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Paul Brewbaker, Chief Economist at the Bank of Hawaii, examined the roots of Hawaii's economic difficulties in early 1998, following high-profile layoffs at the Bank of Hawaii and Liberty House. He distinguished between structural problems — including the state's tax and regulatory environment, the quality of its education system, and unresolved legal questions around native Hawaiian self-determination — and cyclical factors such as a depressed investment cycle. Brewbaker argued that recovery would require sustained effort from both the private and public sectors, including structural reforms to improve the investment climate, and was broadly supportive of the governor's economic revitalization task force. Callers questioned the state's reliance on tourism as its economic base, raised concerns about monopolistic pricing in shipping and energy, and debated the merits of targeted tax breaks. Representative Gaylen Fox, calling from Waikiki, argued that Hawaii carried the second-highest combined state and local tax burden in the country and that reducing it required making government more efficient. The central question is whether Hawaii's prolonged economic malaise reflects structural failures that demand fundamental reform or cyclical conditions that patience and targeted policy adjustments can remedy.
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Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
