Economicus111's Blog

Otago Farmers Market

economicus111 — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:13:36 +0000

In the newly-released budget more debt coincides with cutting down public spending. This is not a great macroeconomic situation. This is however, a consequence of microeconomic problems.

Economically, the reasons for economic downturns include capacity constrains, anti-competitive practices and under utilized resources.

The Otago Farmers Market is a great example of a microeconomic activity for Dunedin and albeit being a great market with many advantages, it is not prefect and it can be used to illustrated the above.

The Otago Farmers Market demonstrates:

1) capacity constrains: the market is limited in size and did not allow new businesses into the market. This capacity constrain will limit the growth and success of the market and will reduce the chances of the populace to buy locally made foods from local suppliers. The Otago Farmers Market will never be able to draw more people away from the foreign-owned supermarkets (Australian owned mostly) and cannot enhance future Dunedin growth without addressing its size-based capacity constrain.

2) anti-competitive practices: Here we notice that the Otago Farmers Market is run by a private trust, the Otago Farmers Market Trust. Therefore, the trust is allowing people from outside otago (Nelson, CHCH..etc) and refusing local Dunedinites from having a stall within the Dunedin Railway Car Park!! Moreover, the trust believes they own the entire site with a 300 m radius and are talking the law to their hands trying to ban people like Tamrtime from setting a stall at the vicinity of the Dunedin Raliway Station. This is an anti-competitive practice against locals by a private trust limiting economic activity. We can all appreciate the drive and spirit behind the competitive impulse, and we recognize that it yields productive gains for everyone. The primary motivation for businesses is profit, and if they are successful, they have not only served themselves but also society.

Yet, businesses sometimes urge the government to intervene when their competitors with the same goal pose a threat to them, and this is what the Otago Farmers Market Trust is doing. Allowing a trust owned by farmers to run the market means people outside the trust will be disadvantaged. To allow for better diversity and better choices and options we need producers to compete for our dollar. This allow growth and enhances market activity. The railway Station Car Park is like a street. It should be run by the public, for the public, all the public without banning any one access.

Thus, we need a better Otago Farmers Market and there is plenty of room for improvement.

There is nothing against people from outside Otgao selling their goods at Dunedin, unless the producers of Dunedin are banned… which is the sad case!!

South Canterbury Products at the Otago Farmers Market!

There are many potatoes at the farmers market, including potatoes from outside Otago, while producers of different products from Dunedin cannot sell their products at the Railway Station

Oamaru Potatoes!

Again, More non-Otago products at the Otago Farmers Market!

Swine flu: Is The Cure Worse Than The Illness?

economicus111 — Tue, 05 May 2009 09:03:01 +0000

This week, concerns about swine flu have dominated the media and many government officials. While the American people should be made aware of infectious diseases and common sense preventative measures, much of the hysterical reaction from government only serves to remind us how detrimental to your health it can be when government plays doctor. As a physician, I have yet to see any evidence that justifies the current level of alarm. Influenza typically kills around 36,000 people every year in this country and hospitalizes a couple hundred thousand. So far there are only a handful of confirmed deaths attributable to this strain, and most of those sickened have or will fully recover. Every death is tragic, but I see no reason to deal with this flu outbreak any differently than we typically deal with any other flu season. Instead, government in its infinite wisdom is performing even more invasive screening at airports, closing down schools and sporting events, and causing general panic. We had a similar outbreak in 1976, with only 1 death from the flu, but mandatory vaccinations killed at least 25 before the program was abandoned. When government gets involved in healthcare decisions, the cure is so often worse than the illness. And yet, this administration will likely consolidate the government’s power over your health with sweeping new reforms that are already being discussed in the Senate. Government has not improved healthcare, and has not made it cheaper. Quite the opposite; costs have skyrocketed, and quality has gone down in many ways. Gone are the days of the country doctor making house calls, or of voluntarily giving away medical services at charity hospitals. The bureaucratization of healthcare these past 45 years has made things worse. It saddens me as a doctor that physicians are less and less accountable to patients, but more and more accountable to government red tape, insurance companies and attorneys. It seems so perverse to me that important medical decisions that will directly affect the lives of all or nearly all Americans are being hashed out behind closed doors in Washington rather than between doctors and patients. There is perhaps nothing more valuable to a human being than his or her health, which is why I’ve always considered the practice of medicine so crucial to our well-being. Any intrusion by government into the privacy and trust between doctor and patient is detrimental to the art of medicine. It distorts the whole dynamic of who the client really is when doctors must answer more to government or insurance companies than to their patients. The best solutions to improving quality and lowering costs of healthcare would be measures that put decisions back into the hands of patients and doctors, where they rightfully belong. I have introduced HR 1495 The Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Act, which promotes health savings accounts and tax deductibility of healthcare costs as an important step in this direction. The unfortunate reality of this recent health crisis, as with any crisis, is that it presents opportunities that the unscrupulous will take advantage of, while the fearful become more compliant.

