Author Archives: wciecon
The Dead Grandmother Syndrome Reconsidered
Students don't question professors who miss office hours because of sick children or aging parents. So why are professors so untrusting of students who claim to have a sick or dying grandparent? Every stage in life has its joys and sorrows. A typical university student is around 20 years old. His or her grandparents will […]
Is NGDPLT a perfect guard dog? A challenge.
Can anyone think of a single historical example, in any country, at any time, where NGDPLT would have failed as a guard dog? Is targeting the level-path of Nominal GDP a perfect monetary policy? Almost certainly not. I would be really surprised if something as crude as NGDP turned out to be the very best […]
Population Apocalypse and Apocalyptic Populations
As part of my summer entertainment, I read Dan Brown’s most recent novel – Inferno – which features a bio-terrorism plot involving the release of a virus designed to cause sterility in one-third of the human race in order to control overpopulation. The novel highlights a neo-Malthusian “Population Apocalypse Equation” which argues that the “sustainable […]
For David Andolfatto: why I switched from IT to NGDPLT
This post is for David, but it's mostly about me. I used to think that inflation targeting was probably roughly the best monetary policy to follow. Then, a couple of years ago, I began to think that NGDP level targeting was probably roughly the best monetary policy to follow. This post is about why I […]
What is the link between unionisation and inequality?
I've looked at graphs like this many times over the past few years: One of the things that I notice in that chart is that countries that are reputed to have strong union movements have market inequality outcomes that don't appear to be all that much better than those with weaker union movements. So this […]
Can IKEA Stay Profitable?
As part of moving my daughter into her new abode last week, I had an experience with IKEA, which got me thinking about whether the giant furniture retailer can continue its high growth and profitability. Everyone is of course familiar with the basic approach used by this very successful company. IKEA provides innovative, stylish low […]
How can you get an economy INTO a liquidity trap?
We spend a lot of time thinking about how to get out of a liquidity trap. Maybe we can think more clearly about that question if we instead ask the exact opposite question. But let's be a little more precise about our question: How can you get an economy into a liquidity trap in such […]
The two James Tobins
Not many people know this, but there were actually two James Tobins. The first James Tobin (pdf) said that there cannot be an excess supply of money, because if anyone did have an excess supply of money he would immediately run to the bank to get rid of it. The second James Tobin said that […]
Banks are special because the medium of exchange is special
If we used cows as media of exchange (if we bought and sold everything else in exchange for cows), would you say that dairy farming is a special industry that is macroeconomically important? I would. Because if we used cows as media of exchange, then what happened on dairy farms would affect the supply of […]
When the textbook industry goes the way of the music industry
Over the fold is a picture guaranteed to strike fear in the heart of anyone hoping to make money in the textbook industry:
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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