My economics tea leaves are suggesting to me that there will be fewer than 4,747 departures to Australia in the February figures. If this is the case, the number of departures to Australia will be LOWER than in Feb 2008. It is this sort of speculation that is giving me dreams suggesting that net migration […]
I always felt that the role of moral philosophy in economics entered when value judgments appeared – and as a result, it would be possible to separate this issue from the domain of economic science. However, a book I just purchased (Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy, and Public Policy – by Hausman and McPherson) appears willing […]
When I saw this headline: Australians refused insurance because of poor genes And this headline (ht Marginal Revolution): Australians denied insurance for genetic reasons I immediately thought that they were talking about all of Australia. Then I read the article and realised how ridiculous this thought was 🙂 Supposedly some insurers are not allowing insurance […]
Roger J Kerr at the interest blog has made a number of good points in this post. I agree that long-term mortgage rates look a bit vulnerable – if I had a mortgage the 5 year rate at 6.49% would be pretty tempting. Still, I’m no expert (I’m barely an amateur) at picking mortgage rates, […]
The Union’s want non-New Zealanders fired before New Zealanders. We’ve seen this type of nationalistic sentiment before, about outsourcing and through Buy Kiwi made. This is all pure xenophobia – and I hope that our grandchildren will look back on this and be embarrased. I have three issues with the idea that we should arbitrarily […]
It is St Patrick’s day. Although I’m not Irish, my father was extremely Irish – so this has to be a holiday on par with anything othere … hence why I’m at work 😛 I would like to think that the day is about my brother, Patrick (who makes tax calculators), but I think it’s […]