#Corbyn’s path to peace
29 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in defence economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: British politics, Ronald Reagan
Late switchers alert – when did Obama start supporting gay marriage
28 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of love and marriage, politics - USA, Public Choice
#EpiPen has two rival suppliers
28 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in health economics, industrial organisation, politics - USA Tags: intellectual property rights, monopoly and competition, patents and copyrights
How will @nzlabour @NZGreens ration their 100,000 affordable homes?
27 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, politics - New Zealand, urban economics Tags: affordable housing, housing affordability, land supply, New Zealand Greens, New Zealand Labour Party, price controls
The Labour Party (and Greens) both plan to build 100,000 affordable homes and sell them within a specific price range. In Auckland, where houses cost in excess of $800,000 on average, they hope to enter the market at the $550,000 point with still quite reasonable housing.
What I ask you is how will Labour and the Greens make sure the affordable houses both are proposing are not snapped up by well-to-do buyers rather than families currently locked out of the market? What will the rationing mechanism be?
Source: KiwiBuild – New Zealand Labour Party.
How will Labour and the Greens ration these desirable houses given that they are priced well below the competition? If two buyers both offer $550,000 for the house, which bid will be accepted?
If the next best available house in Auckland is worth more than that because it is not sold by the proposed Housing Affordability Authority, the first bid for these houses will be $550,000 which is the maximum the government under a Labour Party is willing to accept? What happens then?
It is basic economics that if you price at less than the market clearing rate which in Auckland is somewhere near $800,000, people will queue to buy what you have unless you raise the price. The exercise of building 100,000 affordable houses makes no sense unless the purpose is to undercut what the market currently supplies.
As the houses are to be sold by a government agency, there can be no black market nor dilution of quality to even up supply with demand. How will a deadlock in price bids be resolved if the maximum bid for an affordable house starts at $550,000?
Labour acknowledges the possibility of flipping by restricting resale for 5 years. But what stops investors just waiting 5 years as there is any significant price gap between these affordable houses and the private market alternatives.
What stops more affluent buyers living in these houses because they so much cheaper than the competing options in Auckland? If you miss out in bidding on one affordable home, do you go back to the end of the queue for the next that is built or get some priority?
Poverty Has Declined a Lot Over the Past 30 Years in the USA
27 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: 1996 US welfare reforms, child poverty, family poverty, single parents, social insurance, welfare state
Source: Poverty Has Declined a Lot Over the Past 30 Years | Mother Jones from Poverty After Welfare Reform | Manhattan Institute.
Homelessness fell under @NZNationalParty? @PhilTwyford @metiria @cjsbishop
26 Aug 2016 2 Comments
in applied welfare economics, economic history, labour economics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality Tags: homelessness, neoliberalism, social insurance, vast right-wing conspiracy, welfare state
People living rough doubled under Labour! Fell under the National Party led government despite the global financial crisis and the return of neoliberal oppression.
Source: 24 August 2016, Most homeless people working or studying, News, University of Otago, New Zealand, table 4.
World’s first pizza delivery by drone
26 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in economics, politics - New Zealand, technological progress, transport economics Tags: drones
How many of the 41,000 homeless don’t have a roof over their heads? @metiria @PhilTwyford
25 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, labour economics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality Tags: child poverty, family poverty, homelessness, social housing, social insurance, welfare state
There is a difference between not having a roof over your head and being in emergency or temporary accommodation. It disrespects those who lack a roof over their head tonight to equate their grave misfortune with those fortunate enough to already be in emergency accommodation. Once they are in emergency accommodation, that shows that the system is working. Finding them somewhere to stay pending finding something more permanent.
Source: 24 August 2016, Most homeless people working or studying, News, University of Otago, New Zealand, table 4.
https://twitter.com/childpovertynz/status/768631393459040256
https://twitter.com/PhilTwyford/status/768672477807456256
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.@NZGreens do not understand business: minimum wage for contractors version
25 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, labour economics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, survivor principle Tags: expressive voting, market process, New Zealand Greens, price signals, rational irrationality, The meaning of competition
The Greens are most upset that a Labour party private members bill to specify a minimum wage for contractors was voted down by one vote in parliament yesterday.
If you earn than the minimum wage as a contractor, that is a signal wrapped in an incentive. Your poor hourly earnings is a signal to you that maybe you should get out of that contracting business and go back to being an employee where you will be paid at least the minimum wage.
Many small businesses make no profits at all in the first year or so as they build the business. The founders of the business get by on savings, which they anticipated when they drew up their business plan. No one expects a business to make an immediate profit or always be profitable.
