I have read over the opposition report into manufacturing, and there is so much geniunely wrong in it that it deserves a significant post – one I will hopefully have the chance to (at least partially) do this week. Note, I don’t disagree with absolutely everything in it, and I do congratulate them for the […]
Via Tim Harford on Twitter, I see the “global rich list” site has been updated. Take a look! It is this sort of recognition that makes economists get so wound up about global income inequality rather than income inequality within a country. This is why it came up in the second part of my “careful […]
I see that Bernard Hickey is suggesting we have the RBNZ pop the “housing bubble”. And to do it the Bank should either ignore inflation targeting and hike rates, or do some magic with macroprudential tools! Assume a bubble, so lets start with one! I have a list of problems with this type of article […]
Indeed, as Brennan McDonald states here (Update: and with more discussion here): The phrase NZ Inc is so nauseating. Please stop using it. New Zealand is a collection of individuals, firms, government agencies, councils, charities, families, iwi and a whole lot of other fluid groups that change their composition and goals frequently. Update: Paul Walker […]
A quote via Scott Sumner: But debt doesn’t make workers want to work less, it makes them want to consume less. There is a difference. We need economists to look through these framing effects, and see that the standard model that demand shocks cause high unemployment worked fine; it’s our policymakers who failed us. There […]
Over at Whale Oil I spotted this piece by the NBR which discusses the claims of “40,000 job losses in manufacturing” – a claim I think I’ve heard from the Greens in the past, I’ll include a link if someone gives me one 🙂 . [Update: Link here, along with a pointer that it is […]