Rescuing the New Zealand Economy: What went wrong and how we can fix it

Without really knowing why, many New Zealanders are baffled and disturbed by the current economic turmoil of our cripplingly high interest rates, and a massively over-valued New Zealand dollar that is destroying the returns of our mainstay exporters. Since the radical reforms of Rogernomics in the mid 1980s, our political masters, and most mainstream economists have consistently told us that this situation is the inevitable result of good economic management. Bryan Gould however, disagrees. In Rescuing the New Zealand Economy he argues that the ruling monetarist orthodoxy is seriously flawed, and clearly shows how this extreme policy straitjacket has been responsible for decades of damage to our productive economy. But importantly, this book looks beyond the recent, depressing past to a more optimistic vision for the future, and lays out a way forward that utilises a more balanced and humane view of what economic management is about. Using the experience of many other Western democracies, who have been far more economically successful than New Zealand, he outlines mainstream, well-tested ways for restoring productivity and controlling inflation without stifling economic growth. This book is also ultimately a plea for people to become better informed and to enter into the debate about how we can revive the New Zealand economy. It is now beyond doubt that our economic performance over recent decades has been woeful, and that something desperately needs to be done. Change will only come if people demand it - reading this book will be an important first step in helping to make that happen.

Table of Contents

Contents include: I. How Did We Get To Where We Are Now? -- The Development of the New Zealand Economy -- How Have We Done? The Economic Outcomes -- How Have We Done? The Social Outcomes -- Why Did Monetarism Get It Wrong? -- Why Has Interest Rate Policy Done So Much Damage? -- Why Is Using The Exchange Rate To Control Inflation Such A Bad Idea? -- Why Are Interest Rates No Longer Effective To Control Inflation? -- Why Have We Persisted So Long With Failed Policies? -- II. Detours, Diversions And Wrong Turnings -- The Role Of The Market -- An Independent Central Bank -- The Third Way -- A Closer Union With Australia? -- What Do We Mean By Economic Success? -- Fear Of The Unorthodox -- III. Where Do We Go From Here? -- The Battle Against Inflation -- A Macro Way To Control Inflation -- The Use of Fiscal Policy -- A More Effective Central Bank -- A Better-Focused Monetary Policy -- Tackling The Housing Market -- The Interest-Linked Savings Scheme -- Encouraging Saving -- International Measures -- The Way Forward.

Author Biography

Bryan Gould was born and educated in New Zealand. He won a Rhodes Scholarship in 1962 which took him to Oxford and on to a career as a diplomat in the British Foreign Office and as a law don at Oxford. He was elected to the House of Commons as a Labour Member of Parliament in 1974. After serving in both Neil Kinnock's and John Smith's Labour Shadow Cabinets, and contesting the Labour Leadership in 1992, he left British politics in 1994 to become the Vice-Chancellor of Waikato University, a post he held until his retirement in 2004. He now lives in the Bay of Plenty.