Dr Mark Pennington – ‘Robust Political Economy’
20 May 2016 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, industrial organisation, liberalism Tags: offsetting behaviour, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge
Why Private Investment Works & Govt. Investment Doesn’t
27 Apr 2016 1 Comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic history, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: industry policy, picking winners, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge
Freedom as a solution to poverty @Oxfam
24 Apr 2016 Leave a comment
in Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, economics of media and culture, growth miracles Tags: Bill Easterly, The Great Escape, The pretence to knowledge
% of New Zealand mortgages that were fixed and floating since 2004
16 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of information, economics of regulation, monetary economics, politics - USA Tags: antimarket bias, libertarian paternalism, monetary policy, mortgage interest rates, New Zealand Labour Party, Other people are stupid fallacy, rational irrationality, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge
Despite the best efforts of the libertarian paternalists to sell the other people are stupid fallacy, ordinary New Zealanders are quite nimble at moving between fixed and floating rates depending upon their forecasts of the future of interest rates. Price controls on floating rate mortgages, as suggested by the New Zealand Labour Party, would make this more difficult, not easier.
Source: S8 Banks: Mortgage lending ($m) – Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
Diogenes on what should governments do
26 Dec 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, liberalism Tags: ancient Greeks, Diogenes, growth of government, philosophy of economics, size of government, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge
Peak China
20 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, population economics Tags: China, offsetting behaviour, one child policy, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge, unintended consequences
Hayek on the division of knowledge
15 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, economics of information, F.A. Hayek, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: capitalism and freedom, competition as a discovery procedure, The meaning of competition, The pretence to knowledge
Being classically liberal
12 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, liberalism, Public Choice Tags: Leftover Left, meddlesome preferences, nanny state, progressive left, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge
Is sociology really irrelevant in policy debates?
03 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of bureaucracy, economics of media and culture, income redistribution, labour economics, occupational choice, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: compensating differentials, evidence-based policy, media bias, offsetting behaviour, public intellectuals, sociology, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge, unintended consequences
Is sociology really irrelevant in policy debates? @familyunequal does a better job with the #s blog.contexts.org/2015/01/25/soc… http://t.co/c4E25DTCmm—
(@SocImages) February 04, 2015
Forecasting is not getting any easier
28 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in business cycles, financial economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics Tags: forecasting errors, monetary policy, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge
Economists: They refuse to accept low interest rates! http://t.co/WyTlm6L1KS—
Tim Fernholz (@TimFernholz) August 18, 2015
Does the minimum wage increase unemployment?
20 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in labour economics, minimum wage, unemployment Tags: College premium, compensating differentials, education premium, evidence-based policy, offsetting behaviour, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge, unintended consequences
https://twitter.com/MiltonFriedmanS/status/630956276554444800/photo/1
#Australia:highest minimum wage in OECD relative to purchasing power. Increases #youthunemployment #auspol #jobsearch http://t.co/HML9l2rD7R—
Bob Day (@senatorbobday) August 11, 2015
Minimum wage scenarios across the OECD
04 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in labour economics, minimum wage, politics - USA, unemployment Tags: aggressive voting, antimarket bias, living wage, offsetting behaviour, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge, unintended consequences
Does a higher minimum wage really reduce employment? econ.st/1gp4Jbs http://t.co/WGMZGLKHmI—
The Economist (@EconBizFin) July 30, 2015
The economics of trophy hunting
03 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, environmental economics, law and economics, property rights Tags: Africa, antimarket bias, conservation, economics of conservation, endangered species, expressive voting, offsetting behaviour, rational irrationality, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge, uninte
The exchange rate “needs” to come down?
01 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in inflation targeting, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: central banking, forecasting errors, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge
Anyone who had a good idea about what the the New Zealand dollar should be would be trading on their own account. These super-rich would not be wasting their time giving advice to others. Their time would be too handsomely rewarded for such meagre returns as pontificating to others as to what they should do with their portfolios.
https://twitter.com/JimRose69872629/status/626597273007296514
One of my delights as a bureaucrat was at a meeting between the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the International Monetary Fund some 15 years or so ago
The Fund asked whether Bank whether it thought the exchange rate was too high, and what their exchange-rate modelling say about this?
- The reply of the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand was we don’t have exchange rate model because we don’t think there are any good. Gone are those days.
- The International Monetary Fund team was quite flabbergasted by this response.
At one stage the Fund team tried to draw me into the conversation about the level of New Zealand dollar because I was there representing the New Zealand Treasury. I was only attended as an observer, so naturally my response to their questions was to waffle incoherently. I could have been blunter and simply said the Reserve Bank of New Zealand spoke for New Zealand in this matter, but that would have been impolite.
I’ve been continuing to reflect on Graeme Wheeler’s repeated observation that New Zealand’s exchange rate “needs” to come down. I’m still not entirely sure what he means. The exchange rate is an asset price and presumably should reflect all expected future relevant information, not just spot information about current dairy prices. And the market has no particular reason to focus on stabilising the net international investment position at around current levels. Indeed, although it is a convenient reference point, neither does the Reserve Bank.
“Need” or not, I’d have thought it was likely that the exchange rate would fall further.
The ANZ Commodity Price Index, which lags behind (for example) falling GDT and futures dairy prices, has already had one of the larger falls in the history of the series.
Meanwhile, the fall in the exchange rate, while material, remains pretty small by the standards of past New Zealand adjustments…
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If bureaucrats were any good at picking winners, they would be hedge funds managers
30 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, financial economics, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, managerial economics, occupational choice, organisational economics, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: active investing, corporate welfare, efficient markets hypothesis, entrepreneurial alertness, hedge funds, industry policy, passive investing, picking winners, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge
Page 32 of "An Illustrated Guide to Income" more economic #dataviz at: bit.ly/12SEI9p http://t.co/HYm0II2UNI—
Catherine Mulbrandon (@VisualEcon) May 08, 2013
Page 33 of "An Illustrated Guide to Income" more economic #dataviz at: bit.ly/10M7lqR http://t.co/FcmaqZWB32—
Catherine Mulbrandon (@VisualEcon) May 09, 2013
The hedge fund industry held $2.9 trillion of assets in June. Exchange-traded funds did better econ.st/1DdXgWS http://t.co/CK2foqMOpw—
The Economist (@EconEconomics) August 01, 2015
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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