Monthly Archives: January 2012
CEO Pay and the Grandfather Fallacy
It is possible to make good arguments that CEOs are overpaid. However, it is also possible to make really, really bad arguments. Sadly, I have seen more of the latter than the former. The bad arguments have something in common – they rely on the Grandfather Fallacy, a term I picked up from Steven Landsburg […]
Steve Landsburg goes “meta” on me
Steve Landsburg has what I think is the best response so far to my "Debt is too a burden on our children unless you believe in Ricardian Equivalence" post. [Update: I strongly recommend Steve's latest post, which puts everything together.] Steve says "I want to explain what [Nick] means, and why it’s wrong." But he […]
Is Ontario to Canada as Spain is to Europe?
I sometimes like to look at Canada through the eurozone lens: both are monetary unions in which certain regions have done better than others. For example, there are some interesting parallels between Spain and Ontario, in particular, the fact that employment losses in Spain and Ontario were disproportionately larger than employment losses elsewhere in Europe and Canada. So this […]
The concrete impacts of taxes
Between 1695 and 1851, the English government levied a tax on windows. The window tax was relatively easy to administer. A person's tax liability could be calculated by counting their windows. It had progressive elements. People with higher incomes had larger houses, and more windows, thus paid more in taxes. Houses with fewer than 10 (later […]
Matt Yglesias, spilt milk, and the debt burden
I visit Matt Yglesias' house (HT JeffreyY). I drink one litre of milk from his fridge. I write Matt an IOU for one litre of milk. 1. If Matt subsequently tears up that IOU, then I am richer and he is poorer. Taking the two of us together, in aggregate we are neither richer nor […]
NHL Ticket Revenue, Relocation and Exchange Rates
A story in today's Toronto Star: A secret National Hockey League report detailing the ticket revenues of its 30 teams provides additional ammunition for those suggesting more struggling U.S.-based teams should be relocated to Canada. The confidential document shows that the six Canadian NHL clubs last season accounted for about 33 per cent of the […]
The 30 years non-war over the debt burden. Plus Samuelsonian NGDP bonds.
I thought we all had this debt burden stuff sorted out 30 years ago. Obviously we didn't. We should have had a bigger argument about it 30 years ago, which would have sorted it all out. But we didn't. Maybe because we spent all our time arguing about other stuff 30 years ago, and didn't […]
Does Dwight Duncan Believe in Magic?
Ontario is Canada’s largest province and befitting its status as the Queen of Confederation, now has the largest provincial debt and deficit in the country. In dealing with the provincial fiscal situation, much rests on the program spending review being conducted by economist Don Drummond. Due to be delivered by the end of January, it […]
Canadian Economic Forecasts: 2011 revisited
Happy New Year everyone! Last January we made forecasts for 2011. It's now time to check how well we did. (I will do a separate post for 2012 forecasts). Well, we all did badly. Even those of us who got some numbers roughly right got other numbers badly wrong. I think that shows that 2011 […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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