Happy St Patrick’s day all. On this fine day, there is a song I’d like us all to remember – Seven deadly sins. My favourite part of the song goes: Some say that drinking’s a sin But a gargle is fine now and then For drinking has been in this world For ever and ever […]
I’m not sure if today’s rate cut was the right decision – I understand the justification for it, it is just hard to get past my inherent hawkish personality 😉 Still, I think that the rate cut is being slightly mischaracterised by those disagreeing with it – so I’m going to discuss it a little […]
The Reserve Bank cut the OCR 50 basis points today, primarily on the back of the Canterbury earthquake. Their justification was based on a negative national confidence hit, on top of an already weak national economy. This framework was consistent with the thinking of many economists – so even with all this uncertainty, it appears […]
Via Arnold Kling at Econlog we see this paper regarding the impact on Fed policy. It is an interesting paper in an economic history sense, I would suggest reading it. However, the passage I want to focus on is the same one Arnold mentioned: First, spending and pricing decisions are assumed to be based on […]
An article titled “study links cannabis to psychosis” says in the first paragraph: People who use cannabis in their youth dramatically increase their risk of psychotic symptoms, and continued use of the drug can raise the risk of developing a psychotic disorder in later life, scientists said. Of course, later on in the article – […]
Good article from the Economist on the impact of compulsory biofuel regulations on food prices. We commented on this a while back. Biofuel regulations are an undeniable “structural shock” which will lead to “structurally higher” food prices. What do I mean? The price of food relative to other things is likely to stay higher than […]