Author Archives: wciecon
Re-learning the New Keynesian IS curve
I want to return to a topic I struggled with in the past. I think I understand it better now. I understand it better because I watched the video of George Evans that Mark Thoma made and posted. What I understand better now is not so much the answer; it's the question I was trying […]
Gender equity and vertical equity
I'm spending today writing a review of Caren Grown and Imraan Valodia's new book Taxation and Gender Equity.The review is for the journal Feminist Economics, but I'll give you an uncensored sneak preview of the good bits here.
Arrow, Schelling, and the Fed
Does the Fed want to loosen monetary policy? If so, why doesn't it do it? There are two answers (or at least, two simple answers) to this question: 1. The Fed doesn't want to loosen monetary policy. 2. The Fed wants to loosen monetary policy, but thinks it can't. I'm trying to come up with […]
The Fed should buy pro-cyclical assets, not bonds
Suppose you believe that the US economy needs increased Aggregate Demand, and needs looser monetary policy to accomplish that, and needs asset purchases by the Fed to accomplish that. (I believe those things, but am not going to argue them here). What sort of assets should the Fed buy? I want to divide all assets […]
Sectoral shifts and the Canadian recession
Last December, I wrote a post on the effects of the recession on various sectors of the Canadian economy. The main results were: The service sector was barely affected; most of the losses were in the goods sector. Within the goods sector, manufacturing took the brunt of the job losses. Of course, the losses in […]
Marginal Tax Rate Structure Matters for Wage Inequality
Have you ever had a conversation that completely changed your thinking on a subject? My thinking on inequality and taxes was radically altered about 10 years ago when my office mate and I were studying for an exam in Robin Boadway's PhD course in Public Finance, and we got to discussing tax rate structure. During […]
Taylor = Wicksell + Fisher + Friedman
Note to all genuine historians of economic thought: yes, I know. There's real history, then there's Whig history, and then there's this blog post.
Federal Taxation of Labour Income in Canada is Regressive (in Terms of Marginal Rates)
Or at least, it is for some ranges of income. Don't believe me that marginal tax rates are regressive? Follow me:
Some reasons not to take an undergraduate degree in economics
In a recent post, Nick Rowe speculated that the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis made basic macro mistakes in part because he has an undergraduate degree in math. Yet a person wanting to make a career as an academic economist (or a president of a federal reserve bank) should not choose economics […]
The bond “bubble”, and why we should be worried about it
In one important sense, there is a "bubble" in US government bonds, and we should be worried about it.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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