Category Canadian economy
Politics and Taxes
I wanted to weigh in on Stephen Gordon’s post on the Ontario HST reduction but found my entry in the comment box growing so here is a post instead. Why are the Conservatives and more to the point the NDP supporting what seems like a redistribution to higher incomes? Well, I think it comes down […]
General Gluts, Secular Stagnation and the World Economy
The head of the International Monetary Fund warned today on her visit to Beijing that the global economy faces the risk of a "lost decade" with little or no growth and that without action, the world faces worsening financial instability and a possible collapse of demand. This news item also coincided with my morning lecture […]
IT vs PLPT vs NGDPLPT for the Bank of Canada
The Bank of Canada's 2% inflation target comes up for renewal every five years, and it's up for renewal now. To my mind, there are only three serious candidates: IT. Inflation Target. Keep the existing 2% Inflation Target (with maybe minor amendments). PLPT. Price Level Path Target. Like inflation targeting, and with the same 2% […]
Does Economic Growth Lower Workplace Absenteeism?
It’s just past the middle of the term and the number of students coming to class seems to have taken a bit of a drop and there seem to be a lot of people off sick. It has also been a particularly gloomy few days in the news with talk of recessions and rumors of […]
Canada’s Provincial Debt Divide
The release of the 2011 Federal Fiscal Reference Tables is a good opportunity for me to refresh myself with an assortment of public finance statistics. What caught my attention this year was the evolution of the east-west divide in provincial public debt.
Medieval Monetary Thought
In my final class lecture this week on ancient and medieval economic thought, I discussed the work of Nicholas Oresme (1320 to 1382), a French Roman Catholic bishop who was also a philosopher, mathematician and an economic thinker. I found it interesting to see a career link between mathematics and economics so early on. More […]
The Long Hand of Medieval Economic Thought…
In the current Ontario election campaign, both the Ontario Conservatives and the NDP have put in their platforms pledges to remove the HST from home hydro bills and home heating. It is argued that these items are not luxuries and that the HST has made life less affordable for families. The NDP goes a step […]
Affirmative action for policy-relevant research?
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) has replaced its old "standard research grants" with new "insight grants." Both the old and new grants fund "investigator framed" research – that is, ideas and topics generated by researchers themselves. (SSHRC has other programs that target specific research areas, for example, the automotive industry) Investigator […]
A Lament for Public Policy
In New Directions for Intelligent Government in Canada: Papers in Honour of Ian Stewart, Don Drummond reflects on the state of public policy analysis in Canada and whether the rigour of policy analysis that existed in the past still exists today though he wisely cautions that “tales of the good old days are often the […]
Net Worth, Wealth Effects and Recessions
According to a report by Bank of Nova Scotia economists Derek Holt and Karen Woods, Canadian businesses have begun to pull back on investment and accumulate inventories which may be a sign that the economy is about to head into another recession. After the surprise second quarter drop in GDP, if there is another drop, […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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