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…
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…
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…
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…
Capital Markets and Economic Regulation
Tim Brown’s, head of Infratil’s “Capital Markets and Economic Regulation” area, thought provoking article in the Dominion Post’s 24 October 2012 got me thinking about economic investment. Tim’s thesis was New Zealand companies reinvest too little of their current profit, to the detriment of theirs – and ultimately New Zealand’s…
Television and Duopoly Economics
I love duopolies: two or more companies fighting it out in an economic arena. There’s a couple of different models out there to describe the outcome of duopoly behaviour.One theory (Cournot duopolies) says that the companies will fight it out, matching business models and competing until both or all are “the same”. At the end of the day, each…
The Off Work Economist
Good Morning World!My name’s James Hogan, and I’m a practising Economist in a New Zealand Government department. Importantly, I’m on holiday. So, in between building websites, cleaning the house, and landscaping the section, I’ve got some time to read and keep abreast of the News of the Day. And like…