Given the after-the-fact interest in the recent speech by DBEDT Director Richard Lim, local economist Paul Brewbaker emailed to remind us that luncheon meetings of the Hawaii Economic Association are open to the general public. You don’t have to be a member to attend, though nonmembers pay a little extra for the lunch.

It’s a shame people missed the Lim presentation. You’re welcome to attend an actual luncheon and report on its content. We’re not the best publicists of course, but we do get good speakers occasionally.

Please join the meetings, with or without membership, on the first Thursday of each month. Go to http://www.hawaiieconomicassociation.com for information, and hear for yourself what speakers have to say. (linked fixed, sorry for the error).

Mahalo!

Their next meeting is on Thursday, July 7, featuring Leroy Laney, professor of economics and finance at Hawaii Pacific University.

His topic: “Financial Market Reactions to the Overthrow and Annexation of the Hawaiian Kingdom: Evidence from London, Honolulu and New York

This paper investigates how financial market participants reacted to the US annexation of Hawaii in 1898 as well as prior events like the overthrow of the monarchy in 1893 and US tariff moves affecting Hawaii’s sugar industry. The empirical work covers the trading of the Kingdom of Hawaii’s major 1886 loan in both London and Honolulu as well as sugar company stock price reactions to annexation. The economic implications of US tariff policy moves, and the unfettered US market access promised by annexation, may well explain the continued uptrend in debt prices after the overthrow.

RSVP by July 6 if you’re interested.