Author Archives: Nicholas Gruen

History and economics: it was all there in the beginning …

Posted on May 7, 2019 by Nicholas Gruen

<SelfIndulgenceAlert>Stuart MacIntyre was kind enough to suggest me as a discussant on a paper on financial deregulation in the 1980s in a workshop focusing on Australia and the Bretton Woods conference put on by Melbourne Uni History and Economic History. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Adam Smith was a feminist economist: Care – the essay

Posted on April 16, 2019 by Nicholas Gruen

This recent essay in the Mandarin is a reworking of an essay I wrote in 2016 in a string of essays in which I developed the idea of the Evaluator General. I was following Gary Sturgess’ suggestion that governments should not think of themselves as producing … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Economics and public policy, Health, History, Parenting | 3 Comments

War on empathy, war on confidence, war on context

Posted on April 16, 2019 by Nicholas Gruen

Cross posted with the Mandarin Nicholas Gruen has argued that it’s much harder to realise evidence-based policy – both institutionally and intellectually – than many calling for it realise. Here he explains how putatively ‘scientific’ and ‘objective’ approaches can, paradoxically, compromise their efficacy … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 16 Comments

An unpublished column on Brexit: until now!

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Nicholas Gruen

From around January this year I’ve tried to get the column below published – in the Guardian UK where my previous column was published. Unfortunately, and even after endless cajoling via the Guardian at this end, I couldn’t get a reply which … Continue reading →

Posted in Democracy, Sortition and citizens’ juries | 4 Comments

We know WHAT we need to do. Will someone tell us HOW?

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Nicholas Gruen

When policy problems are complex, we need to understand and learn from the front line. With desperately need to improve the early, middle and late stages of institutional learning and change-making, to enable successful policy development. From the recent Mandarin … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Paul Krugman’s incredible invisibility trick

Posted on April 2, 2019 by Nicholas Gruen

It’s impossible to avoid misjudgements in life or to get all one’s predictions right. But should economists get caught out quite so often.  Paul Krugman is honest and self-critical. So he’s up for identifying what economists missed about globalisation – … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics and public policy | 16 Comments

Crikey group sub: it’s on again

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Nicholas Gruen

The ClubTroppo Crikey Group sub is on again. Please email me on ngruen at G mail if you’d like to participate. Please put ‘crikey’ in the subject heading to reduce your chances of your email getting lost in translation (All … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments