Interesting series of quotes on the disaster that was think big. The years of media coverage have not been kind to the “think big” projects of the early 1980s – speculated to have cost taxpayers about $7 billion. … “It’s a peculiarity of New Zealand that both our main parties have been interventionist and it …
Monthly Archive: January 2011
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/01/31/private-sector-fails-to-take-on-losers/
Jan
28
2011
More on commodity booms
After today’s discussion on food prices, it was interesting to see a speech out of the Reserve Bank. The speech was painting risks – so stating things that could occur that were both positive and negative (risks are not just negative things when your current forecasts “balance” risks). It was good, it raised issues, and …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/01/28/more-on-commodity-booms/
Jan
28
2011
Pricey food and New Zealand: Net and distributional issues
I have been crawling closer to writing about food prices for a while. Originally I was going to only write about distributional issues, but now I’m going to write a little more. A report released by NZIER yesterday afternoon suggested that New Zealand would be worse off, as a whole, if the relative price of …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/01/28/pricey-food-and-new-zealand-net-and-distributional-issues/
Jan
27
2011
Comic government test
Look at this comic right now, before reading any other comments or anything I have to say. Via SMBC Then, if you can be bothered, write in the comments your first impression regarding what this comic implied about government. Brief comment from me under the fold.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/01/27/comic-government-test/
Jan
27
2011
Saving and consumers: A note
There has been a lot of talk about savings and rebalancing. I’m not going to touch this stuff in much detail until the Savings Working Group releases their final report. But in any case, I do need to say a little something now. I didn’t like the interim report from the savings group (but remain …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/01/27/saving-and-consumers-a-note/
Jan
26
2011
Keeping financial stability and monetary policy together
I have long stated that targets of “financial stability” and “price stability” (monetary policy) were important – but should be performed in separate, yet independent, operational terms (here and here). Namely, keep the central bank focused on monetary policy while another organisation/operational entity solely focuses on the more long term goal of financial stability. In …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/01/26/keeping-financial-stability-and-monetary-policy-together/
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