What do the Reserve Bank and eateries have in common? Both implement rule based policies instead of discretionary policies and both suffer criticism from their clientèle for doing so even though it is in the clients ultimate interest. I noticed this today when I went to get some food for lunch. A man in front […]
One thing that gets to me is the fact that people from both sides of the political spectrum love to avoid costs. As economists pride themselves in discussing the opportunity cost associated with any given policy or action, we end up being attacked by both sides (Update: Including psychologists it seems. Dang I thought they […]
As everyone expected the OCR is unchanged at 8.25%. The statement was decidedly neutral, stating that everything is happening inline with their December forecasts, however uncertainty has increased. As they did not state whether it is downside or upside risk they are concerned about (we cannot just presume it is downside risk), any change in […]
There has been a lot of discussion around the internet about whether and what type of fiscal stimulus is appropriate in the US. That is not the issue I am going to discuss here. This is a New Zealand blog, and as a result, I’m more interested in the claim that Michael Cullen will be […]
Over at the Big Picture they are discussing how silly the decoupling thesis is (the idea that that world economic growth now functions separately from US economic growth). Near the end they mention ten things that seemingly intelligent people have said, that have turned out to be complete rubbish, namely: The Yield Curve no longer […]
Tomorrow will see the Reserve Bank decide whether to lift the official cash rate. Pushing them towards lifting rates will be a high CPI reading (although non-tradables was weaker than expected), the strong inflationary pressures illustrated in NZIERs quarterly survey of business opinion, and the fact that inflation expectations are threatening to become entrenched at […]