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Hawaii's stagnant mid-1990s economy was examined in this September 1995 programme, which brought together Seiji Naya, Director of the State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism; David McClain, Professor of Business at the University of Hawaii; and Paul Brewbaker, Chief Economist at Bank of Hawaii. The question at issue was whether the economy would recover without intervention or whether deliberate restructuring of the public sector was necessary. Naya argued that state government had expanded from roughly thirteen to seventeen percent of the economy during the preceding administration and that downsizing was overdue; he noted that the incumbent administration was already preparing a public economic framework. McClain warned against selective tax breaks and other quick fixes, favouring the unglamorous work of streamlining government services, and reported that around eighty million dollars had already been cut from state spending. Brewbaker called for guiding principles to govern a new era of flat revenues, and criticised overlapping state and county regulations on land and water use as obstacles to economic opportunity. All three viewed the private sector, not government employment, as the proper engine of growth, and regarded the "Thumbs Up Hawaii" consumer-confidence campaign as a welcome but insufficient response.
Transcript
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Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
