'In this thoroughly researched analysis of the genesis and form of New Zealand’s financial sector, Kelsey decisively illustrates how the complex confluence of political and economic conditions, ideas and practices that constitute the financial world rely on and reproduce very concrete relations of exploitation, inequality and the general state of economic, political and social crisis in which we find ourselves today.' – Shanti Daellenbach, New Zealand Sociology
'Jane Kelsey’s new book is a tour de force, a fascinating account of how the neoliberal “revolutionaries” (as they thought of themselves) went about embedding neoliberal principles at the commanding heights and all the way down to the nooks and crannies of New Zealand policy and institutions (education, health, welfare, civil service, diplomatic corps, post office, infrastructure), from 1984 onwards.' – Robert Wade, New Zealand Studies Network
'An essential critical read on the state of New Zealand's political economy by our most prominent dissident academic. Prof Kelsey provides a rigorous analysis of dangerous trends in our small and vulnerable economy, now dominated by Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (Fire). She identifies how neoliberal capitalism maintains and extends its hold, even while its dysfunctional aspects become more obvious.' – Victor Billot, Otago Daily Times
'Hopefully everyone in NZ who was talking about Thomas Piketty’s Capital earlier this year has latched onto this one by now too.' – Kathryn Carmody, Booknotes Unbound
‘Just about any page of this book highlights well-argued conclusions or eye-popping data. The reader often has to stop to take in the ramifications … it is much more readable than a work dealing with such complex and technical issue could have been. It’s still a dense read, but all the more rewarding for that.’ – Paul Little, North and South
'The main strength of the book lies in how it integrates analysis and description with the call for an effective counter discourse, and for a reorganisation of the social forces that were locked out of the political process in the transition to neoliberalism. The central subject is not really the FIRE economy, but rather the neoliberal system on which the continued survival of FIRE is predicated.' – Giovanni Tiso
'I believe Auckland University Law Professor Jane Kelsey has written a very important book, warning us that our economy is being burdened with unsustainable debt and that we are sleepwalking to a potential financial crisis. She is not alone in her stance.' – Mike Hutcheson, Idealog
'We need to start having that debate before we have a crisis. We need to stop dealing with domestic problems in ‘silos’ and look at the systemic issues behind them. We need to plan and think ahead, not just focussing on the individual risks that could arise. We need to look at what is being said internationally and how we could do things differently – both to pre-empt another crisis or if one was to happen.' – Law News
'The Fire Economy draws attention to our precarious future.' – Bruce Munro, Otago Daily Times
'The FIRE Economy contributes to the debate about how we can achieve a socially progressive post-neoliberal world. By focusing on the contest between the forces of paradigm maintenance and paradigm change, it reveals a fundamental contradiction facing contemporary neoliberalism, not least in New Zealand: the state and society are locked into a governance regime and a financialised economy that are dysfunctional but hard to dismantle. Identifying these barriers to transformation is a prerequisite to making change possible.' – Scoop
'Scouring the records of data, surveys and commercial information over the years Kelsey has put together a forensic account of just why this is the case, and what it might mean for the future, and the alternatives.' – Radio New Zealand
