When discussing the upcoming changes to the New Zealand tax system the National party has made it clear that they want any change in GST to be “compensated”, so that those on low income aren’t “worse off”. Now this is actually a wildly complicated question. Any change will create winners and losers, that is undeniable. …
Monthly Archive: February 2010
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2010/02/10/on-compensating-for-a-change-to-gst/
Feb
09
2010
Key’s tax speech
Good summaries here and here. Speech is found here. There was nothing in the speech (when it comes to tax – which is the sole focus of this post). An increase in GST was already very likely – but the government wouldn’t even commit to it. Given that it isn’t going to be finalised in …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2010/02/09/keys-tax-speech/
Feb
09
2010
Globally contracting money stocks
In a chart on the Rates Blog today they point out that the money stock (note not really the money supply, depending on how you define it) in the Euro Zone is declining. The indication then is that “Europe looks bad”. However, the money stock is also dropping in Australia and New Zealand. If there …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2010/02/09/globally-contracting-money-stocks/
Feb
09
2010
Maths and economics
There has been a lot of negative talk about the maths in economics – like a huge amount. Just look at these links, some of them are poor and reactionary, but some of them are excellent and the last two are my favourite (*, *, *,*,*,*). Now although I believe much of this attack is …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2010/02/09/maths-and-economics/
Feb
08
2010
Catching Australia: Really?
Dr Bollard is spot on in saying that it isn’t likely that we will catch up to Australia in incomes (ht Kiwiblog and Rates Blog). Simply put, I think the majority of economists believe that the ability of government to influence per capita incomes (especially given the relative size and scope of governance in Aussie …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2010/02/08/catching-australia-really/
Feb
05
2010
Video: On the unemployment leap
Agnitio sent me a couple of links to an interview I did on unemployment last night (here and here). It is consistent with what I wrote yesterday, even if it doesn’t seem that way. Furthermore, I don’t believe the government was too “inactive” in this case – we aren’t a centrally planned economy, blaming the …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2010/02/05/video-on-the-unemployment-leap/
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