Monthly Archives: September 2010

St Lukes Expansion Reprieve

I was pleased to read a few days ago that the Auckland City Council has deferred a decision on whether to approve a proposed expansion of the St Lukes mall in Mt Albert. I grew up in Mt Albert so … Continue reading

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The Republicans’ ‘Pledge to America’

A preview of the Republican’s new Pledge to America has been released to news organizations today and will reportedly be launched formally tomorrow. I’ve taken a fairly quick look through it, mostly the parts that relate to the economy, and … Continue reading

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Preaching to the Choir

The video below shows Republican Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana speaking at the Values Voter Summit on the weekend. Since by my own admission my political views generally lean towards being conservative, I guess I’m ‘supposed to’ be impressed. But… … Continue reading

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The US is Bankrupt – Kotlikoff

Bloomberg ran an article last month in which Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff makes what appears to be a hugely important argument. In his words, the US is bankrupt. To be perhaps a little more literal but no less … Continue reading

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Why You Shouldn’t Blindly Trust Experts

If you’ve read my “About Me” page linked over on the right hand side, you might recall me writing this – …I am wholly unimpressed by those who try to dismiss others’ views simply on the basis of a supposed … Continue reading

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More on Payroll Tax from Roubini

Nouriel Roubini followed up the comments at Zeitgeist that I referred to on Thursday with an article yesterday in the Washington Post, again advocating a temporary (two year) cut in payroll tax. Part of his argument is that some of … Continue reading

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Increasing the Current Account Deficit Will Not Heal the US Economy

Christopher Rugaber of AP had an article published in a number of outlets yesterday noting that some economic indicators seem to have stabilized in the past month and deflation seems to be less of a danger. However, what caught my … Continue reading

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Wolfensohn and Roubini at Zeitgeist 2010

I’ve been watching a video of a couple of interesting presentations by Jim Wolfensohn and Nouriel Roubini at the US Zeitgeist Conference. Here are some of the key points they made – Wolfensohn His main point was that global economic … Continue reading

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America’s Young People

I’m in the process of writing a summary of a recent presentation this week by Nouriel Roubini that I hope to be able to post here shortly. However, there is one observation he made that I thought was so striking … Continue reading

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Causes of the Financial Crisis

In his Friday press conference, President Obama made some comments about the causes of the recession, both in his opening remarks and in response to the first question from the press. You can see it here –  Starting at … Continue reading

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