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New Zealand, once economically dominated by people who made things and now dominated by people who finance things, has been transformed by the culture of finance and the society and economy are now subject to irrational, speculative forces.

Bruce Jesson turned his brilliant mind and pen to every political figure, movement and crisis from the election of Robert Muldoon to the rise and fall of the Lange Labour Government and the tumultuous 1990s leading up to the introduction of MMP. In this first comprehensive collection of his best writings drawn from essays in his own journal The Republican (later combined with the Political Review) to columns for Metro magazine and elsewhere Jesson is both prescient and entertaining in his dissection of politicians and New Zealand culture in general. Here is some of the best writing you ll ever read about the legacy of Robert Muldoon, the argument for NZ becoming a republic, what s wrong with both the left and right wings of local politics and how the country might develop a modern national identity.

"The economic upheaval of the eighties has created a major shift in who holds wealth and power in New Zealand. Says Bruce Jesson, the author of this Penguin Special: "The small group of businessmen controlling corporate New Zealand is even smaller than it used to be." There is now, he says "an extreme concentration of power" in the New Zealand economy. "Behind the mirror glass" explains this drastic shift. it analyses the recent takeover boom, the growth of the massive Brierley empire and the new investment giants such as Chase and Equitycorp, the feverish and inflated sharemarket, the rise to power of Rogernomics and its often well-positioned disciples. A penetrating, controversial analysis of a major shift in power in New Zealand society." -- Back cover.

Drafts of publications, photocopies used in research, research notes, and papers connected with Jesson's term as chair of the Auckland Regional Services Trust. Unprocessed materials.