Because it makes you smarter: (Source Marginal Revolution) Note: I am joking, this is not causality. For one we don’t have a quantity measure of drinking, and the impact of drinking on intelligence is no doubt non-linear. In fact, you could make the argument that “smarter” people know how control their own alcohol consumption, and […]
One of the things that I find fascinating at the current time is the enormous gap (see page 9 of link) that has developed between marginal bank funding costs and the official cash rate. By setting the OCR the RBNZ commits to borrowing an infinite amount off banks for 25bps less, or loaning an infinite […]
Over at Greg Mankiw’s blog he links to a comment on DSGE models by the legendary Robert Solow. Surprisingly, the comment is relatively negative. If I am honest, I found Solow’s attack on DSGE a little strange, and fairly inconsistent. Here is why: Update: (Before saying why I think this, I should say) This initially […]
… why don’t we just have a land tax, instead of trying to restrict voluntary trade of land between individuals. My impression has always been that one of the fundamental reasons for tax was to proxy for a social return on a nations capital – such as land. By doing this we get the advantage […]
That is what the title to this article is suggesting right? My impression is that Telecoms rivals want two things to continue happening: Telecom to be ineligible for broadband subsidies that they are getting from government, Telecom to be regulated in a way that: Reduces Telecom’s ability to increase downstream costs. Likely increases Telecom’s marginal […]
Not PC has a quiz up on economics stuff – I thought it would be fun to do. So here goes. 1) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures a country’s total economic activity. Answer: False. As it excludes activities where the market isn’t explicit. 2) Consumer spending represents around two-thirds of the economy. Answer: Depends how […]