Monthly Archives: October 2009
The forex market is dumber than a sack of hammers
I've said it before, and I'm saying it again. The CAD is off by about two cents today: Canada is no Oz, mate: [W]hat seems to have caught currency markets off guard was the Bank of Canada’s commitment to keeping rates unchanged until at least next June and keeping its expected economic growth rate for […]
Hopefully the last post I’ll have to make on the Canada’s-housing-market-is-not-the-US-housing-market theme
The National Bank has a summary (pdf) of some numbers comparing how the Canadian housing market has behaved very differently from that in the US: [W]e compare the housing market correction in Canada with the one that occurred in the United States. The two have absolutely nothing in common. In Canada, the correction got under […]
Disinflation continues, and the case for intervening in the forex markets gets stronger
The September CPI report was published last Friday, and the disinflationary trend of the last few months hasn't yet stopped: As I noted at the last interest rate announcement, Up until the crash in commodity prices, Canada ran a current account surplus, so an appreciating currency made sense. But now that we're running a current […]
Why we need more Canadian academic economics bloggers
The economic story du jour is the appreciation of the CAD, and Peter Mansbridge had a panel of economists on The National last Tuesday to discuss it. I get the impression that this is a semi-regular recurring feature. The discussion was – how shall I put it? – unsatisfying.
Stephen Leacock on the benefits of economic stimulus
It has come to the attention of the federal Liberals that ridings who are represented by Conservatives are receiving a disproportionate share of the monies spent under the aegis of the fiscal stimulus: Ontario was allocated about $1.1 billion in Infrastructure Stimulus Fund money, translating to about $90 for each Ontarian (according to the 2006 […]
The Bank of Canada and the dollar in the short and long term
Perhaps the strongest signal that the recession is over is the fact that the appreciation of the CAD is making headlines, just as it did in the last expansion. But since we're operating at the interest rate lower bound, things are a bit trickier this time around. In the short term, there is a good […]
The September LFS report: Employment and hours worked
Last Friday's LFS release was the best we've seen in a long while. Not only did employment increase for the second month in a row, there was a significant jump in hours worked as well.
Flashbacks to the 1970’s: the Bank of Canada and the deficit
Doug Peters and Arthur Donner (names I remember from the 1970s debate over inflation in Canada) have an opinion piece in the Toronto Star on the role of the Bank of Canada in reducing the budget deficit. It starts out fine, but ends in a non-sequitur.
On the role of house prices in the last expansion
I have at various points (here and here) been driven up the wall by lazy journalists who have worked under the assumption that if the US housing market was crashing and burning, then so was Canada's. This premise has led to any number of articles cut-and-pasted from the south with 'US' being replaced by 'Canada'. […]
How to kill an afternoon
Do a google street map walking tour of Old Québec. You could do worse than start at the building where my wife works: View Larger Map It's been said before, and I'll say it again: Quebec City is spectacular.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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