Category Canadian economy
The Historical Statistics of Canada Are Back!
If you recall, several posts ago I lamented that the downloadable csv files that used to be part of archived web edition of Historical Statistics of Canada seemed to have disappeared or were not working. I am delighted to say that the files are back.
Great Recession Versus Great Depression for Canada
With all the doom and gloom with respect to slowing Canadian economic growth and talk of secular stagnation, it is useful to look at a comparison between the last few years in Canada with what transpired during the Great Depression. References are often made that the 2008-09 Recession and its aftermath is a period comparable […]
What Happened to Historical Statistics of Canada?
For whatever reason, Statistics Canada has changed the nature of the access to its web version of Historical Statistics of Canada. Until recently, the electronic version of this classic work of data (with paper editions published in 1965 and 1983) covering Canada from 1867 to the mid 1970s provided the tables of the assorted sections […]
Fiscal Policy, the Eurozone, and Ontario under Bob Rae
This post is mostly questions, not answers. I am hoping the commenters will write this post for me. Because I don't have a comparative advantage at this sort of thing. [BTW, JP Koning has an excellent post, much better than this, drawing a parallel between Greece's proposed and Alberta's 1936 parallel currency.]
Four practical things journalists could do to improve economics coverage in the media
1. Find better stories. The Canadian media does a pretty good job of covering Statistics Canada and OECD news releases, and think tank reports. Where they lag behind the US is in coverage of academic research. Take, for example, a paper published in Canadian Public Policy last year by Luc Godbout, Yves Trudel and Suzie […]
The Growth of the Local Public Sector
The rising expense of local government services is increasingly capturing the attention of pundits and policy makers alike. The rising cost of policing and fire services in particular and their effects on local budgets and ratepayers, has drawn the attention of Canadian municipal leaders. What is also interesting is the overall growth in local government […]
Ontario and Its Neighbours
I suppose I have become somewhat obsessed with Ontario’s economy and its performance but here I go again with a few comparisons. Ontario is strategically located on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence waterway adjacent to the huge population of the US northeast. Its neighbours are trade partners and markets as well as economic competitors. How does […]
VAR vs WTF!?
Vector auto regressions (VARs) are supposed to tell us how the economy would respond over time if hit by a shock, by looking at past patterns of responses to shocks. A "shock" means "a deviation of one of the variables in the VAR from the level that was forecast by the VAR". And "shocks" include […]
The Federal Deficit: A Long Term View
In honour of the 2015 Federal Budget and the balancing of the budget, why not a retrospective on Canadian federal government deficits since 1867. In the period from 1867 to 2014, the Federal government has run a deficit in 108 out of 148 years or 73 percent of the time. In nominal terms, the federal […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
Ontario Budget Commentary
Well, another Ontario budget has come and gone. The government still plans to balance its budget by 2017. According to the budget projections it will do this largely by increasing revenues and restricting expenditure growth.