Ok ok ok, so trimmed mean consumer price inflation is running at 3.2% (ht Institutional Economist), house prices rose by 12% on a year earlier (around 18% annualized), my favourite measure of inflation expectations – the labour cost index – rose by 3.5% on a year earlier. So given the RBA expects trend real growth […]
I don’t like the idea of a “zero tax” threshold at the bottom of the tax system. I see it was suggested today by Mark Keating, so I thought I should explain why I feel this way (ht Kiwiblog). I’ll put down three reasons, in reality the third reason is by far the most important: […]
Taking a brief break from discussing economics I thought I should mention a new Xbox game called Mass Effect 2 (reviews). Why am I mentioning this. Two reasons: I don’t have time to put any thought into a post as I am extremely busy (which rules out most economics 😉 ), and it is the […]
Any policy to ban smoking, on the basis of this, would count as “tyranny of the majority” in my opinion. This reminds me of my favourite rule of thumb for policy: Any regulation should be based on the idea of avoiding coercion either from the private or the public sector On the flip side, any […]
Reserve Bank statement is out for January. They seem more negative on the world and feel inflation is more “comfortably” in the band. If we want to know when they are going to move rates we have to keep an eye on: Monetary aggregates (for household debt accumulation), Labour market, Global growth. Rates Blog also […]
There is some suggestion that the size and scope of governments around the world has become excessive. Two recent examples of this are: From the Economist, From Reform, in the UK. The Standard has suggested that similar comparison in NZ could be a little out of whack, and in the most part I agree with […]