Monthly Archives: February 2009
Demand-constrained and supply-constrained economies
I have said that economies are normally "supply-constrained", but that right now many economies are "demand-constrained". Other economists make a similar distinction. Whether an economy is supply- or demand-constrained makes a very big difference to the sorts of policies that work. A policy which increases supply won't work in an economy that is demand-constrained. A […]
Ironic media juxtaposition du jour
Today's entry comes from Macleans.ca's "Need to Know" section: Death of newspapers will result in greater corruption: People have been predicting the demise of newspapers for years, but now that newsrooms are shutting down, some are taking a hard look at what comes next. And the view isn’t a good one. In a lengthy piece […]
Economics blogging and academia
I've been wondering for some months about the role of blogging for an academic. How does it fit into my job as an economics professor? What's it worth? My own views, of course, are coloured by personal experience. But that personal experience is more influenced by the current economic times than by my own biography.
Deflation is on the horizon, but how far away is it?
The Canadian and US CPI numbers were released today. Here's what's been happening with the Canadian core CPI (which excludes energy, food and other volatile prices): And here's the series for US CPI less food and energy: I'm pretty sure that Mark Carney is glad that he doesn't have Ben Bernanke's job. The US is […]
David Andolfatto is blogging. Adjust your feeds accordingly.
Oh, this is very, very good news. Simon Fraser University's David Andolfatto – one of the best macro theorists in Canada – has started a blog: MacroMania. It occurs to me that the Canadian economics blogosphere relies inordinately on people who have a link with the University of Western Ontario. John Palmer at EclectEcon and […]
Guest post: Mark to market
Commenter JKH has been doing some thinking about mark-to-market and its role in the current crisis, and WCI is delighted to report that he has been good enough to put those thoughts together and agree to have them posted here: Lurking in the background to the credit crisis and the unfolding policy responses to it […]
My spam filter has become Skynet
I've been receiving messages to the effect of "What happened to my post?" from several long-time and valued contributors. Currently, comments are not moderated, so they should appear immediately. If I see spam, I delete it ex post. It would appear that my spam filter has noted that the comments I delete have links, and […]
Rent-seekers at the gates
The next few months are going to be brutal, and the second week of the next few months is going to be excruciating. StatsCan releases the Labour Force Survey numbers on the first Friday of the month, and those numbers will almost certainly be worse than the month before. Apocalyptic headlines over the weekend will […]
Neil Reynolds goes off the deep end. Again.
Gaaah. This is just crazy. I generally try to avoid fisking, but this is a case where so many clangers pile on top of each other like so many cars in a train wreck that there simply isn't another way of pointing out the awfulness of what Mr Reynolds has inflicted on unsuspecting Globe and […]
A valuable tip for new econobloggers
Brendon of Shock Minus Control provides my favourite comment on WCI: I may have to write a post about gold to get my traffic up. Its like a loss leader – come for the hysterical discussion of long refuted exchange rate regimes, stay for the delicious forecast models.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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