Economic links
Cartoon busker illustrates ideas from Adam Smith.
Reminding us that governments did not create the welfare system, they nationalised it.
Paper on how migration boosts pay of resident workers: it turns out to be an increased capital scarcity effect, as you would expect.
Nice clear post on the notion of efficiency in economics and how it is used.
About rules versus discretion in monetary policy: I am a rules man myself.
Nice short piece on incentives mattering, but at the margin.
On the link between happiness and income.
On the difference between creativity and innovation.
David Friedman (son of Milton aka Cariadoc of the Bow) argues for the abolition of the criminal law.
Graphing per capita income and life expectancy.
India says it does not want to be an aid recipient any longer. Reviewing The Aid Trap:
While people in today’s rich countries rose out of poverty as it became easier to do business, bad institutions and policies in poor countries have created perverse business incentives (for example: it takes 361 days and costs seven times the average per capita income to go through the seventeen procedures required for a firm in Mozambique to get the government licenses it needs to operate). Not only does aid support bad policies and the government that created them, but by decreasing the reliance on taxes for funding aid removes incentives for reform. Why become a less corrupt, more business-friendly government when aid makes it unnecessary?
The authors reply.
About the perverse incentives created by cheap travel and the 1951 Convention on refugees”
One of the many ironies of the convention is that it has had no effect in stopping subsequent quasi-genocidal events, such as in Rwanda and Darfur, and even in the Balkans. It has been totally ineffective in protecting masses of people subject to murderous violence. …
Acceptance rates quickly become known and high acceptance rates attract more asylum-seekers.
Richard Stallman on copyright. He sees it as corporations dominating government: it seems more like that they are just speaking the language politicians understand and practice: that of rent-seeking.
Text on free banking (competitive note issue). Since the Fed is the primary cause of the Great Depression, the 1937 Depression and the Great Recession, perhaps a critical examination of its performance is appropriate.
A nice summary of the global economic situation.
On not getting bothered by the “Dutch disease” of resource exports driving up the exchange rate.
About the fraught EU response to eurozone government default fears. Why many European econocrats think budget cuts are now appropriate. Being sceptical about the fiscal stimulus effects in Oz. About bond market prospects. Citing Milton Friedman on monetary stimulus.
About the US recovery from the Great Depression from Christina Romer:
Monetary developments were a crucial source of the recovery of the U.S. economy from the Great Depression. Fiscal policy, in contrast, contributed almost nothing to the recovery before 1942.
A particularly savage comment on Christina Romer’s service as Obama Economic Advice Chair. About the Fed’s failure to mint coins and print dollars. A 2001 piece about the Fed’s policy (scroll down) of “opportunistic disinflation”. About why that is a problem.
In the US, gridlock is associated with stronger stock market returns. Meanwhile, the Australian stock market had the highest returns and the lowest volatility of any stock market in the world over the last 100 years.
The US keeps minting $1 coins that American’s don’t like and won’t use.
Niall Ferguson on fiscal American viability. Expressing a central issue of current US politics in a single chart.
Study comparing private and public sector pdf compensation (i.e. wages, salaries, pensions) in the US. California has some public sector wages and pension issues:
roughly 80 cents of every government dollar in California goes to employee compensation and benefits. Those costs have been rising fast. Spending on California's state employees over the past decade rose at nearly three times the rate our revenues grew, crowding out programs of great importance to our citizens.
Examining California’s fiscal slide. Pointing out that Republicans increase spending just like Democrats.
Down here in “recession, what recession?” Oz things may be calm, but in the US, the labour market news continues to be depressing. The size and persistence of unemployment in the US has policy folk stumped. Median unemployment duration in the US is now more than twice as high as any time in the last 50 years. Graph showing how bad the fall in employment is in the current recession compared to previous ones. Paper suggesting the long-term unemployed exert limited downward pressure on inflation. Fears of a “double-dip” recession in the US. Post on such fears with many links. Suggesting the US could do with a few monetarists. Suggesting that the US policy elites need to get a grip. Suggesting policy uncertainty is a real issue.
Having a lot of fun about Krugman’s experience with comments on his blog and his new commenting policy. Dissing Krugman on what and how he argues.
Some business interests in Gaza are not happy at the loosening of the Israeli blockade.
Paper finds that China’s investment in resources are tending to make global supplies more diverse and competitive. Taking a sceptical view of China’s economic prospects. Against the notion of only expansions, no contractions.
A very depressing series of stats and graphs on Japan’s (fairly dire) economic prospects. (One mark of an economic commentator is when they got off the “Japan has got things figured” bus.)
In Oz, consumer sentiment is on the up (pdf). More (pdf). While the education stimulus has 10% cost escalation built into it. The Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank on Oz’s world-beating economic performance:
"The period since 1991 is the longest period of growth that Australia has recorded for at least the past century," he said.
The next longest period during which year-ended growth remained positive was the 13 years between 1961 and 1974."
Interactive graph tracking housing prices in selected countries.
About China’s housing bubble. Criticising China’s housing policies.
Finding that interest rates and credit conditions are not sufficient to explain the US housing boom: given its geographically concentrated manifestation, hardly surprising. Noting that Texas’ liberal land use policies had much to do with it escaping most of the effects of the Great Recession. About the utter fecklessness of the US Congress on housing and financial regulation policy. The hard choices to be faced in US housing policy. Fannie Mae is now down to a much traded penny stock.
