Author Archives: wciecon
Run, don’t walk, up the down escalator
If you find yourself going down the down escalator, and suddenly realise you want to go back up, you don't delay, and you don't walk back up. You turn around immediately, and you run as fast as you can till you get to the top. Over a year ago, Mark Thoma introduced his icy hill […]
Stimulus? What stimulus?
Robert Reich on the risks of a 'double-dip' recession in the US: The only reason the economy isn’t in a double-dip recession already is because of three temporary boosts: the federal stimulus (of which 75 percent has been spent), near-zero interest rates (which can’t continue much longer without igniting speculative bubbles), and replacements (consumers have […]
Copyright laws and the evolutionary theory of property rights
Buildings nests helps animals survive. Fighting over nests is costly. The rule "don't take other people's nests" encourages nest building, minimizes blood shed, and is found in many species. The biologist Maynard Smith first proposed this idea in the 1970s. More recently Herb Gintis and other economists have used it to explain the evolution of property […]
What are we, chopped liver?
Sigh. The Economist has assembled a group of 50 economists from around the world to Discuss Important Matters; I invite you to play the game of "Spot the Excluded G7 Country".
Bank of Canada performance, and performance pay?
I don't have any strong view on performance pay in general, on performance pay for public sector workers, or on performance pay for workers in the Bank of Canada in particular. And I'm going to stay silent on whether the Bank of Canada had good performance in 2009 (or 2008, if there's a one-year lag?). […]
Why it’s a really good thing that the ECB has overpaid for Greek junk bonds
Those of us who argue for monetary policy as a way for countries (and fake countries like the Eurozone) to escape a recession, even in an alleged "liquidity trap", recognise that any increase in the money supply should be permanent, and perceived as permanent, to do much good. Even some Keynesians, like Paul Krugman, recognise […]
The anglosphere and high-income concentration
Anthony Atkinson and Andrew Leigh have a working paper on the strikingly similar patterns in high-end income concentration in five English-speaking countries.
Only one degree of freedom per Fixed Announcement Date
The Bank of Canada's announcement today, raising the overnight rate target from 0.25% to 0.5%, wasn't a surprise. The surprise was the kicker at the end: "Given the considerable uncertainty surrounding the outlook, any further reduction of monetary stimulus would have to be weighed carefully against domestic and global economic developments." Most people were expecting […]
The (mis-)coordination of monetary and fiscal policy
Suppose the monetary authority says "We already have interest rates at zero, so monetary policy can do no more to increase aggregate demand. But fiscal policy can do more…" Suppose the fiscal authority says "We already have very high deficits and debt, so we are scared of future insolvency, so fiscal policy can do no […]
Are we hard-wired for capitalism?
When I get back from the Canadian Economics Association meetings this evening, my dog will throw himself on me in a paroxysm of joy. But if, two minutes later, I were to try to take a bone away from him, he would bare his teeth and growl. Animals – including humans – are instinctively possessive. […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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