I had lunch with friends today (Yum-Cha at Sky Phoenix) and mentioned that I’d started this blog. I was astonished to hear that two of them claimed never to have read a blog! Now I know I spend a lot of time dabbling in all things Web 2.0 and I certainly didn’t expect anyone around the table to be plurking, but surely everyone reads blogs, don’t they? Apparently not. Since I gave strict instructions to everyone around the table to visit the blog (and leave comments, nudge, nudge), it seems like a good opportunity to share my blog-reading habits with these blog novices (and everyone else who may drop by).
Tag Archives: economics
Anatomy of a Bubble
The Joint Economic Committee is a standing committee of the US Congress is charged with reporting on US economic conditions. Needless to say, the Committee is making a close study of the financial turmoil triggered by the collapse in US house prices and rising delinquency rates among “sub-prime” borrowers. Recently Alex J. Pollock gave testimony to the Committee entitled “Regulatory Implications of the Housing and Mortgage Bubble and Bust”. Continue reading
Why I Always Buy the Same Sandwich
Until recently, I’d never given much thought to the fact that whenever I buy my lunch at the deli behind my office building, I always get the same sandwich (chicken, avocado, cheese, tomato and lettuce on multi-grain, in case you were wondering). Then I started reading Dan Ariely‘s book Predictably Irrational and realised that I’d been “self-herding”.
Drivers of Australian Inflation
Inflation in Australia has been running well outside the 2-3% range targeted by the Reserve Bank of Australia—the most recent figure was 4.3% for the 12 months to March 2008—which is why interest rates have been on the rise for the last couple of years. So what has been driving prices up in Australia? One useful way to get a sense of what has been happening is to use a type of chart known as a treemap (sometimes called a “Map of the Market”). These charts tend to be pretty busy, but can be a great way to explore a rich set of data.