One question I’ve been receiving a lot during presentations is “what is the cause of the really high youth unemployment rate”. I have been answering with two things: The youth minimum wage was significantly increased, making young people more expensive (but also making more young people want to participate in the labour market) A recession […]
A very good point from Stephen Gordon at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative that the growing concentration of wealth may, in part, be to do with changing demographics. Although I doubt this is the sole factor behind the growing concentration of wealth, it is a factor I’ve been thinking about – and that I’m keen to see […]
Every generation likes to complain about the one above it. However, Generation X’s distaste for the Baby Boomers seems intense. This isn’t a new thing, although the recession helped to intensify it I can remember these sorts of angry debates going on when I was a child (I am Gen Y, so I’m not taking […]
Bernard Hickey has stated that the RBNZ needs to target non-tradable inflation. Fair enough, I’ve heard the argument for that before. However, he says we should do it because of the “structural flaw” in our economy and to “help exporters”. Ok, but remember that the RBNZ controls monetary policy – not all the structural policies […]
So, US real median incomes in 2010 were down 6.4% from their 2007 level, and down 7.1% from their 2001 level. That is a pretty danged poor result, the situation over there has been pretty messy over the last decade. The median income figures are biased by the fact that the cost of goods purchased […]
Tomorrow its more than likely the RBNZ will leave the official cash rate unchanged. Following that a lot of people are going to say one of the following: Bah, the world is in crisis they should slash rates Bah, inflation expectations are elevated and CPI growth is high, they should be increasing rates Or who […]