Matt Nolan
The upcoming PTA - The Dismal Science
Sep 18, 2012 •
With Graeme Wheeler set to take over as RBNZ govenor on the 26th of this month, it is clear that a new PTA will be signed. Westpac did an excellent piece discussing this. I’d suggest reading it. Some key points I took out (and agreed with, so was easy for me to pick them up [...]
Five W’s, an H, and an E: The method of economics based on primary school techniques - The Dismal Science
Sep 17, 2012 •
I remember when I was a 7 year old sitting around at Kio Kio school and the teacher pulled out the five w’s and an h: Who, what, where, when, why, and how. They were repeated constantly, and we were told that these were questions we should repeat all the time. Now at 7, we [...]
Price discrimination based on gender: Sexist or fair? - The Dismal Science
Sep 17, 2012 •
I see via Stuff that women have to pay more for haircuts. This is true – in fact there are a number of service related areas where the woman’s version of that service costs more than the man’s version. Undeniably, we are seeing price discrimination at work. Now I’m not terribly against price discrimination – [...]
QE3: Forward guidance, debt purchases, unemployment target - The Dismal Science
Sep 13, 2012 •
As expected, the US Federal Reserve announced QE3 early this morning NZ time. In the statement, they commit the the purchase of mortgage debt people expected (carrying on for an undefined period of time), they state they will keep the cash rate exceptionally low until at least mid-2015 (which was anticipated) – but they also [...]
BERL report on changing the PTA - The Dismal Science
Sep 13, 2012 •
I tend to avoid criticising other economists, especially inside New Zealand. However, the BERL-NZ First report into inflation targeting has crossed a threshold where I feel saying nothing would be more inappropriate than voicing my disagreement. I have discussed the issue on my work website here. In that article I solely discuss the idea of [...]
Are real Austrian economists neoclassical? - The Dismal Science
Sep 12, 2012 •
According to this lovely post, the answer is yes (ht Economist’s View). Choice quote: Does Davidson know what a neoclassical policy is? Does Boettke? Does anyone? I don’t think so, because neoclassical economics, as such, has no policy agenda. But whatever a neoclassical policy might be, Davidson assures us that Hayek is totally against it. [...]
Defending inflation targeting - The Dismal Science
Sep 12, 2012 •
After seeing David Parker claim that inflation targeting was dead, I felt obliged to chip in with my two cents – which Rates Blog kindly allowed me to do. In the article I looks at the critique of RBNZ policy based on “imported price spikes” and “credit flows” and point out how the RBNZ framework [...]
Debunking Keen on Bernanke: The issue of debt deflation - The Dismal Science
Sep 12, 2012 •
From Twitter, and email adverts, I’ve heard the Steve Keen is or was in town discussing economics. That’s good, everyone should be discussing economics. As you may have noted earlier both Anti-Dismal and myself have had issues with Keen’s analysis in the past – his criticism of microeconomics is just patently wrong. However, I intend [...]
Why macroprudential regulation? - The Dismal Science
Sep 11, 2012 •
With the RBNZ asking for comments on the upcoming countercyclical capital adequacy regulation, and the RBA/APRA releasing a report on macroprudential policy now is a good time to ask – why? I have seen many people justify these types of policies based on “debt being high” – but this doesn’t answer “why”. I’ve heard a [...]
Free food in schools: Equality of opportunity? - The Dismal Science
Sep 10, 2012 •
Recently the Labour party has suggested we have free food in low decile New Zealand schools. At the same time, Kiwiblog suggested that this was nonsensical. So how do we should we view this policy? Generally, having the government buy something and give then give it out is relatively inefficient – we get no clear [...]