Monthly Archives: March 2007
Quebec elections: Spot the trend
In the last two elections, the ADQ – not the official opposition – picked up votes from the governing parties: first from the PQ, and then from the Liberals. This time around, they won 41 seats out of 125, and finished second in another 40-odd ridings. As one columnist said, the ADQ leader might as […]
I think this is how the Lucas supply curve works
The Economist reports that we have the ‘most positive influence’ on the world: I suspect that if we ever tried to use it, it would disappear.
A brief history of the federal budget surplus
It seems very likely that – for the tenth consecutive year – the federal government will run a healthy surplus in FY2006-07. For those of a certain age, it is perhaps difficult to believe that large surpluses have become a standard feature of the economic policy background. How did this happen?
Things we can see in a graph of not-seasonally-adjusted employment rates
Brad DeLong says that the NSA employment ratio is his favourite graph: [I]t shows, in one picture, the seasonal cycle, the business cycle, and the long-term trend in American labor force participation coming from demography and feminism. The same plot of Canadian data – with the US numbers as a benchmark – tells that story […]
Why free tuition is like the Bush tax cut
While doing the research for my recent posts on tuition fees, I came across something from the Canadian Federation of Students called ‘Myth or Fact: A guide to common myths about the importance of reducing tuition fees’ (9-page pdf). Here’s an extract: MYTH: “Tuition fee freezes unnecessarily subsidise the cost of postsecondary education for those […]
Live blogging from the Quebec election
Here I am at ground zero of the Canadian political scene. Politics at the federal level invariably revolves around what’s happening in Quebec – and what’s happening in Quebec is a provincial election. And in this provincial election, what’s happening in the Quebec City area may be determine who wins. And the key to the […]
Canada’s GDP growth rate fell yet again in 2006Q4. And it’s good news!
After the big revision in the US numbers for 2006Q4 GDP, Statistics Canada must be feeling pretty good about its policy to not produce preliminary estimates for GDP. Anyway, the headline number – an annualised GDP growth rate of 1.4% – is hardly encouraging. But look at the sources of growth: If the only drag […]
Canada’s exorbitant penalty
Canada’s current account surplus decreased by $C 5.3b in 2006Q4, thanks to a $C 4.5b deterioration of the income balance. The puzzle about the Canadian income balance is exactly the opposite of the one posed by the US balance. We’ve been running a healthy current account surplus for 6 years now, and the net international […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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