Thursday, December 29, 2022

In the midst of quantitative tightening, is the world dumping the dollar?

The rest of the world is catching on to the easy monetary policy of the West. The BRICS nations are developing a new reserve currency that is likely to be backed by commodities and possibly gold. If this BRICS currency emerges, this is bad news for the West and the U.S. dollar, says Alasdair Macleod, head of research at Gold Money.

Read Macleod's writing: https://www.goldmoney.com/research

Three months ago ...

Monday, December 26, 2022

Can the elasticity for chicken supply and demand be modified?

Taken from Tik Tok 

According to the economic definition: 

"The price elasticity of demand is the percentage change in the quantity demanded of a good or service divided by the percentage change in the price. The price elasticity of supply is the percentage change in quantity supplied divided by the percentage change in price."

Economic Minister, Rafizi Ramli denied asking people to stop buying chicken but diverting the subject to the elasticity of supply and demand for chicken is the same thing. 

Rubber chickens are elastic but not the live ones. Basic food items are usually inelastic. The supply and demand is not sensitive to prices to a certain extent. 

The days yours truly was growing up, fish was the cheapest and most easily available source of protein. Chicken was considered a luxury consumed during kenduri, weddings and Hari Raya festivities. 

It has since replaced fish.

Thursday, December 22, 2022

(Whoever wins) it will not be easy


Nungsari Radhi / The Edge Malaysia

November 21, 2022 11:30 am +08

When this essay is published, it would be the eve of voting day for the 15th general election. While we are uncertain at this point as to who the winners will be, one thing is for sure: governing Malaysia in the coming five years will not be easy. How the government performs will be crucial in determining whether we continue on this gradual downward slide or make the turn for the better.

A crisis, any crisis, is part of a journey, whether for an individual or a nation. That is quite normal. It is how we handle a crisis that is crucial in determining whether the path onwards is better or worse. Whether we are made better or worse by the crisis. 

That experience has been somewhat worrying for the Malaysian economy. We have recovered from economic crises before, but lost some vigour afterwards. This was quite clear after the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis where growth rates since then have never come up to where they were before the crisis. It was as if the wind was taken out of our sails.

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Thanks Fahmi for lifting ban


The World Cup is over. The vote of confidence for new government was formally passed uninamously passed yesterday. And this blog is long overdue for an update. 

Despite being blocked by MCMC since May over a posting already taken down, it is still updated for readers abroad and with Internet able to by-pass the block. Usually it would be updating the mirror blog, Thick as a Brick than replicated on this blog.  

To this blogger's surprise, the blog could be easily read by the public at this Starbuck cafe. If so, thank you Fahmi Fadzil for lifting the 7-month ban.