Why is everyone acting so surprised about the fact that biofuel regulation will (and has) led to higher food prices? We said it would in August (well to be fair, Keith Woodford from Lincoln University said it before us, and other people were saying it before that 😉 ). However, unlike some commentators, we do […]
WIth inflation heading far outside the Reserve Bank’s target band both Kiwiblog and Kiwiblogblog have had a little to say about inflation targeting. David Farrar at Kiwiblog states that inflation outside the range is bad, and in fact our relevant target band should be 0-2%. He also states that we can act like the target […]
Two days ago the NZIER Quarterly survey of business opinion (QSBO) told us that firm confidence is low – but pricing intentions are high. Today the Business New Zealand performance of manufacturing index (PMI) told us that manufacturing activity was contracting for the first time since January 2006. Both of these results are poor, so […]
According to the Standard, having a free floating exchange rate puts New Zealand at the mercy of speculators – I take this to mean that the author would prefer New Zealand having a fixed (or at least semi-fixed) exchange rate. What does having a fixed exchange rate mean? Well, if we have a fixed exchange […]
In Australasia we have this thing called an entertainment book (the Wellington example is here). The book costs $55 dollars and you get also sorts of deals on restaurants, hotels, and other entertainment options in the local area. Even when I was a student this book paid for itself by making my Burger King cheaper […]
Over at the very good blog Long ago and not true anyway, Terence has stated what he believes is one of the main problems with utilitarianism: Utilitarianism leaves no place for justice at a philosophical level … (in utilitarianism) justice is there simply because it helps make us all better off; not because it is […]