Posted in Economics on April 18th, 2013 2 Comments »
The CPI for March was released yesterday. Malaysia’s consumer price index grew by approximately 1.6% from a year ago. It is slightly higher than the inflation rate recorded in February, which was at about 1.5% from a year ago. You can see which components contributed to the higher inflation, as well as the price behavior [...]
Posted in Economics on January 9th, 2013 No Comments »
I learned a few things in Indonesia. One of them involved the discussion of cutting down the zeroes in the Indonesian bills. Prices of goods and services will be adjusted accordingly as well. Right now, the Indonesian currency the rupiah is denominated in the thousands and it is quite common to round up any price [...]
Posted in Economics, Politics & government on December 18th, 2012 No Comments »
I do not understand the intricacies of Japanese politics. I simply do not follow it closely. But I do know that Japan can play a significant role in Asia, if it finally decides to take up that role, which it has not under the uncertain leadership of the Democratic Party of Japan. The DPJ wanted [...]
Posted in Economics on November 16th, 2012 No Comments »
I have argued before that too many disbelieve the CPI inflation because they do not understand how inflation is measured. Some do not get the fact that CPI inflation is the change in price level and not the price level itself. Too many think that it is impossible that inflation is really that low in [...]
Posted in Economics on August 16th, 2012 4 Comments »
Both the GDP and the CPI numbers for Malaysia were released yesterday. Real GDP growth grew by 5.4% in the second quarter from a year ago. Although I suspected that growth would be strong due to strong showing in the industrial production index, I found 5.4% as surprising still. It was too strong for whatever [...]
Posted in Economics on June 20th, 2012 No Comments »
Kapil Sethi has a really odd piece yesterday in The Malaysian Insider yesterday. It started pretty alright by discussing crime but the strangeness began when he tried touch the realm of economics: At a deeper level though, this desperation points to a changing politico-economic environment that is forcing such radical shifts in behaviour. When there is [...]
Posted in Economics on March 7th, 2012 3 Comments »
I think economists have some kind of pseudo-responsibility in helping the public understand economic issues. They need to translate jargon into simple language. This can be hard because not many have the gift of clarity, in and out of the field of economics. I do not claim to have that gift, but I can say [...]
Posted in Economics on March 5th, 2012 3 Comments »
In the short run when (nominal) prices are not so flexible, there will be a trade-off between (nominal) minimum wages and unemployment rate. The mechanics is simple. If businesses cannot change the price they charge their customers, they will optimize their cost. Since a person’s real wage theoretically equals the person’s marginal product of labor [...]
Posted in Economics, Poetry, Politics & government on March 4th, 2012 1 Comment »
High-income economy, sans the illusion of money, some for you and me, some more for the party’s crony.
Posted in Economics on January 4th, 2012 3 Comments »
There are Malaysians who find it hard to accept the official inflation rate. They claim that it grossly underestimates the actual inflation on the streets. Some of them are truly stubborn in the sense that no proof will convince them. Some derive their disagreement out of merely ignorance. Others raise nuanced argument against the official [...]
The name is Hafiz Noor Shams.
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