Author Archives: wciecon
Time to raise the gas tax?
A much higher gasoline tax may currently be a political conversation stopper but fortunately it doesn’t stop conversation in economic policy. Enter Joel Wood’s paper about higher gasoline taxes for Toronto which appears in the latest issue of Canadian Public Policy/Analyse de Politiques (which I am promoting here as the new editor). Joel also has […]
Spare Parts, and The Use of Knowledge in Society
Random musings from a small sample on a subject about which I know little. Where did I read that military amateurs talk strategy, but military professionals talk logistics? Or that if they did a re-make of The Graduate, the one word career advice would be changed from "plastics" to "logistics"?
The (near) inevitability, and who and when, of Helicopter Money
Helicopter Money is (almost) inevitable. The only questions are: who does it; and when do they do it. And we can't (easily) tell when it gets spent, and what it gets spent on, because money is fungible and we don't observe counterfactual conditionals. Let's make some ballpark-correct assumptions. Assume currency pays 0% interest, and the […]
Another Update: Twitter and the Federal Election
Well, the federal election Leader's debate on Thursday evening was in the end a rather disappointing affair. It was essentially a series of thrusts, parries and spins on taxation, housing, immigration, energy, etc…but left out in the entire debate was any fundamental recognition of what I think is a major issue facing the future prosperity […]
Lumbering Along in the Finding Data Process
Well, all I was trying to do was introduce a set of lecture slides on the nineteenth century timber trade with a simple overview of the Canadian logging industry's employment in the twentieth century. Well, three hours later it has proven to be a more frustrating exercise than I would have expected but here is […]
Two simple games, for game theorists and Neo-Fisherites
I'm hoping some game theorists will chime in here; it doesn't matter if you don't get macro. I need your help, and want your thoughts on my intuitions: Not all Nash equilibria are created equal. Game A. There are n identical players who move simultaneously. Player i chooses Si to minimise a loss function Li […]
Interest-free loans from the central bank to the government
What is the difference between: A. I print $100, and give it to you as an interest-free loan. B. I print $100, lend it to you at 5% interest, so you give me $5 per year, and then I give that $5 per year straight back to you. C. I print $100, lend it to […]
Fencing In Canada
Wisconsin Governor and potential presidential candidate Scott Walker apparently thinks it is not an unreasonable idea to consider building a wall between Canada and the United States in order to secure his country’s borders from security threats. Now, to be fair, he did not say that a wall should be built along the 5,525 mile […]
“King of deficits”??
I normally stay out of politics on this blog. But with the upcoming election, the political conversation on fiscal policy is starting to get stupid. In particular, for Paul Martin to accuse Stephen Harper of being the "King of deficits" was really stupid. Is there anything Stephen Harper could have done to have prevented a […]
Update: Twitter and the Canadian Federal Election
Well it is just over two weeks since I began tracking the number of Twitter followers that each federal party leader has during the course of the current election capmpaign in order to see what the impact of this type of social media presence might be. All of the party leaders have increased their number […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
Recent Comments