So, a while back a post on housing and production got criticised, but I didn’t notice. I shall respond now, as I need something to post on. (I would also note that there are 1 million brilliant comments in the initial post – good stuff guys.) In a strict sense building a house doesn’t increase […]
Eric Crampton translates a NBR article on the introduction of compulsory cameras in taxis. My favourite bit: “In-vehicle cameras are widely supported among the industry as a way of preventing competition by new rivals, and while drivers can never be 100 percent safe, these measures will make a significant reduction to the risks competition that […]
Anti-Dismal points out the fact that Colin James seems to have run into a little confusion around the GDP statistics. Now, I can understand this confusion AND I agree that we need to think more sensibly about what income is before we run around making comparisons. In this sense, all I want to point out […]
So the Welfare working group has come out with their first piece (main site, ht Welfare Watch). Did they have any sort of point, or were they just getting paid on the basis of how many times they could mention “welfare dependency” and “getting people into work”? 😀 However, I jest. I can’t judge their […]
I have seen economists termed “growth fatalists” for the fact that we don’t believe that there is much government can do to change underlying economic fortunes. Greg Mankiw posted a quote that summed up the position well: Politicians are in charge of the modern economy in much the same way as a sailor is in […]
This time from Frogblog: Foreign investment is driving up the price of rural land to an extent that it is unaffordable for many would-be New Zealand farmers to own their own farms Translation: Foreign investors are willing to pay at a higher level than is appropriate given the rate of return of the land for […]