Via Hillary Clinton Is More Vulnerable in 2016 Than You Think – NYTimes.com.
Hillary Clinton Is More Vulnerable in 2016 Than You Think
10 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, politics - USA
Chiselling on the Closer Economic Relations agreement between New Zealand and Australia
10 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, rentseeking Tags: barriers to entry, closer economic relations, creative destruction, export pricing, free trade, Hollywood economics, price discrimination, protectionism, rent seeking
Back in the day, New Zealand television programming was sold cheaply into the Australian market. Many cultural and other products are exported into foreign markets and sold for whatever they can get above the price of shipping or digital transmission. What else explains all that rubbish on cable TV?
Under the Closer Economic Relations agreement that creates a single market between Australia and New Zealand, New Zealand made television programming content must be treated the same way as Australian content so it was included in their 50% local content rules for commercial television back from whenever I remember this story from. There was a Federal Court of Australia case that ruled that New Zealand television programming was Australian content programming for the purposes of the relevant media regulations because of Closer Economic Relations.
From the late 1990s, with revival of the New Zealand film and television industry, New Zealand content was starting to flood the Australian market, especially in the off-season in the summer when stations were looking for cheap content to fill a low ratings period.
Naturally, this Kiwi invasion did not please the rent seeking Australian television programme production industry and many a mendicant actor, writer and producer
Where there is a will, where there is a way: minimum quality standards are introduced into the Australian content rules defined by price – a price that happen to be above what the television stations used to pay for New Zealand made programming.
Winston’s big port up North won’t have any business
10 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, rentseeking, transport economics
In the first shot in the pork-barrelling for a by-election, veteran New Zealand populist Winston Peters wants to stop the expansion of the Port of Auckland and move the extra shipping traffic up north to the Port of Whangarei:
And we will upgrade the Auckland to Northland railway line and build the rail link to your port
The Port of Whangarei is about two hours north by car from Auckland. Auckland is a global city of approaching 2 million. Whangarei is the only city up North, with a population of 50,000.
45% of the import traffic to the Port of Auckland is cars. Around 90% of light vehicle imports in New Zealand come through the Port of Auckland. The rest may go through Littleton.
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Jellicoe and Freyberg wharves are located between the two container terminals. |
Bledisloe multipurpose Wharf |
Striving to move some of this light vehicle imports from the Port of Auckland up north to the Port of Whangarei where they be unloaded from a ship onto trains for a short train ride to Auckland, unloaded again onto trucks all seems unnecessary expense.
Photo: Port of Whangarei.
Auckland appears to have spare container capacity up until at least 2035, so this port up North will simply not have much to do in terms of extra container traffic because it will have to compete on the basis of cost and proximity to markets.
Photo: The Marsden Point Oil Refinery on the opposite shore of Whangarei Harbour.
The traffic that is coming under pressure regarding capacity of the Port of Auckland is multi-cargo traffic such as building materials, vegetables, wheat, vehicles and other goods. The situation is further aggravated by the rapid increase in the number and increased size of cruise ships.
As a good part of the market for the multi cargo traffic is in Auckland, landing them away from their main market just makes no sense and will not happen unless the port of Auckland is prohibited by law from expanding and ships are not allowed to divert to ports such as Wellington and Christchurch.
The number of cruise ships visiting Auckland in the last 10 years to about 90 and is expected to reach one 20 by 2020 and 150 by 2030. That traffic cannot be diverted up north to the Port of Whangarei.
Any export traffic that would be viable to send through the Port of Whangarei up north will already be going through it. Export competitiveness is highly sensitive to costs as exporters must simply take the going price in the international market.
This question should be asked more often about the regulation of purported natural monopolies
09 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
Child poverty in America using the Supplementary Poverty Measure of the Census Bureau
09 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, population economics, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, measurement of poverty
Measuring child poverty after tax and income transfers from the welfare state make a big difference to the measurement of poverty in the USA.
via What If We Had Measured Poverty Differently for the Past 50 Years? – CityLab.
Environmental and Urban Economics: The Drought Causes War Hypothesis: Evidence from Syria
09 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, environmental economics, global warming, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: Syria, water markets
I am an economist so permit me to make one Econ 101 point.
As drought conditions unfolded in Syria, did water prices rise? Is water metered and paid for in Syria? How do farmers and residential water customers access water?
If there had been a market signal of increased scarcity, water prices would have gone up and rational households and firms would reduce their consumption.
In the presence of such well functioning water markets, no “excess conflict” would have resulted. Capitalist markets thus can diffuse violence as increasingly scarce resources are allocated efficiently and water consumers are incentivized to invest in strategies and actions to reduce their water demand.
So, to repeat my point; if the PNAS authors are correct then it is the synergistic effect between increased drought conditions and the absence of water markets that caused the problem. If the nation had well functioning water markets, then I would strongly predict that there would be no extra violence.
via Environmental and Urban Economics: The Drought Causes War Hypothesis: Evidence from Syria.
The new gender gap in education
09 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economic history, gender, labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA
Source: whitehouse.gov
Why do the poor in America live in bigger houses than the European middle class?
08 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: Euroland, living standards, The Great Enrichment
1st amphibious car?
08 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
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