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Freakonomics reports that an Oregonian politician wants to implement bicycle licensing and registration. He says that cyclists use the roads just like cars, but they don’t have to pay a cent towards maintenance. Cyclists’ comments reveal their disgust at the idea but, as an avid cyclist myself, I must confess that I have some sympathy with the proposal. Read more
So Barefoot and Thompson have seen a sharp increase in houes sales in March (although the increase on last March is exagerrated – given that Easter was in March last year).
I managed to get quoted in the article on it – and I sounded a little more positive than I expected. So lets discuss if people agree with these statements:
Sales were ridiculously low, it was unsustainable in itself.
Auckland was struggling a good year or so before the rest of the country. I’m confident Auckland’s going to be the first place moving. There’s just not enough properties in Auckland in the first place.
Got at it – once someone else has started I might get in on criticising the statements myself 😉 . There are some other things I said that weren’t in there that might put these in context – but adding that would destroy the fun 🙂
Does anyone know what Nepal is like to visit? Does anyone have any suggestions about places to visit in Nepal.
Any comments (relevant) welcome.
I couldn’t resist posting this chart linked byMegan McArdle. It is just SO appropriate given Matt’s recent post. If using graphs like this counted as proving a scientific fact then the world would be a whole lot easier to explain 🙂
It’s always seemed to me a bit over the top to block social internet sites at offices. I’ve wondered if people spend more time looking up free proxy servers that aren’t blocked than they would have if they’d been allowed to check their Gmail. Now a study says that most people do surf at work and it actually makes most of them more productive: the opportunity to take a break and relax for a minute helps them to concentrate harder the rest of the time.
Clearly the productivity gain to surfing at work is concave, so the question is really, “at what point do the marginal gains become negative?” According to this study it’s only when you surf more than 20% of the working day that your productivity starts to decline! Read more
The ANZ New Zealand commodity price index, in world prices, rose 1% over March – or so I’ve been told. In New Zealand dollars the index fell – as the exchange rate rose. This lead to the following quote:
At a time when the domestic economy is still very weak, a higher NZ dollar is likely to delay any support the export sector is able to provide
I think it is essential to keep in mind what a higher exchange rate means here. If the exchange rate rose on the back of rising commodities prices (which was part of the story – although definitely not all, hence the fall in $NZ prices) then it is perfectly natural. The increase in returns associated with the higher commodity prices is merely being spread across the economy – rather than directly into exporters pockets.
Now, I feel that the concern comes from the fact that we currently want to avoid declines in production – because the labour market is fragile. A lower exchange rate makes imports more expensive and exports more competitive – leading to more production than before.
However, if this is the case then we should be clear that the issue is that we are worried about production and employment declining into some sort of “vicious cycle” – rather than just saying lower exchange rates are good.
So remember, a higher exchange rate on the back of higher commodity prices “shares the good fortune” of increasing prices across the economy – this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.