Next week we have the labour market data – an incredibly important data set when trying to figure out what happened over the June quarter. While most other economists will be talking about their picks for unemployment etc (Note: Unemployment in the 4’s will be a concern), I thought I would discuss some of the […]
I don’t usually write about his, as I don’t actually have access to the historical numbers, but I thought that this time the July Business Outlook was worth a look. Three main things stick out of it like an eyesore: Own activity expectations are down to -8.2%, a bad result. This is mainly to do […]
An excellent current affairs column by Dr Stephen Kirchner of Institutional Economics (*). For all my bleating, the inflation problem in Australia is considerably worse than it is here, just look at this: Excluding the transport group from the CPI, the component most directly affected by higher oil prices, still yields an inflation rate of […]
As I said, I will discuss the RBNZ speech from yesterday. Personally, I thought the speech was spot on – Dr Bollard understands the issues associated with inflation targeting, but he also more than understands the benefits. Look at this statement surrounding oil prices shocks: Instead, the key policy requirement in this situation is to […]
According to the Rates Blog, Dr Bollard will be doing a speech on “Flexibility and the Limits to Inflation Targeting”. I am looking forward to the speech – it is an important issue, and Dr Bollard and the staff at the RBNZ definitely know what they are talking about. Generally I have shown myself to […]
Over at Econlog they mention a uncomfortable question that is asked at Instapundit: If somebody offered us our current income tax system for the first time, would we buy it? Now when we have defended progressive taxes on this blog we have often assumed that it is a revealed preference for society – in fact […]