Posted in Economics on March 13th, 2013 1 Comment »
There is a narrative going around in Malaysia that a government which has a majority of its debts denominated in a local currency can never default on its borrowings. For the purpose of clarity, it is the case where a national government has control over both its fiscal and monetary policy. I have trouble with [...]
Posted in Economics on October 2nd, 2012 1 Comment »
Among all the local newspapers in Malaysia, I reserve my utmost respect for The Edge. Unlike other papers, it has critical analyses and is less susceptible to explicit political bias. The Star and the New Straits Times (the NST especially) are political hacks. Others like the The Sun which can be objective more than once are [...]
Posted in Economics on September 26th, 2012 1 Comment »
I have been doing some preparatory work for a report on the 2013 federal government budget. The budget will be tabled at the Parliament this Friday. In the course of doing so, I have come to wonder if the comparison of budget deficit (as typically understood) across governments of the world is really fair. Specifically, [...]
Posted in Economics on July 25th, 2012 1 Comment »
Several new points were raised with regards to my post on duties and cars yesterday. One was pollution, two was government revenue and three, in one way or another, income effect. It is not exactly income effect but close enough. Concern number one is easy. But let us state the pollution concern. The concern is [...]
Posted in Economics on July 19th, 2012 2 Comments »
The Prime Minister finally launched a private pension fund. I am supportive of the idea of private and voluntary pension fund, but I am not going to discuss that here. What I find interesting rather is that contributors to the private fund are entitled to RM3,000 tax relief in a year. This raises one question: [...]
The name is Hafiz Noor Shams.
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