Author Archives: wciecon
Economics and climatology: Why perfect markets are like a dishpan
Brian Ferguson at A Canadian Econoview makes an interesting point: Ever wonder why so many economists are sceptical about man-made global warming? It’s because we’ve had a lot of humbling experience with just how quickly large scale computer models can go very badly wrong. Remember when we had inflation and unemployment under control through Keynesian […]
Increasing tuition subsidies is a regressive policy
It’s budget season at the federal and provincial levels, and in its ongoing campaign to improve access to post-secondary education (PSE), the Canadian Federation of Students is campaigning for reduced tuition fees, and is taking to the streets to make its opinion known. Given what we know about this issue, it’s pretty clear that the […]
Some facts about tuition and access to post-secondary education
The issue of tuition fees and access to post-secondary education is one that keeps popping up, and it’s one that is often a source of frustration to me. One problem is that the basic facts are not well-known. And many of the factoids that have made it into popular circulation are either taken out of […]
The price of Kyoto
A voting majority of the House of Commons has passed a resolution calling upon the government to "honour the principles and targets of the Kyoto Protocol in their entirety". Now, we already know that Canada cannot and will not reach its target for greenhouse gas emissions. If we go by the – admittedly questionable – […]
The fallacy of composition: Canadian economy edition
For some inexplicable reason, the Globe and Mail decides that valuable space should be devoted to the musings of a US-based consultant: Where would Canada be without sizzling Alberta? Stalled without it, U.S. economist says: Alberta’s sizzling economy is keeping all of Canada from burning out, reckons one U.S.-based economist. Carl Weinberg, chief economist at […]
Have we dodged a recession?
A couple of months ago, I was starting to get pessimistic: GDP shrank in September, and falling oil prices were eroding a trade surplus that consisted entirely of energy exports. Growth was zero in October; things weren’t looking good. But bad things didn’t continue to happen. StatsCan’s leading indicator index continued to rise. Building permits […]
The Alberta carfields
In his column in the Globe and Mail the other day, Jim Stanford worries about the arrival of a trade deficit in the auto sector: A new auto pact, for a new auto industry: The Globe and Mail’s Greg Keenan recently reported that Ford Canada — for the first time since 1961 — produced fewer […]
Workers we trust
According to a recent survey, the most trustworthy workers are in the following jobs (% of respondents who say people who work in these fields are trustworthy in parentheses): Firefighters (93) Nurses (87) Pharmacists (86) Airline pilots (81) Doctors (80) Police officers (69) Teachers (69) Armed forces personnel (65) Daycare workers (61) Accountants (54) Judges […]
I wish A Canadian Econoview allowed comments
A Canadian Econoview is really quite wonderful, but it doesn’t allow comments. This has become a mounting source of frustration for me, so I’ve decide to devote a post to making the comments that I’d like to make there, but can’t. 1) Importing skilled labour: Canadian medical planners have engineered a shortage of doctors, while […]
When universal programs are regressive
Alain Dubuc’s column in today’s Le Soleil makes the not-made-often-enough point that many universal programs are in fact regressive, and wonders why self-described progressives defend them so ferociously: Mais pourquoi a-t-on privilégié l’universalité ? Parce qu’elle rend les programmes sociaux acceptables, puisque tous les citoyens, et donc tous les électeurs, en sont bénéficiaires. Et par […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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