https://www.facebook.com/share/sBU4jrUEAUnL2CYs/?mibextid=xfxF2i
Creative destruction again
28 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, managerial economics, occupational choice, organisational economics, personnel economics Tags: creative destruction, economics of pandemics
Proof that NZ’s Reserve Bank has Inflicted Unnecessary Pain up and down the Nation.
27 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in business cycles, economic growth, fiscal policy, labour economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, unemployment Tags: economics of pandemics, monetary policy
In the past few hours, it has been stated that the US economy grew at a solid 3% rate last quarter, as given in the American government’s final estimate. New Zealand’s economy, on the other hand, shrank at a rate of -0.2%. The US Federal Funds rate (the equivalent of NZ’s Official Cash Rate, OCR)…
Proof that NZ’s Reserve Bank has Inflicted Unnecessary Pain up and down the Nation.
Monkeypox and Medsafe
15 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, economics of information, economics of regulation, health economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: drug lags, economics of pandemics
In a sane world, medicines and vaccines already approved by trustworthy overseas regulators would automatically be able to be used in New Zealand as well.New Zealand is not sane. But neither is anywhere else really on that standard. Other places are just faster than NZ in getting things approved, with more practicable pathways for expedited…
Monkeypox and Medsafe
Where did the Government get the law right and wrong with the Covid-19 response?
10 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of natural disasters, economics of regulation, health economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: economics of pandemics
For those who are interested in public law, a very interesting paper by Dean Knight summarising the various court cases over the Covid-19 response. It details in which areas the Government won judicial reviews, and in which areas they lost. The TLDR version is: Hopefully we will not go through another pandemic anytime soon.
Where did the Government get the law right and wrong with the Covid-19 response?
Fauci Didn’t Test
09 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, health economics, politics - USA Tags: economics of pandemics, The fatal conceit, unintended consequences
I am not a Fauci hater but I think this criticism of Facui from epidemiologist and oncologist Vinay Prasad hits the mark: Lockdown was specifically advocated for by Anthony Fauci (‘15 days to stop the spread’/ ‘hunker down’/ ‘shelter in place’), and Fauci would go on to make hundreds of other specific policy recommendations. Although he initially […]
Fauci Didn’t Test
The Pandemic and Swedish Fiscal Policy
21 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, fiscal policy, health economics, macroeconomics, public economics Tags: economics of pandemics, Sweden
When I wrote about long-run policy lessons from the pandemic, I mostly focused on the incompetence of the bureaucrats at the FDA and CDC. I also wrote that Sweden had a very sensible approach. Politicians did not panic. They advised prudence, but kept schools open and did not mandate lockdowns. Interestingly, Sweden also had better […]
The Pandemic and Swedish Fiscal Policy
The US debt is worse than it was after WWII
17 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, defence economics, economic history, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: economics of pandemics, World War II
Over the last few years I’ve made a number of posts about the ever growing US government spending, deficits and debt, which has reached the point where US Debt is now rising $1 trillion every 100 days. But there are many people who look at the debt as 120% of GDP and shrug their shoulders that […]
The US debt is worse than it was after WWII
New Rule: Stuck on Stupid | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
31 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health economics, politics - USA, television, TV shows Tags: economics of pandemics
ROBERT MacCULLOCH: Former PM Hipkins & Profs Bloomfield & Baker should be held accountable for quoting statistics that have now been shown to be wrongly estimated
27 Feb 2024 1 Comment
in applied welfare economics, econometerics, economic history, economics of regulation, health economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: economics of pandemics
Why are we still talking about Covid when many countries – like the US – have moved on? Well the US economy is currently booming and ours is stuck in the mud. The reason has emerged over time. Although our response to the virus was to be commended in early 2020 when no-one knew what…
ROBERT MacCULLOCH: Former PM Hipkins & Profs Bloomfield & Baker should be held accountable for quoting statistics that have now been shown to be wrongly estimated
#COVID19 educational scarring
16 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, health economics, human capital, labour economics, labour supply Tags: economics of pandemics
Canada Supreme Court: Trudeau’s Use of Emergency Act “Unreasonable”, “Unconstitutional”
24 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, health economics, law and economics, liberalism Tags: Canada, economics of pandemics
Global News reports Federal Court finds Emergencies Act for ‘Freedom Convoy’ violated Charter. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images. The Federal Court has ruled the Trudeau government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act during the so-called “Freedom Convoy” that descended on Ottawa in 2022 violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In […]
Canada Supreme Court: Trudeau’s Use of Emergency Act “Unreasonable”, “Unconstitutional”
The end of the Zero-Covid policy?
04 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in health economics Tags: economics of pandemics
Nothing comforts people so much as knowing they’re part of the same crowd. It’s a tribal thing rooted in our two million years of brain evolution. You can see this even more clearly when one person is left stranded as the crowd moves on. Surprised, shocked, ill-at-ease, and wondering if she should follow the crowd […]
The end of the Zero-Covid policy?
ANANISH CHAUDHURI: Winston Peters has a point about media bias
03 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: economics of pandemics
Winston Peters has suggested that mainstream media were “bribed” by the previous Labour government. Members of the media are outraged. Peters, true to form, is being provocative. I don’t think Peters’ strident tone helps. If Peters wants to get through, then a more diplomatic approach may be better. Aggressiveness merely gets people’s backs up and…
ANANISH CHAUDHURI: Winston Peters has a point about media bias
Covid-19 – Vaccines and Vaccine Mandates
02 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in health economics Tags: economics of pandemics
The logic of vaccines had always been very clear. If you were vaccinated you didn’t need to be concerned about unvaccinated people. The disease was their problem. C-19 inverted that logic. Halcyon days were it not for the permanent memory of the Interwebby. From a purely technical point-of-view I was quite interested in the race […]
Covid-19 – Vaccines and Vaccine Mandates
Remote Working Increases Productivity
22 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in transport economics, urban economics Tags: economics of pandemics
Last July, I noted that studies that claim that telecommuters are less productive than those in fixed workplaces were unpersuasive because they “mostly dealt with low-skilled jobs such as call centers and data entry.” I’m not the only one who thinks so. Writing in Business Insider, Ed Zitron noted last … Continue reading →
Remote Working Increases Productivity
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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