A column in the Sunday Star Times actually discussed an interesting issue this weekend; how the biofuel revolution will lead to higher food prices. They are exactly right, you increase the demand for corn, and the price of corn will increase. Now corn is a substitute for other foods, so the demand for other foods […]
So supposedly, the RBNZ has suggested a floating GST rate as a way of controlling inflation. Now this seems silly too me for two reasons: 1) GST is a tax, as a result this would either have to be implemented through fiscal policy (and so would not work, as governments cannot commit to just focusing […]
Household borrowing accelerated to 13.6%pa in June Non-residential consents softened in June, but the June quarter was relatively strong, with Factory and commercial consents elevated Residential consents lifted strongly in June, on the back of robust house price growth. Wellington was a top performer Most of this weeks data was expected. However, after the RBNZ […]
I have just been flicking through the NZX submission on monetary policy, thanks to a link kindly provided by Lucy. While I disagree with most of the submission (for the reasons I gave yesterday about higher interest rates being structural), I was happy to see that they discussed immigration. Now immigration is an interesting issue, […]
The NZX wants the RBNZ to pay more attention to the way the equity market behaves when the bank change the official cash rate. Now I can’t find a copy of the submission anywhere, but the above stuff article at least tells us that the NZX would like policy goals to be focused on long […]
I’ve always had a soft spot for the idea of creative destruction, even though my understanding of the it is well below par. I found the following article interesting, in the way it used the idea of job creation and destruction to describe the process of changing unemployment. It gives us a good idea about […]