Matt Nolan
Outsourcing competence - The Dismal Science
Oct 05, 2012 •
So it seems that Stuff has decided that now it’s outsourcing its journalism to the public, it might as well try to do it with other people’s discipines as well – that combined with not knowing what economics is has led to the question “how do we fix the economy” The first solution has been [...]
An important warning regarding the monetary policy fine-tuning - The Dismal Science
Oct 03, 2012 •
A recent opinion piece in the Herald, pitting Don Brash and Brendan Doyle in to debate the issue of monetary policy was good. They seemed to agree that, ultimately, any issue is one of the real exchange rate – which is due to real economy factors. A point I’ve heard a number of times before [...]
Dealing with debt, financial regulation, and the lender of last resort - The Dismal Science
Oct 03, 2012 •
Previously we’ve talked a lot here about the lender of last resort function of a central bank. In discussions a trade-off is often discussed, whereby having a lender of last resort can help to prevent financial crises when financial intermediaries are suffering from issues of “illiquidity”, but are not “insolvent” – however, the existence of [...]
The outlook for oil: An interview with Hamilton - The Dismal Science
Sep 26, 2012 •
Oilprice.com has a good interview with James Hamilton from Econbrowser up on their site. I’d suggest taking a look As will one day become clear, one of the big drivers of the slowdown in the developed world has been the sharp increase in commodity prices – specifically oil. While the global financial crisis was a major [...]
Cartoon: How to find out if someone is an economist - The Dismal Science
Sep 25, 2012 •
The always awesome Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC) popped this comic up. The thing is, when I saw the first panel the first question that popped into my mind was “nominal or real dollars” – the amount I ask that, all day l...
What has been driving the real exchange rate? - The Dismal Science
Sep 23, 2012 •
For anyone that has been looking at posts over here, or carefully listening to Reserve Bank speeches, the topic of the real exchange rate is an important one for understanding the New Zealand economy. Many of the “concerns” or “issues” being raised at present are really just a function of some view of the real [...]
Why I shouldn’t read the paper - The Dismal Science
Sep 20, 2012 •
It appears that much of the media (some parts excluded) wants to make the discussion of monetary policy a titianic battle between opposing forces – rather than informing the public of the trade-offs that exist, and the issues that are currently being looked into. There are two issues currently being debated – only the first [...]
New RBNZ PTA - The Dismal Science
Sep 20, 2012 •
The new policy targets argreement is out today. What have we got? For the purpose of this agreement, the policy target shall be to keep future CPI inflation outcomes between 1 per cent and 3 per cent on average over the medium term, with a focus on keeping future average inflation near the 2 per [...]
Reframing the monetary policy debate: Some notes - The Dismal Science
Sep 19, 2012 •
Update: Given all the links in this post, I’m adding it to the rarely used “inflation debate” tab. An area where I rant incoherently about monetary policy in a way that is aiming to help this debate – rather than just be critical. From what I can tell, the current debate about monetary policy taking [...]
The cost determines the rule: Monetary policy - The Dismal Science
Sep 19, 2012 •
This is a good post on optimal monetary policy by Scott Sumner. He says the following: I’ve often argued that the supposed “welfare costs of inflation” are better thought of as the welfare costs of volatile or excessive NGDP growth. It is good to see this assumption shown transparently – if this is indeed the [...]