If we follow Australia down the road of trade protectionism for movies, then we all lose out. What do I mean? Well the incentives for trade protectionism is a prisoner’s dilemma. As Peter Jackson says, if Australia starts subsidising movies we need to do the same or we will miss out on productions – as […]
Land tax. It is a popular idea among economists. However, I have heard some people pushing it based on getting land “in use” (this was mentioned at Kiwiblog for example). I am not sure if I agree on this point. Saying that we should tax land so people use it is similar to saying we […]
I am torn. I the one hand I immediately feel uncomfortable with the idea, as I don’t naturally feel that being constrained will maximise animal welfare (which is the reason why you would want to constrain the actions of the farmer). This comes from the “factory farm” argument. On the other hand, I don’t know […]
Seriously, so the UK is going to arbitrarily tax bonuses at 50% because they are not “generating real wealth” they are just “rent seeking” (Will Hutton and Paul Krugman feel this way). Wow. The decision to pay a wage, or a bonus, is voluntary. Given that these bankers are creating sufficient value through their work […]
Given the rising pressure for the Reserve Bank to target the currency as well as other things in New Zealand it is important to have a look at reasons why people may think our currency is misaligned. I have said before that IF the currency is overvalued I think it is a structural issue and […]
In a recent post by Arnold Kling I see him hinting at the similarities between his recalculation view of the current recession and the corridor theory of Axel Leijonhufvud. Now I agree with both these theories, and feel they add an important flavour to current debate – but I think the theories actually tell us […]