Category Archives: Economics and economy

On Sunday I’m off to New Zealand to talk to The New Zealand Initiative about privatisation. Here is the blurb that I wrote up for their weekly Insights email. Privatisation provides an interesting case study for free-marketeers. Almost everyone is … Continue reading →

(HT: Peter Boettke)

Robert Fogel – economics Nobel prize winner for cliometrics – has passed away aged 86. He is probably best known for his work on slavery – where he argued that slavery was not the economically inefficient institution that so many … Continue reading →

vr draws our attention to an interesting article in the WSJ. Universities’ humanities divisions and liberal-arts colleges across the nation are facing similar challenges in the wake of stepped-up global economic competition, a job market that is disproportionately rewarding graduates … Continue reading →

In a week in which losing the plot became commonplace in Canberra, take this extraordinary quote from David Gruen, one of the Executive Directors at the Treasury: The idea that in the face of the largest investment boom we’ve ever … Continue reading →

Here in Australia we tend to define a recession as being two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. Admittedly that is ad hoc. In 2008 Saul Eslake suggested that we reconsider that definition and redefine it as an increase of … Continue reading →

I have a piece in Quadrant On Line that notes how each new debt infusion or government spending spree is accompanied by claims that this will finally slaughter the recession, only to be followed by further disappointing data.  Added to … Continue reading →

Deirdre McCloskey is one of the more interesting economists alive today. We often link to her Youtube clips and her The Bourgeois Era series of books is must reading; mind you, all of her stuff is must reading. Her autobiography … Continue reading →

Noodle draws our attention to an article in the SMH that talks about the problems associated with fiat currency. The Australian Crime Commission’s acting chief executive, Paul Jevtovic, says paper money’s anonymity makes it highly attractive to criminals and money … Continue reading →