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Robert Wade

Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, July 8th, 2013 - 4 comments
Categories: notices - Tags: ,

As promoted by the Fabians, Professor Robert Wade of the London School of Economics is speaking across the country on Inequality and the ills it causes.

Inequality and the West – Capitalism at a Tipping Point

Political economist Robert Wade talks about rising inequalities in the Western world, placing New Zealand in the context of international debates.

He is a contributor to Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis. Professor Wade was awarded, with José Antonio Ocampo, the 2008 Leontief Prize by the Global Development and Environment Institute, ‘in recognition of his outstanding contribution to economic theory that addressed contemporary realities and supported just and sustainable societies’.

Public lectures:

  • Monday, 8 July, 6pm, Old Government House Lecture Theatre University of Auckland. Chaired by Professor Margaret Wilson.

    Join us afterwards to celebrate the launch of Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis, edited by Max Rashbrooke. Old Government House Member’s Lounge.

  • Thursday 11 July, 5.30pm Archway 3 Lecture Theatre University of Otago, Dunedin
  • Friday 12 July, 4pm A3 Lecture Theatre University of Canterbury, Christchurch
  • Tuesday 16 July, 6pm Soundings Theatre Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington

Listen also to his great interview with Kim Hill.

4 comments on “Robert Wade”

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  1. johnm 1
    8 July 2013 at 1:08 pm

    Forgive me for being cynical 🙂 The NeoLiberals spend 30 years making society unequal increasing the sadistic economic pressure and then….. and then…. when it’s all too late we have a prof from the LSE part of the establishment telling us how bad inequality is! Croc tears after the juicy prey has been eaten! It’s all theory! You know which side of the economic divide he’s on!

    • Tim 1.1
      8 July 2013 at 1:29 pm

      ….. you’re excused for being cynical. A healthy questioning cynicism is probably the only thing that’ll cause the masses to awaken, ensure that democracy survives, and eventually cause poltishuns to reaquaint themselves with their job at hand (as R e p r e s e n t a t i v e s, and s e r v a n t s of those that elect them).
      …. that’s as long as you’re just as cynical about yourself as you are those you wish to judge.

      Christ! I better have a lay down after that little pearler

  2. aerobubble 2
    8 July 2013 at 2:14 pm

    Mass delusion is periodic but massively helped when the MSM help in the digging.

    NZ inequality is much higher than in comparable western anglo democracies, even after the hiding effect of Australian ditch jumping, due to the risk premium. The risk premium comes about due to the way the capital gains is levied, it isn’t and so accelerates and rewards a growing upper class of toffs (or a very NZ variety of them, those who own several rental properties, a landed gentry class).
    The risk premium, if you are unaware, which is likely, eventuates from the amount of unproductive investment that is taking place in NZ, i.e. we all have to pay more to borrow money on housing as it makes up more off the gross amount of investment and you guess it doesn’t return any actual growth or profit (except from bubble housing prices).

    So expect to be distracted by the MSM, that this is a debate about something else, inflation, or debt, or government balances, or anything but the financial machine set firmly in place in the taxation mix, which rewards some who look down on the rest of us. How has this come to be, well Dunne did it, not openly and intentionally, but by being Dunne, a rather boring middle of the roader who took up his perch in the revenues office and has never broached any changes, not because he hasn’t the wherewithal, or the ability, but due to the big two parties National and Labour pushing tax reform out to pasture. Nothing to look at there, Dunne safe hands have insured nothing was doing.

    Well its simple really, its racism at work, since overwhelmingly those with several rentals are Pakeha.

  3. david willmott 3
    9 July 2013 at 2:43 am

    AjaxTFC reckons :

    “Inequality” comes in two categories; (i) that due to the globalising scale of markets and the globalising scale of top incomes that the likes of Bill Gates can access by providing a gadget at far greater real value to buyers than it costs them to buy or him to build; while those who clean can sell their skills for much less to the very few people they are able to clean for, and (ii) that due to capital gains scored by those who bought houses long enough ago that inflation has rotted away their mortgage obligations while delivering housing “value” ever greater than incomes.

    Note that greedy people cause inflation by rewarding with power the political party which pays the biggest bribes with money it doesn’t have short of “printing” more of it thus diluting the value of all money – and all savings – to the benefit of borrowers. Those who can’t afford a house get left without being able to score capital gains; those who can, get stuck with the high prices (in terms of income) necessary to “pay out” sellers; thus the house-owning “establishment” scores at the expense of those buying a house for the first time – now and into the future.

    Why hasn’t the bubble burst ? In effect, it has; we are building only 4,000 houses a year while we need 13,000 to keep up with the hpme-wanting/needing population. So few people can afford houses now that anybody under 35 wanting to buy a first home is severely disadvantaged compared with those who have already scored capital gains.

    So why don’t prices drop to enable more people to afford them? The answer is that it actually costs $300,000 to develop and sell a section these days because of all the ticket clipping, bureacratic interventions delays charges fees mitigations etc etc etc and grossly unaffordable environmental and engineering standards imposed for no good reason but only the bad “justification” of “achieving (unaffordable) world class standards” (for a beer economy). And who would put anything less than a $300,000 “McMansion” on a $300,000 section, especially when you are no longer allowed to build it yourself and bureaucrats demand the right to ensure your safety from your own efforts with your own property (and money) and at your own risk? The “real” value of thjos esections could be and should be $30,000, ie half a $60,000 income. If people want to pay more for exclusivity or for “higfher quality” development, that’s fine by me, just so long as our low-income people can buty a section for $30,000.

    So throw out the enviro-planners currently running NZ through their brothers(sisters) in the Ministry for Everything, and the politicians they capture, and bring back cost conscious engineers to specify basic “bottom line” standards in place of the high jump barriers we have today.

    Lets face it : everyone loves high land values provided they already own a house, or can benefit from higher rating income; or benefit from the ticket-clipping processes. Everyone else hates them…

    LOL AjaxTFC

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