Monthly Archives: February 2009
The stable “Anglo Saxon” model of finance
Nouriel Roubini is not alone in declaring the "Anglo Saxon" model to have failed. Chris Dillow disagrees. He shows that, judging from GDP numbers, the "Anglo Saxon" countries are not doing worse than the others, so news of the instability and death of the Anglo Saxon model may be exaggerated. But it all depends on […]
At least we don’t have the Gold Standard to worry about
Will this crisis be as bad as the Great Depression of the 1930's? One important difference is that we don't have the Gold Standard now. That's one good reason for optimism.
Sales taxes, other taxes, expected deflation, and Calvo price-setting
Gauti Eggertsson has an important ("preliminary and incomplete") working paper. It has been discussed by Mark Thoma and Justin Wolfers. The main argument is that tax cuts could cause expected deflation, which would raise real interest rates if nominal rates are stuck at zero, and this would reduce aggregate demand and output. Tax cuts are […]
Cheer up, Andrew Coyne
It may well be that "there is no longer anything resembling a conservative party in this country". OTOH, there is no longer anything resembling a progressive party in this country, either.
On the benefits of school choice: a not-particularly-clean natural experiment from Quebec
In an earlier post, I noted that Ontario Catholics are able to choose between sending their children to the (Catholic) separate schools system or the public system, while non-Catholics can only go to public schools. Separate schools systematically outperform their public school counterparts, even though they receive the same funding and draw from almost-identical populations. […]
Worthless Canadian Reaction?
What else can you call it, when two large Canadian labour unions call for a Buy Canadian provision in government spending? Embarrassing? Shameful? Perhaps "imprudent" might be the best word, given Canada's reliance on foreign trade.
Why do journalists even try to explain forex fluctuations?
This is just silly: The Canadian dollar took a beating on currency markets Tuesday and stock markets tumbled amid investor disappointment in the U.S. government's financial rescue package. The currency closed down 1.97 cents (U.S.) to 80.24 cents after going as low as 80.04 cents as investors dumped a wide variety of currencies and bought […]
Average debt in Lake Wobegon
In Lake Wobegon, all the children are above average height. And the average household has $100,000 debt. Both those sentences are wrong in exactly the same way.
Markets in everything: Eternal salvation edition
Heaven updates its price list.
In which a US magazine summarises many points with which Canadians should be more familiar
Newsweek Okay, yes, I found this during a google search for this blog's title.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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