About the (unequal) social consequences of restricting of housing construction in New Zealand
Reminding us that governments did not create the welfare system, they nationalised it.
Paper on how migration boosts pay of resident workers: it turns out to be an increased capital scarcity effect, as you would expect.
Nice clear post on the notion of efficiency in economics and how it is used.
About rules versus discretion in monetary policy: I am a rules man myself.
Nice short piece on incentives mattering, but at the margin.
On the link between happiness and income.
On the difference between creativity and innovation.
David Friedman (son of Milton aka Cariadoc of the Bow) argues for the abolition of the criminal law.
Graphing per capita income and life expectancy.
India says it does not want to be an aid recipient any longer. Reviewing The Aid Trap:
While people in today’s rich countries rose out of poverty as it became easier to do business, bad institutions and policies in poor countries have created perverse business incentives (for example: it takes 361 days and costs seven times the average per capita income to go through the seventeen procedures required for a firm in Mozambique to get the government licenses it needs to operate). Not only does aid support bad policies and the government that created them, but by decreasing the reliance on taxes for funding aid removes incentives for reform. Why become a less corrupt, more business-friendly government when aid makes it unnecessary?
The authors reply.
About the perverse incentives created by cheap travel and the 1951 Convention on refugees”
One of the many ironies of the convention is that it has had no effect in stopping subsequent quasi-genocidal events, such as in Rwanda and Darfur, and even in the Balkans. It has been totally ineffective in protecting masses of people subject to murderous violence. …
Acceptance rates quickly become known and high acceptance rates attract more asylum-seekers.
Richard Stallman on copyright. He sees it as corporations dominating government: it seems more like that they are just speaking the language politicians understand and practice: that of rent-seeking.
Text on free banking (competitive note issue). Since the Fed is the primary cause of the Great Depression, the 1937 Depression and the Great Recession, perhaps a critical examination of its performance is appropriate.
A nice summary of the global economic situation.
On not getting bothered by the “Dutch disease” of resource exports driving up the exchange rate.
About the fraught EU response to eurozone government default fears. Why many European econocrats think budget cuts are now appropriate. Being sceptical about the fiscal stimulus effects in Oz. About bond market prospects. Citing Milton Friedman on monetary stimulus.
About the US recovery from the Great Depression from Christina Romer:
Monetary developments were a crucial source of the recovery of the U.S. economy from the Great Depression. Fiscal policy, in contrast, contributed almost nothing to the recovery before 1942.
A particularly savage comment on Christina Romer’s service as Obama Economic Advice Chair. About the Fed’s failure to mint coins and print dollars. A 2001 piece about the Fed’s policy (scroll down) of “opportunistic disinflation”. About why that is a problem.
In the US, gridlock is associated with stronger stock market returns. Meanwhile, the Australian stock market had the highest returns and the lowest volatility of any stock market in the world over the last 100 years.
The US keeps minting $1 coins that American’s don’t like and won’t use.
Niall Ferguson on fiscal American viability. Expressing a central issue of current US politics in a single chart.
Study comparing private and public sector pdf compensation (i.e. wages, salaries, pensions) in the US. California has some public sector wages and pension issues:
roughly 80 cents of every government dollar in California goes to employee compensation and benefits. Those costs have been rising fast. Spending on California's state employees over the past decade rose at nearly three times the rate our revenues grew, crowding out programs of great importance to our citizens.
Examining California’s fiscal slide. Pointing out that Republicans increase spending just like Democrats.
Down here in “recession, what recession?” Oz things may be calm, but in the US, the labour market news continues to be depressing. The size and persistence of unemployment in the US has policy folk stumped. Median unemployment duration in the US is now more than twice as high as any time in the last 50 years. Graph showing how bad the fall in employment is in the current recession compared to previous ones. Paper suggesting the long-term unemployed exert limited downward pressure on inflation. Fears of a “double-dip” recession in the US. Post on such fears with many links. Suggesting the US could do with a few monetarists. Suggesting that the US policy elites need to get a grip. Suggesting policy uncertainty is a real issue.
Having a lot of fun about Krugman’s experience with comments on his blog and his new commenting policy. Dissing Krugman on what and how he argues.
Some business interests in Gaza are not happy at the loosening of the Israeli blockade.
Paper finds that China’s investment in resources are tending to make global supplies more diverse and competitive. Taking a sceptical view of China’s economic prospects. Against the notion of only expansions, no contractions.
A very depressing series of stats and graphs on Japan’s (fairly dire) economic prospects. (One mark of an economic commentator is when they got off the “Japan has got things figured” bus.)
In Oz, consumer sentiment is on the up (pdf). More (pdf). While the education stimulus has 10% cost escalation built into it. The Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank on Oz’s world-beating economic performance:
"The period since 1991 is the longest period of growth that Australia has recorded for at least the past century," he said.
The next longest period during which year-ended growth remained positive was the 13 years between 1961 and 1974."
Interactive graph tracking housing prices in selected countries.
About China’s housing bubble. Criticising China’s housing policies.
Finding that interest rates and credit conditions are not sufficient to explain the US housing boom: given its geographically concentrated manifestation, hardly surprising. Noting that Texas’ liberal land use policies had much to do with it escaping most of the effects of the Great Recession. About the utter fecklessness of the US Congress on housing and financial regulation policy. The hard choices to be faced in US housing policy. Fannie Mae is now down to a much traded penny stock.
About the (unequal) social consequences of restricting of housing construction in New Zealand