When discussing the latest OCR decision Bernard Hickey at the Rates Blog suggested that Dr Bollard should lift the cash rate in order to help “rebalance” the economy. I have heard this suggestion from many, many, other economists as well – suggesting that this view is fairly mainstream. Furthermore, Dr Bollard does keep mentioning the …
Monthly Archive: October 2009
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/10/30/should-the-bank-be-responsible-for-economic-structure/
Oct
29
2009
A Stern admonition to carnivores
Kiwiblog and others are bothered by Nicholas Stern’s pronouncement that: Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better. [Stern] predicted that people’s attitudes would evolve until meat eating became unacceptable. Matt talked recently about why subsidising …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/10/29/a-stern-admonition-to-carnivores/
Oct
29
2009
October 09 OCR review: Moving forward gradually
The RBNZ just told us that the OCR is unchanged. No surprises. The focus was on what would happen to this statement from September: We expect such support will be needed for some time. As a result, we continue to expect to keep the OCR at or below the current level through until the latter …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/10/29/october-09-ocr-review-moving-forward-gradually/
Oct
29
2009
Legalise drugs?
That appears to be the suggestion of David Grimmond from Infometrics according to this article (also found here). How do I feel about this suggestion, well I agree. Legalise it, that way we can apply standard quality controls, pump out education and information, and place externality taxes on it. Worst case scenario: The externality tax …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/10/29/legalise-drugs/
Oct
28
2009
Exchange rates and adjustment: What does it mean?
With the mass of recent discussion on the exchange rate and the “structure” of the economy (here, here, here, and here) it seems like a good time to discuss exactly how the exchange rate matters insofar as discussing the economy. Luckily for us, Paul Krugman has already done an excellent job of this.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/10/28/exchange-rates-and-adjustment-what-does-it-mean/
Oct
27
2009
Smoke and mirrors: NZ talk on the currency
The Rates Blog has reported that John Key has stated that he believes the RBNZ will leave the official cash rate unchanged until at least mid-2010, because of the high dollar. Now, I prefer it when politicians completely stay away from monetary policy. However, instead of banging on about that again lets look at why …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/10/27/smoke-and-mirrors-nz-talk-on-the-currency/
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