Over on Kiwiblog David Farrar discusses how redistributive the tax system is, and how including average welfare households that earn $60k “effectively pay no tax”. There are a few points to keep in mind when looking at this: The obvious one that you will always hear is that a tax and benefit system is supposed […]
Robert Shiller has writtem extensively about bubbles. Via Stephen Kirchner I saw the following: Because bubbles are essentially social-psychological phenomena, they are, by their very nature, difficult to control. Regulatory action since the financial crisis might diminish bubbles in the future. But public fear of bubbles may also enhance psychological contagion, fueling even more self-fulfilling […]
I didnt’ realise it was “inequality fortnight” when I wrote this – it was just an article I needed to do before carrying on the “tax series” (as the next article there is on progressive taxation). So I’m sorry if you have suffered from inequality overload. On that note, here is Geoff Bertram talking about […]
Via Stephen Kirchner I see the latest issue of the CIS Policy magazine has a new issue – the Winter 2013 one. I’ve contributed to this one, so I thought I’d point out that I’m blabbing on about exchange rates, inflation targets, and the neutrality of money – party times. I didn’t realise Scott Sumner […]
Noah Smith has an excellent post about the “macro wars” that are going on at the moment (ht a reader). Most of the time, econ bloggers and columnists write as if we were speaking to an audience that has taken a few econ classes. But the more widely read our posts and columns become, the […]
I see there is this zombie economics business about economists being like zombies or something. It is true though right – economists eat all the ideas (brains) to try and process them into a consistent and transparent way for understanding social interaction and the “economy”. Furthermore, they have trouble communicating in words – just like […]