We posted recently criticising the method in which the Law Commission has decided to approach its revamp of alcohol regulation. In the comments there was some vociferous criticism of the BERL report on which the Law Commissions relied for its estimates of the harm of alcohol usage. We were also lucky enough to have a …
Monthly Archive: April 2009
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/04/30/alcohol-and-addiction-part-ii/
Apr
30
2009
April 09: RBNZ cuts OCR to 2.5%
The RBNZ cut the official cash rate by 50 basis points to 2.5%. This wasn’t to surprising. However, the statement was a hell of a lot more dovish than I expected, especially: We expect to keep the OCR at or below the current level through until the latter part of 2010. So the RBNZ is …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/04/30/april-09-rbnz-cuts-ocr-to-25/
Apr
29
2009
Global warming affects who?!
Treehugger thinks that this chart means we’re all deluded. It shows the percentage of people surveyed who believe that global warming will harm the groups described. I think the chart makes complete sense and shows people to be remarkably sensible.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/04/29/global-warming-affects-who/
Apr
29
2009
Beer consumption and information
I quite like the approach to “reducing beer consumption” suggested here: tell people what type of food it is equivalent to scoffing down. By doing this, we increase the information avaliable to the individual when they decide to drink. As many people seem to be interested in a “healthy diet” or “keeping weight down” telling …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/04/29/beer-consumption-and-information/
Apr
28
2009
Bicycle helmet laws kill
I’ve previously suggested that mandatory helmet laws are bad for the environment. Well new research suggests that they’re actually bad for health outcomes, too: A model is developed which permits the quantitative evaluation of the benefit of bicycle helmet laws. The efficacy of the law is evaluated in terms of the percentage drop in bicycling, …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/04/28/bicycle-helmet-laws-kill/
Apr
28
2009
Why keep long rates low?
Bank economists are saying that we should aim to keep “long-term” rates low – through the RBNZ committing to a future path of the OCR for the next 3-5 years at a low rate. At first brush we could be cynical and say this appears to be in their interest – the OCR does determine …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/04/28/why-keep-long-rates-low/
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