There is so much wrong with the recently published Health and Disability System Review. Before addressing it’s technical issues, check out the depth of character it pigeon-holes the majority of New Zealanders into. The following description of New Zealand’s population groups is cut and pasted straight from the report. Diverse…
The Default Position
There’s been a lot written about how much the economy has been negatively affected by the government’s Covid response. Lots of commentators make their careers talking “about the problem” – especially obvious ones.Hey everyone, there’s a fire burning!! Everyone!! FIRE!!!! FIRE BURNING EVERYONE. FIRE!!!But when someone gets a glass or…
My life is full of non-single use, non-disposable bags…
One of the first things 2017’s Labour / Greens / New Zealand First coalition government did was strongly signal its “green credentials”. First cab off the ranks was stopping new offshore drilling oil permits. The second cab off the ranks was, oddly, single use disposable plastic bags…. Rejoicing in the…
Owning Houses Makes You Richer
Statistics New Zealand just released the change in physical and financial assets component of the National Accounts. The national accounts (change in assets) explains movements in assets and liabilities from one balance sheet to the next for each of New Zealand’s institutional sectors. The accounts show the accumulation of physical…
Nursing Pay Demands Are Bad News for Graduates
New Zealand nurses want more money, or purely and simply, they will strike (http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/360103/nurses-want-more-money-or-strike-to-go-ahead). More money is the only thing that will stop a planned nurses strike from going ahead. In an economy with 1.1% annual inflation, and annual national wage inflation at 1.8%, the nurses union has rejected a 9%…
If it’s got tits or wheels…
It’s going to cause you pain and cost you money.
What movies I’d like to make
There are some professions that are gritty and glamorous: doctors, lawyers, cops. Think of all of the tv dramas, and it will involve one of these. The doctor saves the patient’s life, but their own life is terribly conflicted. Or the cop chases the bad guy, but is borderline criminal…
A Tribute to the Exceptional
Most people lead dull and uninteresting lives: I’m no different from the majority. But every so often, when someone exceptional dies, you see what an exceptional life is. David Bowie died on Monday: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35278872, one of the world’s true exceptional individuals. The Master of Change and Reinvention, a musical artist…
I’m back! Lets make New Things :)
Well Hello!Its been a long time, OffWorkEconomist. I’ve been busy – its been a busy couple of years. I’m back now. And I’ve got things to say!2016 will be the strategic year – lets focus on strategic direction issues: what’s happening, where’s it going and why or why not should…
International Transmission Mechanism and Tourism
I’ve started a new job! I’m now a Principal Analyst within the Sector Performance team within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). What a rush! This has been my third week and I feel like I’m starting to get my feet under the table and hang of the…
And on a sadder note…
Bit unhappy today World. One of my all time favourite rockers died on the 21 April 2013. As a 16 year old, I and some mates jumped the fence at the 1988 Brisbane Ekka Show to see her and the Divinyls play live.Rock on Chrissy Amphlett
Thinking about Regions: Updated with R Code
Regional Industry Employment The blogs have been slow this month – sorry people. Things have been quite busy in my neck of the woods. One of the things I am looking at at the moment though are three employment related questions based on Statistics New Zealand’s Business Demographics data: What…
Craft Beer Explosion in a Mature Dull Beer Market
Regular readers of New Zealand economic blogs don’t have to go very far to be convinced of the attraction between Economists and beer, as the number of post on Eric Crampton and Seamus Hogan’s blog Offsetting Behaviour website can attest. Besides the obvious, what makes beer so interesting is the extraordinary proliferation of…
Networked Societies and Growth in Cities
I am currently training for the Graperide so have started putting in some hours on my bike. To pass the time in the saddle, I’ve been listening to BBC’s “Analysis” podcasts, today’s listenings including Professor Manuel Castells’ interview on Alternative Economic Cultures.Professor Castell identifies the internet as the vehicle for new(ish) global and collective collaborations…
Productivity – at what cost?
I attended the Government Economics Network Annual Conference yesterday. Top marks to all the speakers who presented some fascinating talks on recent changes to the UK welfare system (Trevor Huddleston), new approaches to modelling household behaviour (Martin Weale), and a rolicking-good discussion of the persistent costs for individuals of unemployment spells…
It’s not you, it’s me!
Dear Blog, It’s not you, it’s me. This time apart, this lack of posting is nothing you’ve done. I still love you!But over this last week and a bit, I feel a gap has grown between us. I’m spending more time with my wife – my job, that I have…
Real Markets and Money Markets
Last year, well before the US presidential election, I was in a bar having a heated conversation with some guy who had been listening to too much Tea Party rhetoric, although he wasn’t aware of its origins at the time. From points 20, 21, 31, 32 cited in that link, part…
Price Elasticity and New Zealand Retail Sales
Statistics New Zealand, with their recent Retail Statistics released a bit of a bombshell: not only was an decline in retail trade unexpected, but things which (used to) NEVER fall – like supermarket and grocery store sales – declined. The thing about supermarket and groceries is that, since everyone needs to…
Quantum theory and train passengers
I read some where that quantum theory wasn’t a theory about the behaviour of the very small, it was a theory about the behaviour of the isolated. The argument goes that even you, if separated from other particles to interact with would start displaying quantum theory properties. It just so…
Unemployment and the Business Cycle
There’s been a lot of recent discussion about Statistics New Zealand’s latest Household Labour Force Statistics (HLFS) which are used to define ‘the’ unemployment rate. Quite correctly, there has been an outcry over how the unemployment rate is the highest its been in 13 years, mainly from a decrease in…