Matt Nolan

People in the UK don’t want to pay more fuel tax

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And I’m not bloody surprised either.  They already pay a very significant fuel tax, one that I feel covers the externalities associated with their fuel consumption.  When you have an externality, the government should tax to the point where the marginal cost of consumption is equal to the social marginal cost of consumption, taxing anymore than that is government failure.

However, in New Zealand we should pay more fuel tax, and I know one guy that agrees with me

What do you think?  (bonus points for picking up the obvious economic inconsistencies in the above article, as it will give me the opportunity to say what I really think)

Will Taylor

Why the Exchange Rate Makes Me Smile

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So the exchange rate has reached record highs much to the despair of the government, reserve bank and local exporters. There is one sector of the economy that is poised to benefit from this though…. ME

Given all the noise coming from the government about the exchange rate being overvalued and the fact that the reserve bank intervened when the dollar was still below $0.80, I’m thinking it’s a fairly safe bet that over the medium-long term the dollar will come back down. With that in mind, now is fantastic time to buy overseas shares and reap the gains as you ride the dollar back down.

It’ll also be a nice self fulfilling prophecy if will all start sending money overseas, we believe the kiwi dollar is going to fall so we dump it which causes it fall. Think about it, you could actually be helping our exporters by investing in foreign companies, I’ve never felt so good about not investing in the local economy!

Matt Nolan

Monetary policy: Aussie vs NZ

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At least one Australian and one New Zealand commentator feel that the RBNZ is too focused on inflation. They use the example of the RBA, which seems to be controlling inflation without trying to strangle the life out of the economy.

Do people agree with this? Is our Reserve Bank an inflation zealot? Or does our Reserve Bank have a better idea of the long-term costs of inflation, and as a result, is more interested in stamping it out?

I’m not even sure that the situations are comparable, Australia’s growth rates and productivity rates have far outstripped ours, giving their Reserve Bank more leeway to control inflation. After all March non-tradable CPI inflation was only 3.5%pa in Australia, compared to 4.0%pa in New Zealand, indicating a significant difference in domestic price pressure.

Matt Nolan

Someone mentioned us

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How awfully nice of no right turn to mention us. I was surprised to see our traffic jump 10 fold, and there is the reason.

As a result we have already had one new intelligent comment from Nigel Kearney, lets see if we can get some more 😉

Matt Nolan

Over US$0.80 we go

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So, we broke 80cents US last night, on the back of expectations that the RBNZ will increase the OCR on July 26th. This led to the Dominion post terming us the strongest-performing currency in the world

Should the government intervene here? Is this a market failure caused by speculators and Japanese housewives that don’t understand the true risks?

I’m willing to stick my neck out here and say, I don’t think a strong exchange rate is that bad. Sure, non-food manufacturing is struggling, but no matter what the exchange rate is non-food manufacturing tells me they are struggling. A strong exchange rate keeps firms costs down, which has allowed domestic firms to increase margins without increasing prices, thereby removing a hell of a lot of inflationary pressure.

I believe the strong exchange rate is built on strong economics fundamentals (such as strong or improving commodity prices, and high interest rate relative to the rest of the developed world and a weak US economy), and I don’t think the current level is the end of the world, and I’m willing to bet that the manufacturers who are telling us it is are bluffing.

However, I know a lot of people will disagree with me. If so, tell me how and why you would intervene to change the currency (bonus points to anyone that tries to say lowering the OCR will reduce inflationary pressure, that cracks me up).

Matt Nolan

Telecom separation

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So Telecom is to be operationally separated. To prevent the issue of double marginalization, the commerce commission is going to regulate the price set in the access market.

Do you think this is the correct way to regulate the access network.

While I believe it will lead to more competition in the wholesale and retail markets, I can understand the argument that states that this type of regulation will lead to lower investment (as firms invest until MB=MC, if the marginal cost of investment increases in the amount of investment, then lowering the price will lower the marginal benefit, and lead to a less investment.) I hear the government has a plan to improve Telecoms incentive to invest, does anyone know what it is? If so, do you think it will work?