Source: Dr. Ron Paul

Dunedin Economics

economicus111 — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:38:57 +0000

All you need to know anout Dunedin Business and Economics. Otago developments and economic activity details.

The Recession

economicus111 — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:59:05 +0000

So they say it is the business cycle and the bottom of this is the depressions and recessions of economies. ha, interesting stuff, real or imaginative, it is what keeps happening. Also, interestingly, the increase in the prices (education, food, land ..etc) always goes above or equal to inflation. Inflation, is the devaluation of the currency.

Ok, it is all very simple. There is a flaw in the system. The flaw is human error (greed, robbery, opperssion and abuse on a mass (global) scale).

The flaw is the idea (coming form the govt officials and its economists and the economists of the banks) to control the money supply outside the principles of freedom, sound economics and logic, not to mention history, religion or democracy . So lets define money and money supply.

Money is a unit of measurement (unit of exchnage). Thus it is like time. Time is money. You work and earn your pay cheque and you save it to buy stuff in the future or you become a capital entrepreneur so you invest it. You may make a profit or a loss depending on many factors. but the money is still in the system in circulation. Economists, all of them, agree that for something to be money convertablity and stable value (store value) are important requirements.

But when someone print lots of paper money, wealth dislocation and the business cycle arise because of the inflationary process. Recession and depressions are the outcome of excess printing of money, borrowing and malinvestment. The only sloution to high house prices and reduced growth is to end the wealth disolcation inflationary process. because, you cannot have growth by printing paper money. You can only consume ink at a net loss (cost) when you increase the money supply of a nation. Stable money, denationalized and metalic money where printing cannot occur, will give a backbone for a very diverse and strong economy. Diversity cannot arise under the current system of affairs where goverments and banks decide the money supply, and carry price fixing by a universal interest rate, and centrally control of the entire economy.

Dunedin Stadium Nazis Photo and Dunedin Business Cycle

economicus111 — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:46:59 +0000

I lived through times when the Prophets and their followers did not have the right to defend themselves against cartoons. I feel any king or president must be able to live with cartoons. Otherwise they will inevitably lose their nerves and make bad decisions.

Ok so lets have a look at the photo and try and see what it all means

Dunedin Stadium a Nazi Tank Killing People Under Command of Mr. Peter Chin and Councilors

I think it is a form of expression and not offensive, and from an economic sense very realistic. Yes, have a look with me again.When the govt borrows money, tax people or print money and create inflation for the purpose of economic growth only wealth dislocation and inflation occurs, also the impoverishment of the populace. The regressive system of govt, big business and sporting industries with mass media create more dislocations of wealth because taxing poeple and spending their money cannot create wealth and growth beyond what tha natural economy would achieve. The stadium cannot increase the productivity of Dunedin, only like the Wall St Mall, incrase spending and thereby incur ongoing costs. And as the projects of the govt and its big biz finishes the employees and construction jobs, “so called” created employment by the propaganda, will inevitably end facing more inflation and debt, and more recessions arising. Let the govt stick to basic public amenities and the private sector run their affairs. I oppose all forms of wealth dislocation to any areas outside welfare. The Nazis want to run the world and the DCC want to run the Dunedin economy, but by force against justice, whatever the polls say they are dislocating wealth and creating poverty. Please stop the world govts, including the DCC, from robbing the nations to the big biz and international banks – the photo is saying economically.

Can we see why the price of houses, food, health, education goes above the rate of legislated inflation (between 1-3% under the Reserve Bank of NZ ACT 1989 but also more importantly the increases are above population growth and demand. Don’t we know that this is caused because the govt and big biz and banks print money and icrease the money supply, by increasing debt, and ending up taxing the people and the giving them inflation. The Central govermnet was not in the photo and it did dislocate 15 mln from the black hole: the deficit or the national debt. Devaluing our pay cheques is not a nice thing to do and using it for all sorts of private biz is crazy, let alone a sporting venue. Keep doing this and the whole nation, all local farms and lands will be lost form our hands, to the bankers and their cronies.

Basically and ideally, people will not get a negative return on saving money like what is happening today, and therefore will be able to save to build their houses or fix their bathrooms and build a second floor for the economy. Herein the real growth and propserity not when the DDC tax and borrow to build a stadium causing our houses to rot because most of the popolace are impoverished. The wealth dislocation must stop but people need to understand economics first. Spending money from the future or the people will not increase the welfare of people and the struggling people of Dunedin are forced to struggle more, let alone the world.

The global recession is because of the US-enforced global dislocation of trillions of US dollars (the international currency) from the poeple to Mr. Pharaoh, also righteously depicted as Nazis. Nazis why, because they are unjust as proven economically and therefore socially.

If John Key is right we are in a deep hole dug by labour but if we look a head we see big business bail outs by John Key and more spending. So my point is: free the system for every one to have an equal share, break the monopolies and stop sticking your head in the sand. Building a stadium against the well of the poor and 50%+ of the population is unjust Nazi-style takeover of $200 mln of Dunedin’s wealth. Ah, the houses that will find no builders or money to get painted, insulated or built.

The Humanity