Contractors are entrepreneurs chancing their arm. They need crisp signals about whether they are succeeding, failing or could succeed if they try harder or do something different. A minimum wage for contractors masks those important market signals of success and failure.
If your dream of owning your own business is not even paying the minimum wage, maybe it is time to get out of the contracting business.
Do You Understand the Electoral College?
23 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, economics, politics - USA
The queen of the anti-science Left @drjillstein
19 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, health economics, politics - USA Tags: Anti-Science left
Climate alarmists launch the media career of @SenatorMRoberts – updated again
17 Aug 2016 8 Comments
in economics of media and culture, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, politics - Australia Tags: climate alarmism, Scepticism
https://twitter.com/SteveSGoddard/status/765409693275566080
The television appearance the other night of Senator elect Roberts shows that any publicity is good publicity especially if no one has ever heard of you before.
Through breathless journalism, the media career of climate sceptic Malcolm Roberts has been launched. He is self-confident, vaguely articulate so it was reasonable television viewing.
The appeals to authority such as by Brian Cox when debating Roberts is not science.
Unlike Pauline Hanson, who is a ill-educated buffoon, Roberts is educated and presumably has the ability to learn and acquire media skills. After the television appearance the other night, he is guaranteed many other media outings that givens him publicity he could never have imagined. This is all courtesy of people who do not want to hear from him who made him famous.
But @EleanorAingeRoy child poverty has not changed much in 20 years
16 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, urban economics, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, family poverty, housing affordability, RMA
Today in the Guardian writing on trends in family poverty New Zealand, Eleanor Roy said that
The fact that twice as many children now live below the poverty line than did in 1984 has become New Zealand’s most shameful statistic.
Roy goes back to the 1980s as her base because child poverty has not gone up or down by that much since that sharp rise in the late 1980s.
Child poverty among single-parent households has doubled since 1990 and tripled since 1988. Poverty in families with two parents present is not much higher now than it was in 1988.
Source: Bryan Perry, Household Incomes in New Zealand: trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2014 – Ministry of Social Development, Wellington (August 2015), Table H.4.
Child poverty rates among single-parent families that live with other adults is one-quarter that of single-parent families who live alone. The reasons behind that should be explored more by those concerned with child poverty.
Source: Bryan Perry, Household Incomes in New Zealand: trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2013 – Ministry of Social Development, Wellington (2014), Tables F.6 and F.7.
The evidence is overwhelming that the main driver of the increases in the child poverty since the 1980s is rising housing costs.
In the longer run, after housing costs child poverty rates in 2013 were close to double what they were in the late 1980s mainly because housing costs in 2013 were much higher relative to income than they were in the late 1980s.
– Bryan Perry, 2014 Household Incomes Report – Key Findings. Ministry of Social Development (July 2014).
Any policy to reduce child poverty must increase the supply of houses by reducing regulatory restrictions on the supply of land.
Rather than blame the callousness of government in accepting higher rates of child poverty, Roy should blame its inability to take on the restrictions on land supply in the Resource Management Act that drive up housing costs for the poor. Increased child poverty in New Zealand is a by-product of housing unaffordability.
Why so few successful left-wing populists
16 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: economics and immigration, growth of government, left-wing populists, right-wing populists, size of government, social insurance, welfare state
The Twitter Left is doing its best to attribute the surge against globalisation and immigration to inequality. This is despite the main beneficiary at the ballot box is right-wing populists.
The beneficiaries in the last few years were UKIP, the French National Front, Alternative for Germany, various pro-welfare state but anti-immigration parties in the rest of Europe, Pauline Hanson and Donald Trump. Barely a left wing party in sight outside of Greece.
Source: Only a third of the EU is governed by the centre-left | World news | The Guardian.
Bernie Sanders is a fake left-wing populist because much of his support comes from college students and the university educated, not the aroused working class. These college students are unwilling to pay more than $1000 in taxes for the socialist revolution especially if they have a job.
At the last New Zealand election, two-thirds of the electorate voted for other than centre-left and left-wing parties. The hard left party, Mana-Internet, won 1% of the party vote despite having millions of dollars in campaign donations from a criminal fugitive hoping to avoid extradition.
These right-wing populists combine a heady brew of nationalism and social conservatism, scepticism about market competition, strong support for social security and old-age pensions but not welfare dependency, and opposition to immigration, imports and cultural change. The rise of the parties are not the first signs of an aroused working class seeking to overthrow capitalism. Face up to it.
Trump supporters have a pretty low opinion of @realDonaldTrump
15 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
In common with UKIP supporters, Trump supporters have no illusions about who they are supporting. UKIP supporters know their party is led by a bunch of clowns but want their views in the Commons and hope the party will improve once they get in office.
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