The visible hand in economics

Tax cuts are coming tomorrow, there is excitement in the air. First tax cut after a decade of effective tax rate increases (through fiscal drag). And what an interesting time for it, as we go through the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Still don’t forget that there are tax cut calculators available [...]

Obviously the biggest concern from this scandal should be the loss of life associated with it. However, the next biggest issue from a New Zealand standpoint is the potential loss of income associated with the damage to the “New Zealand brand”.
Now if Fonterra was taking into account the risk and return associated with their [...]

Congratulations New Zealand – once again, leading the world in terms of an economic downturn. The 0.2% fall in production GDP in June puts us in a technical recession!
Given how trade exposed we are I would assume that we would lag the rest of the world – but mother nature came in, provided us [...]

According to a recent post on Frog Blog it would appear so.
As well as randomly comparing the current crisis to the methodologically flawed “shock doctrine”, frog states that NZ MUST:
invest in rebuilding our local communities so that they are economically independent and self sustainable
This would surely only be the best thing to do if you [...]

Over at No Right Turn I/S states that we can’t simply view “free trade” as beneficial, we have to be mindful of the costs. Now this is true, as with any policy we have to look at the costs associated with change as well as the benefits before we decide what to do.
However, I [...]

Over at Kiwiblog, David Farrar comments on outward migration from New Zealand. He concludes by stating:
Inwards migration of new New Zealanders (which is a great thing) helps keep the overall population stable, but that does not mean there isn’t a serious problem with the numbers leaving.
A similar theme was mentioned a few weeks ago [...]

I was interested to see the Standard and No Right Turn link to a PSA advert from the latest Listener. The advert seems like a whole lot of mis-information piled right into a single page.
The criticism of the ad is quite simple – they come up with a sum and then they take away [...]