Author Archives: wciecon
“Just one more dying quail a week, and you’re in Yankee Stadium”
The incomes earned by elite athletes are often cited as examples in arguments to the effect that high incomes aren't a problem that need solving. If large numbers of people are willing – eager, even – to give small sums of money to watch Wilt Chamberlain play basketball, then on what grounds would anyone begrudge […]
Miles Corak has a blog. Subscribe now
Miles Corak, a labour economist formerly of Statistics Canada, currently at the University of Ottawa, has started a blog. He's off to a great start; go read what he's written, and then go back for more. I know I will.
Crank it up to 11 for Nigel Tufnel
Nigel Tufnel, lead guitarist of Spinal Tap, gave an unforgettable illustration of the difference between ordinal and cardinal numbers. A three minute clip with lead-in is here, a one minute clip with just the highlights is here. And if you just want to savour the words…
Teaching bleg: Online sources for the story of the global economic crises?
I'm teaching an advanced macro course this term, and I've decided that someone who is receiving an undergraduate degree in economics should be conversant in current events. After six years of blogging, I've seen lots of material. Too much, in fact; I scarcely know where to start. Can anyone point me to some online summaries I […]
Could the ECB become the central fiscal authority?
There is only one way to save the Euro now. The ECB acts as lender of last resort to the 17 Eurozone governments. But nobody would want to act as lender of last resort to a deadbeat, and the ECB wouldn't want to act as lender of last resort to a fiscal deadbeat. With the […]
How to present a paper, revisited
Nick Rowe once wrote down some simple advice about how to present an academic paper: Presenters should concentrate on giving us the big picture: the motivation, key assumptions, the main results, and the intuition behind those results. Don’t try and grind through countless equations in excruciating detail; you won’t have time, and nobody cares (if […]
General Gluts, Secular Stagnation and the World Economy
The head of the International Monetary Fund warned today on her visit to Beijing that the global economy faces the risk of a "lost decade" with little or no growth and that without action, the world faces worsening financial instability and a possible collapse of demand. This news item also coincided with my morning lecture […]
What’s the best shape for the AD curve?
Economists usually talk as if the slope of the Aggregate Demand curve were a positive question: what is the slope of the AD curve? I think it's best to treat it as a normative question: what slope of the AD curve ought the central bank choose? That leads us to a simple way to think […]
Should spelling and grammar count?
I'm spending my weekend marking exams and papers. As always, I have to decide, "Should I take off marks for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors?" Grades are a measure of a student's abilities, skills, and knowledge. They are used by admission committees in deciding a student's potential for graduate work (a master's degree, or law […]
Dealing with the Debt Crisis: A Greek Maneuver?
It has been a dizzying week around the world as fears of Greek debt default lead to yet another roller-coaster ride on world stock markets after Papandreou called for a domestic referendum on the European led rescue plan.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
Recent Comments