Author Archives: wciecon
Should 888 Richmond Way pay higher property taxes than 13 Deadman Road?
In Canada, property taxes are typically based on "market value assessment". The assessment is arrived at by gathering information, for as many properties as possible, on: observable characteristics such as lot size, age and size of the home, number of bathrooms, proximity to parks and the city centre and selling prices estimating a relationship between […]
The Cambridge Capital Debate: my very short version
Warning: this is very much not my area. I don't do micro/GE theory. I was reading a bit of this stuff over 30 years ago, and then moved on to other things. If somebody asked me: "So Nick, what was all that about?", this is what I would say. Take it in the spirit of […]
Why Medicare Vouchers Are Inefficient
The little-known microeconomics textbook Zowning and Bupan does an excellent job of presenting the case against medicare vouchers:
Resources and the Economic Future
Well, it was one of those interesting coincidences. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver unveiled new figures generated by Natural Resources Canada that apparently demonstrate that natural resources account for almost 20 percent of economic activity in Canada.
Goldpunk, strategy space, and Michael Woodford
On the one hand: it's very good news that Michael Woodford has endorsed NGDP level path targeting (pdf). (For non-economists, Michael Woodford is the most influential living academic monetary economist; he's the one who wrote the book that defines how graduate students think about monetary policy.) On the other hand: I'm going to rain on […]
What’s Up with Carney & Flaherty?
Well, I’m still sifting through my thoughts trying to exactly understand what was behind the corporate “dead money” debate last week. After a speech to the Canadian Auto Workers, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney drew attention to the rising amounts of cash in the bank accounts of Canadian firms and commented to the effect […]
Inequality rules
Last March, Bell Canada Enterprise circulated its 2012 executive compensation policy: we use three key elements of compensation with an aggregate target value positioned at the 60th percentile of what is paid in the competitive market for similar positions. A few weeks later, Human Resources minister Diane Finley announced "a more efficient and responsive temporary foreign […]
Dutch Capital Theory
Very few economists are aware of Dutch Capital Theory (DCT to us insiders). It was invented by my ancestor Nick van Rowe, over a century ago, but has been suppressed by a conspiracy of silence and ignorance ever since. Think of this as a teaching post.
Money is always and everywhere a hot potato
And the Law of Reflux is always and everywhere wrong. Unless the central bank decides to make it true. (The Law of Reflux says an excess supply of money will always revert to the issuing banks). This post is too long. It was a bit off the top of my head, and I'm too busy […]
The very short run
Most macroeconomists make a distinction between the short run (sticky prices) and the long run (flexible prices). I want to talk about the very short run. We mostly ignore the very short run, and I don't think we should. Because the very short run probably isn't really that short. Old Keynesians used to talk about […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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