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Christmas Present Tips for Guys

Christmas Shopping Tips for Guys

giftgreen1Most of us guys are useless at Christmas shopping. Here's a few tips I've picked up over the years.

Ladies, you might want to share this with the men in your family to avoid getting an undesirable and badly wrapped present this Christmas.

  1. Buying your Christmas presents at a petrol station or dairy on Christmas morning really isn't the done thing - apparently not everyone wants a funnel, box of biscuits or a car care kit. Don't do it.
  2. Get started early, no not on Christmas Eve, yesterday was already too late.
  3. First thing in the morning is the best time to Christmas shop, and I mean first thing, teenagers are still in bed.
  4. It's not the thought that counts, it's how MUCH thought that counts.
  5. Cash is a GREAT present for teenagers - and me.
  6. If you must give gift vouchers make sure they are from a shop the recipient actually shops in and try and avoid those with an expiry date.
  7. Wrapping and cards are important, you and I know it's just paper but for some reason they are important.
  8. Before you start browsing in a shop check that it does gift wrapping and accept the service - wait if necessary. If the shop doesn't do gift wrapping move on to the next. Unless you are an expert present wrapper - Yeah Right!
  9. Even if every present you buy is gift wrapped, buy plenty of wrapping paper and sellotape. You are going to need it because dairy's and petrol stations don't gift wrap and being a bloke you'll probably ignore number 1.

Guys ignore the above at your peril and have a wonderful Christmas.

Posted in Commentary on the Investment Environment.

The ABC of Economic Literacy: 'A' for Adam Smith

The New Zealand Initiative | 6 March 2014

Few economists are more famous than the Scotsman commonly regarded as the founder of economics, Adam Smith (1723-1790). On one hand, this is understandable and much deserved. Smith's book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), established economics as an academic discipline. The Wealth of Nations also contains many important insights into economic logic.

On the other hand, it is also a little bit odd for two reasons.

Before Smith appeared, there had already been centuries of economic discussions. And, Smith probably would not even have called himself an economist but a moral philosopher.

Smith did not start his intellectual life as an economist. To his contemporaries, he would have been better known as the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759). In this earlier work, Smith explained how society is held together by people caring for their neighbours. His vision was one shaped by virtues, conscience, moral rules, altruism and law.

The Wealth of Nations is the other side of the same coin in Smith's thinking. In it, he showed how self-interested behaviour fits into his moral philosophy. It fitted surprisingly well.

Smith's critical insight was that competition harnesses self-interest for the greater good of society. "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest." It is as if 'an invisible hand' led people to do not just what is good for them but for their neighbours as well, he observed.

Smith's second-most important contribution to economics was understanding the division of labour. By observing how much more efficient a pin factory becomes if workers specialise on different tasks, Smith concluded that it is such specialisation which makes us more productive. This is true for companies, but also for countries – which is why he was an advocate of free trade.

Few ideas he presented in The Wealth of Nations were genuinely new, but it was Smith who collected the economic wisdom of his time, gave it a new framework, and firmly established economics as a social science.

Two hundred and thirty eight years after The Wealth of Nations, Smith's timeless ideas are still relevant and inspirational both for policymakers and for economists. Smith remains the best teacher for anyone aspiring to understand how altruism and self-interest belong together in society.
 

The New Zealand Initiative is a Wellington-based think tank formed by the merger of The New Zealand Business Roundtable and The New Zealand Institute. www.nzinitiative.org.nz. CEO Dr Hartwich is a regular speaker at PortfolioConstruction Forum programs.

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