Author Archives: wciecon
Isn’t Chuck Norris American?
He doesn't need to apply for a Green Card to do the same work in the US that he's been doing outside the US. Why can't he work in the US too? The US and Japan do not have inflation targeting central banks. Nobody knows what they are targeting, because they don't say. Canada, Sweden, […]
The unwanted gift
Before markets existed, people used gifts to save and invest, to exchange goods and services, and to pool risk. Lark Rise to Candleford, Flora Thompson's portrait of 19th century British village life, describes a gift exchange – and its underlying logic – in detail. Each year every family in the village bought and raised a […]
Did God overinvest in Land?
I had a short argument with Greg Ransom a couple of months back. Greg won. But actually, I wasn't really arguing with him. I was on his side to begin with, though it did help me clarify my views. Question. "What is the economic difference between capital and land?" If you answered: "People made capital […]
Why is canine cataract surgery so expensive?
In Ontario, a opthamologist is paid $441.95 per eye for cataract surgery. In Ottawa, the cost of canine cataract surgery is about $4,000. (I cannot give you an exact price, as the Ontario Veterinary Medicine Association's suggested fee guide is not available to non-members). Why do opthamologists charge more to repair a dog's eye than a human's eye?
E(NGDP) level-path targeting for the people of the concrete steppes
"But what concrete steps will the Fed actually take to raise Nominal GDP? Can anyone tell me that?" I must have heard that question a hundred times over the last couple of years. And a dozen more times in the last day, ever since Paul Krugman endorsed the proposal to target NGDP. I always imagine […]
Canada’s Provincial Debt Divide
The release of the 2011 Federal Fiscal Reference Tables is a good opportunity for me to refresh myself with an assortment of public finance statistics. What caught my attention this year was the evolution of the east-west divide in provincial public debt.
China and the Eurozone
My knowledge of what's happening in China is very slight. But from what I've been reading over the last few months (like this today), it sounds worrying. Others may have noticed this parallel, but just in case you missed it, I'm going to make it. Compare China vs the US to Spain or Ireland vs […]
Monetary policy as threat strategy. Chuck Norris and central banks.
Central banks run monetary policy not so much by doing things, but by threatening to do things. If their threats are credible, we never observe them carrying out those threats, and we often observe them doing the exact opposite A credible central bank is a bit like Chuck Norris. (Apologies to Lars Christensen for stealing […]
The optimum size of the central bank?
In 1969, Milton Friedman wrote an essay on "The Optimum Quantity of Money". Another way of framing this question is to ask: what is the optimum long run growth rate in the money supply, or the optimum long run inflation rate? I want to suggest a different way of framing this same question: what is […]
Appeasing anti-tax sentiment
Alex Himelfarb has an opinion piece in today's Globe and Mail on the 'anti-tax' sentiment that has grown to play such a dominant role in Canadian politics. Although I agree with his diagnosis, his prescriptions are not so much a plan for countering anti-tax sentiment as they are a symptom of its hold on public […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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