Author Archives: wciecon
Location, location, location: Canadian house prices by city
The Teranet-National Bank Housing Price Index has begun to make regular appearances in the media ([1], [2]), which is all to the good. But it's important to note – as the producers of the index take great care to emphasise – that the Composite-6 index masks considerable variation in movements in house prices across major […]
The silence of the keynesian econ-bloggers
OK. I'm trying to attract your attention. But I'm not knocking Keynesians. I'm more or less a Keynesian myself, especially under current circumstances. And I'm coming at this question from a Keynesian perspective. Is it good economic policy for Hillary Clinton to try to persuade China to continue to buy US Treasuries? Why have economics […]
Why Canadians should be grateful that Joe Clark lost the 1980 election
Ed Glaeser lists five problems with the US policy of letting homeowners deduct mortgage interest payments. Megan McArdle (among others) agrees, but isn't very optimistic about the chances of getting rid of it: Current homeowners bought their homes on the expectation not only that they would enjoy tax deductibility, but that they would be able […]
I hope Hillary fails
Nothing personal, but I just do not understand why she is asking China to buy more US treasuries. This just doesn't make any sense to me. She ought to be doing the exact opposite. Can someone explain it? Regardless of the ultimate cause of the crisis (and China and perhaps Japan saving too much and […]
A very simple macro model of the last few years
Here is a very simple model of interest rates, debt, asset prices, and recession. It seems to fit the facts of the last few years reasonably well. There are two types of people: the A's and the B's. The A's have normal interest-elastic savings and investment functions. They save less and invest more if the […]
Demand-constrained and supply-constrained economies
I have said that economies are normally "supply-constrained", but that right now many economies are "demand-constrained". Other economists make a similar distinction. Whether an economy is supply- or demand-constrained makes a very big difference to the sorts of policies that work. A policy which increases supply won't work in an economy that is demand-constrained. A […]
Ironic media juxtaposition du jour
Today's entry comes from Macleans.ca's "Need to Know" section: Death of newspapers will result in greater corruption: People have been predicting the demise of newspapers for years, but now that newsrooms are shutting down, some are taking a hard look at what comes next. And the view isn’t a good one. In a lengthy piece […]
Economics blogging and academia
I've been wondering for some months about the role of blogging for an academic. How does it fit into my job as an economics professor? What's it worth? My own views, of course, are coloured by personal experience. But that personal experience is more influenced by the current economic times than by my own biography.
Deflation is on the horizon, but how far away is it?
The Canadian and US CPI numbers were released today. Here's what's been happening with the Canadian core CPI (which excludes energy, food and other volatile prices): And here's the series for US CPI less food and energy: I'm pretty sure that Mark Carney is glad that he doesn't have Ben Bernanke's job. The US is […]
David Andolfatto is blogging. Adjust your feeds accordingly.
Oh, this is very, very good news. Simon Fraser University's David Andolfatto – one of the best macro theorists in Canada – has started a blog: MacroMania. It occurs to me that the Canadian economics blogosphere relies inordinately on people who have a link with the University of Western Ontario. John Palmer at EclectEcon and […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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