Economist’s View links to an interesting article by Steven Gjerstand and Vernon Smith. In this article they say that the high level of consumer debt in a number of countries is a concern – and indicates the possibility of a depression style contraction. This has the ring of truth. However, they also say: The causes […]
I am not a fan of policies that freeze wages. However, the idea that the government will freeze the wages of public sector doesn’t seem to really be being debated – outside of the seemingly biased view of the public sector union. Now, this is one of those rare cases where I think the public […]
Ok, all I can say here is that this is a really bad result. Everyone knew March was bad, the RBNZ said they expected a bad result, but the net 45% of firms expecting a fall in their own activity is an unconscionably bad result. I must admit that I was a little surprised. Now, […]
Paymark has reported some interesting results for electronic card sales over March. In their news story they say the food and liquor are doing well relative to March last year, travel looks soft, and if we adjust for the funky timing of Easter (last year it was in March, this year it is back to […]
Yesterday I saw the Watchmen movie. I haven’t read the comics or any of that jazz, but I was told that it provided a compelling critique of utilitarianism. As an ethical theory it definitely illustrated the short-comings of utilitarianism. But in the way economists use utilitarianism – namely as a framework to hang value judgments […]
So Barefoot and Thompson have seen a sharp increase in houes sales in March (although the increase on last March is exagerrated – given that Easter was in March last year). I managed to get quoted in the article on it – and I sounded a little more positive than I expected. So lets discuss […]