Matt Nolan

People in the UK don’t want to pay more fuel tax

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And I’m not bloody surprised either.  They already pay a very significant fuel tax, one that I feel covers the externalities associated with their fuel consumption.  When you have an externality, the government should tax to the point where the marginal cost of consumption is equal to the social marginal cost of consumption, taxing anymore than that is government failure.

However, in New Zealand we should pay more fuel tax, and I know one guy that agrees with me

What do you think?  (bonus points for picking up the obvious economic inconsistencies in the above article, as it will give me the opportunity to say what I really think)

Will Taylor

Why the Exchange Rate Makes Me Smile

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So the exchange rate has reached record highs much to the despair of the government, reserve bank and local exporters. There is one sector of the economy that is poised to benefit from this though…. ME

Given all the noise coming from the government about the exchange rate being overvalued and the fact that the reserve bank intervened when the dollar was still below $0.80, I’m thinking it’s a fairly safe bet that over the medium-long term the dollar will come back down. With that in mind, now is fantastic time to buy overseas shares and reap the gains as you ride the dollar back down.

It’ll also be a nice self fulfilling prophecy if will all start sending money overseas, we believe the kiwi dollar is going to fall so we dump it which causes it fall. Think about it, you could actually be helping our exporters by investing in foreign companies, I’ve never felt so good about not investing in the local economy!

Matt Nolan

Monetary policy: Aussie vs NZ

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At least one Australian and one New Zealand commentator feel that the RBNZ is too focused on inflation. They use the example of the RBA, which seems to be controlling inflation without trying to strangle the life out of the economy.

Do people agree with this? Is our Reserve Bank an inflation zealot? Or does our Reserve Bank have a better idea of the long-term costs of inflation, and as a result, is more interested in stamping it out?

I’m not even sure that the situations are comparable, Australia’s growth rates and productivity rates have far outstripped ours, giving their Reserve Bank more leeway to control inflation. After all March non-tradable CPI inflation was only 3.5%pa in Australia, compared to 4.0%pa in New Zealand, indicating a significant difference in domestic price pressure.

Matt Nolan

Public sector Health spending

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This article discusses public sector health spending in quite a damning way. Does anyone have any ideas how government spending on health could be more effective? Or does anyone think health spending is effective?

I might post on this later if anyone convinces me of their opinion 😉