There was an excellent speech by Alan Bollard discussing why New Zealand’s GDP is difficult to compare to other countries – and if we measured things the same way we would not look as poor at all. This is a great point, and is well made. However, I’m not dealing with that point here – […]
Crooked Timber has a great “pick your own adventure” style post on solving the European debt crisis (ht Eric Crampton). Give it a go. Eric and my work colleague here both hit option 52, while I hit option 54. To see what 54 is I’ll repeat it below: Maynard is staring at his legal pad. […]
The Money Illusion has popularised the idea of market monetarism, leading to strong claims overseas that there needs to be more monetary easing. This is all well and good, and in fact I long agreed with many of the policy recommendations that have been stated (although I am not a complete proponent). But if we […]
Or are you just flirting with me Bank of Japan? In truth the BOJ has tried to hold back from an explicit 1% inflation target, and is just discussing it as a “near term goal”. While this isn’t as positive as the Fed move to an explicit inflation target, and Australia and New Zealand’s long-term […]
When it came to Christmas I simplistically suggested that we should all give each other presents of cash. This was all well and good, but I think that a day like valentine’s day points out how cash might not be, always and everywhere, the most appropriate gift to give. When looking at valentine’s day in […]
Via Marginal Revolution I noticed the argument that a drop in lifetime wealth may have reduced potential output, thereby implying that there is a smaller output gap (permanent loss in productive capacity). Now, I share Scott Sumners concern about this view. It is true that a negative permanent wealth shock will in turn lead to […]