Monthly Archives: January 2010
Taxing the rich is harder than you think, part 2
A few weeks ago, I wrote this on the effectiveness of introducing a tax surcharge on high income earners as a way to reduce income inequality: [We] have to look at the incidence of the increased tax on high earners. The burden of the tax does not necessarily fall on the people who actually pay […]
Canadian academic economists have to step up to the plate
From Don Newmans's recent column: A government that is serious about dealing with the problem should be encouraging public hearings where respected economists like Don Drummond, Dale Orr, Bill Robson, Mike McCracken and Jim Stanford would spell out in detail the scope of the problems and the choices that will have to be made to […]
Macroeconomics with monopolistic competition in pictures
Thanks to my daughter, and to commenters, I have now learned "Paint", and can now post a simple diagrammatic exposition of macroeconomics with monopolistically competitive firms. This may be useful in its own right, and can help readers understand the point I was making in my previous post.
Energy efficiency, climate change policy and prices
Jeff Rubin makes an important point: The fact that the high-efficiency furnace generates more heat for a given amount of fuel burnt doesn’t necessarily mean I will end up with any fuel savings. As the cost of my heating falls, might it just allow me to set my thermostat higher? If so, my energy savings […]
An unremarkable decade
There's been a certain amount of commentary on the 'lost decade' in the US: zero growth in employment, and the S&P500 is in negative territory. But Canada is not the US: the 2000's (I can't bring myself to use any of the terms I've seen used for the most recent decade) was fairly ordinary when […]
Canada’s economic statistic of the decade
Mike Mandel offers four candidates for the 'Economic Statistic of the Decade' over here, using these criteria: First, we want to reward the economic statistic that best reflects the decade (both the good and the bad). Second, we want to recognize the economic statistic that turned in a surprising performance–that is, back in 2000, if […]
AD, AS, Y, Output Gaps, Cuba, Monopolistic Competition, and Recalculation
They are all related, honest! Journalists can be excused for speaking as though Aggregate Demand (AD) and output or GDP (Y) were synonyms. Macroeconomists ought to know better, but we are often just as bad as journalists. Macroeconomists never treat Aggregate Supply (AS) as a synonym for Y. The output gap is always the gap […]
Our prose has not gone unnoticed
The Bayesian Heresy has published its 2009 Econ Blog Awards, and Worthwhile Canadian Initiative has been awarded one of the prizes for 'Best Econ Literacy'. This is of course very flattering, but I wonder what is being rewarded – our analysis, or our way of expressing it? Appositives can be tricky things. Either way, the […]
Canadian Economic Forecasts 2010. Make yours now!
Continuing the ancient (well, one year old) tradition of this blog, I am inviting all readers to make their Canadian economic forecasts for 2010.
Canadian Economic Forecasts: 2009 revisited.
Happy New Year everyone! Last January we made forecasts for 2009. It's time to check how well we did. (I'm going to do a separate post for 2010 forecasts).
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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