goonix

Buy low, sell high

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With the official cash rate set to fall even further later this week, shares become relatively appealing when compared with other financial instruments, such as bonds and term deposits.

The old adage of ‘buy low, sell high’ seems fitting, given the battering shares the world over have taken in the past while. The NZX and Dow Jones industrial averages, for example, are both down around a quarter from their respective values six months ago.

But just when is the market ‘low’?

I don’t know! If I did, I’m sure I’d be a lot wealthier than I am. However, I thought it would be useful to write a blog entry to stimulate discussion and debate on what TVHE readers are picking for the sharemarket:

  1. Is now a good time to buy?
  2. What industries/companies would you consider investing it?
  3. What factors are influencing your decisions to invest, or not?

I look forward to hearing our readers’ views on the current state of the sharemarket.

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Matt Nolan

Real income, poverty, and a tiered CPI

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According to a recent book by Christian Broda and David E. Weinstein (Prices, Poverty, and Inequality: Why Americans are Better Off Than You Think) (ht Marginal Revolution) growth in income inequality was less pronounced in the US because of changes to the quality and cost of goods that “poor” people purchased.

This indicates to me that a tiered consumer price index could be a useful thing.  Currently the household economic survey (HES) provides an annual tiered income measure (where we see the average income of different income deciles).  However, this nominal measure is not particularly useful if the change in prices experienced by different groups are very diverse.

As a result, a similarly tiered CPI measure (so a CPI for each income decile) would actually give us a much better way to figure out change in “real income” and thereby a fairer measure of the distribution of real income – which is something we care about.

Surely the HES has a measure of purchases by different income groups.  As the CPI is broken down into different products it should be possible to take these weights and come up with a loose set of indicies that represent the price inflation faced by different income declines shouldn’t it?

Matt Nolan

The rebirth of “Keynes”: A good or a bad thing?

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Over at Robert Reich’s blog, there is a discussion stating that now is the time for rising government spending in the US based on the “fact” that the government is the “spender of last resort” and that the economy has plenty of spare “capacity” (ht Mark Thoma at Economists View).

We have discussed fiscal policy before, and will discuss it again tomorrow. Now, I agree with chunks of this logic, but I feel that there is one gapping hole – the behaviour of prices!

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Matt Nolan

Tyler Cowen and others: Lessons from the New Deal

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Excellent article by Tyler Cowen in the New York Times. (ht Economists View, Marginal Revolution).

Paul Walker at Anti-Dismal has also covered this issue heavily (here, here, here, here, here, and here).

Fundamentally, for New Zealand, there appears to be no reason for any change to fiscal policy to help deal with the slowdown – something we have discussed here.

Show me the actual “market failure” – then we can figure out how the government can improve outcomes. If there is no market failure, then government action to “stabilise” the economy will simply make matters worse.

Note: This is different to government actions to try and help cushion the impact of a sharp change in fundamental economic conditions. Although a change in the economic situation may change the optimal allocation of resources, a labour market that allows people to upskill and gives them firm institutions to rely on in the bad times will help to reduce the welfare cost associated with the change. This is subtly, but importantly, different from a simple “fiscal expansion”.

Matt Nolan

Multiple equilibrium and the drastic fall in oil prices

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The world price of oil has now declined to under $50US a barrel, a third of it’s peak value (live prices here).

This takes me back to a post we did at the end of May – when fuel costs were pushing up at a rate of knots. The topic was covered in the name: Collusion, multiple equilibrium, and petrol prices.

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Matt Nolan

In support of progressive taxation

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After todays attack on effective “left-wing” politics of blanket transfers and the idea that we need government to save the day, I thought I should come out with a post in favour of other general government action.  So lets looks at progressive taxes.

It is common for economists to attack progressive taxation as it can be seen as:

  1. Unfair, given that some people who work have to get income have to pay a greater proportion of there income to the state (even more than a greater amount!)
  2. Unfair, because we may believe that most of the spending benefits people on lower incomes,
  3. Inefficient, given that we are taxing our “most productive” citizens at a higher marginal rate, reducing their labour supply.
  4. Or inefficient, because if the tax is passed on to the business, we are taxing highly skilled industries more than unskilled industries, which is a distortion.

However, there are reasons why society may want a progressive tax system, and when it would dominate other tax systems:
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