Nicholas Samuel is enjoying a relaxed retirement at Bartonvale Gardens after a long career in government and academia and the publishing of his latest book.
Nicholas Samuel (right) and fellow resident, Ernst Meins
The Ceylon-born, PhD-holding academic moved to Australia 42 years ago and spent 18 years in high-level public service, going on to work as an economic advisor to the Hawke government before becoming an accomplished author.
“I was the officer responsible for advising the government on agricultural reform, and I was encouraged to take a national approach,” he said.
“I worked for a very good minister in John Kerin, who was a privilege to work for.
“Hawke, in turn, was a very good manager of people – he let his ministers work to their strengths.”
During this time, and in his position of Chair Professor of Agribusiness at the University of Adelaide, Nicholas had hundreds of articles and reports published, and then published the first of his four books.
His latest, entitled Unending Recovery, examines the current world economic crisis.
“The world’s economic status is a collapse waiting to happen – a debt bubble just waiting to burst,” he said.
“The system has reached breaking point and has evolved to the point of failure, because every major industry’s market is dominated by a handful of companies.
“An outcome is that the fruits of growth are concentrated in the hands of the 1%, but there is the false idea that it has blown over and we are in recovery – hence ‘Unending Recovery’.
Despite the sometimes heavy subject matter, Unending Recovery is a witty and accessible take on global economics.
“I wanted to introduce an element of satire to make economics much more readable,” Nicholas said.
“I look at things in a humorous way and I’m satirising the whole condition, but the underlying meaning is there.
“It’s simple without being superficial.”
Nicholas is currently enjoying some downtime since moving to Bartonvale Gardens in April.
“Living at Bartonvale Gardens couldn’t be better,” he said.
“Every aspect here is much more than what I expected.”
Nicholas’ next project will be a book based on the concept of a universal basic income.
For more information about Bartonvale Gardens Retirement Village, click here.
