Robert Solow: Everything reminds Milton Friedman of the money supply. Everything reminds me of sex, but I try to keep it out of my papers. (*) This quote is Solow’s humourus way of reminding us that the study of inflation isn’t the whole purpose of economics.
The more I read political blogs in the lead up to the election, the more I realise that media and politicians like to paint issues in a way where they have arbitrary goals – such as “increasing the domestic sale of New Zealand made goods”. However, there is no reason to presume that these goals […]
This semi-annual report by the RBNZ will take on disproportionate importance given recent events. It came out yesturday, so what happened? Is our financial system doing alright? What do they think are the primary risks? What do they say about the deposit insurance scheme!?
So the September quarter retail figures are out. I love the quarterly figures because they give us volume and price data as well as the monthly value data. So how much did retail sales fall by – only a little bit hopefully. Now pull out all those automotive subtypes – how much did core volumes […]
After todays attack on effective “left-wing” politics of blanket transfers and the idea that we need government to save the day, I thought I should come out with a post in favour of other general government action. So lets looks at progressive taxes. It is common for economists to attack progressive taxation as it can […]
The paradox of thrift is one of the key lessons taught to macroeconomics students during their first undergraduate year. Fundamentally it states that if everyone in society decides to save more right now, then it reduces consumption, with reduces economic activity and thereby incomes – and as a result it may actually decrease aggregate savings, […]