Author Archives: wciecon
Walt Disney, War and Taxes
In the 1940s, Walt Disney contributed to America's war effort through his propaganda cartoons. In The Spirit of 43, Scrooge McDuck urges Donald Duck to save up to pay his taxes – "it's your dough, but it's your war too." Because "taxes will keep democracy on the march." The New Spirit is stirring stuff – […]
Poor sales MINUS quality of labour
Update 3: I wish I had titled this post: "Labour quality: the dog that stopped barking". I see something a bit different in that graph that all the macro-bloggers have been blogging about. Sure, I see the "poor sales" that everyone else sees. But what about "quality of labour"? What's important is that "quality of […]
Some implications of thinking of trade as a form of technology
Mike's post reminding us of the wonderful story of the Iowa car crop – and its message that trade is best thought of as a form of technology – has gotten me thinking about just how powerful an insight this is, and how we probably should be using it more often when we think of […]
Greg Mankiw’s Ten Principles of Economics — the tourist platter. And math and PC.
When I first read Greg Mankiw's "Ten Principles of Economics" I thought they were embarrassing. But I really liked the rest of the book, and decided to become a Canadian co-author (along with Ron Kneebone and Ken McKenzie of The University of Calgary). I thought that when teaching I would just skim over the 10 […]
Building F-35s in Southey, SK
A must read by Andrew Coyne – Of jobs and jets. The whole "Build the F-35s in Canada to keep jobs" arguments misses two key points: Jobs are a cost, not a benefit. Unless we're going to be given the jets for free (unlikely), we will need to work to obtain the jets, no matter […]
The experts weigh in: Four very good commentaries on the census in Canadian Public Policy
The September 2010 issue of Canadian Public Policy has four articles on the census debacle, and they are all very much worth reading. As academic publishing goes, this is a lightening-quick response to a decision that was announced less than three months ago. I strongly encourage you to read them for yourselves: they are relatively […]
Every click counts
Every time a student or researcher clicks his mouse, he is appraising scholarship – is it worth viewing? downloading? The information generated by on-line activity is gathered by university libraries, publishers, and a host of other users. Repec, for example, collects file view and download statistics, and uses them to rank authors.
Will a voluntary census be more truthful?
From my inbox: [O]ne of my colleagues insists that he does not know of any way to correct for biases in mandatory surveys from outright lying or refusal to answer (in spite of any penalties for doing so), and I had to admit I didn't really know either. Can one easily detect fabricated or implausible […]
Hayek, Keynes, Hicks, money, and New Keynesian macroeconomics
Hayek said that individuals make current plans for future actions based on their expectations of the future actions of others. And others might be planning to do something different from what you expect them to do. And economists need to look at what happens when those plans and expectations are not mutually consistent, and look […]
Remembering the ballentine
Peter Kennedy passed away suddenly on August 30, after a bicycle ride and swim near his Whistler home. He was the best teacher. His ability to remember students' names was legendary. He did it by association "I remembered your name was Peter because you have a red coat, and my hair is red and my […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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