, separation of functions, chief executives in charge of resources, a focus on outputs, accrual accounting, more transparent fiscal policy, and inflation targeting by an independent Reserve Bank. The public service got much more focused on “clients” and “customers” (end-users), which improved service delivery. It got more efficient. read more

Environmental and other brands — and John Allen

Last week Climate Change Ambassador Jo Tyndall briefed “stakeholders” on the global negotiations, in which New Zealand has an outsize role. Her briefing was clear, on both knowns and unknowns. That says two things about John Allen’s reconstruction of his ministry.
The first is the value of specialist topic expertise, long a marker of New Zealand’s international affairs brand in a number of fields. Allen wants to match that with deeper expertise in countries and regions; generic diplomatic skills are to be an underpinning, not the quintessence of the foreign service. read more