Category Everyday economics
Are stagnant incomes a statistical artifact?
The American middle class hasn't got a raise in 15 years. Median household incomes aren't moving. Canadian numbers tell a similar story. The market income (earnings, private pensions, investment income) of the median Canadian household is lower now, in real terms, than it was in 1976:
Is Modern Macro Useful?
Well, I had a quick read through Kartik B. Athreya’s Big Ideas in Macroeconomics: A Non-Technical View because I have not been near macro theory since I finished grad school nearly 25 years ago. It seemed like a good way to re-acquaint myself with the subject and get some insight on what some of the […]
Tim Hortons
A lot of US econobloggers are talking about the Tim Hortons-Burger King merger. But all they seem to talk about is corporate tax rates. I think they are missing the big picture. The big picture is here: [I can't figure out how to embed that picture in Typepad. That's okay, I did – SG] To […]
Physicians and Workload: A Very Simple International Comparison
The Canadian Medical Association has been having its annual meetings this week in Ottawa and in honor of the event, let me put out another international comparison on physicians using data from the OECD Health Statistics 2013. The first chart (Figure 1) is a basic resource availability measure showing the number of physicians per 1000 […]
Why is enterprise software so bad?
Every piece of software I use in the course of academic administration is lousy. Sure, the systems do what they're supposed to do most of the time, and they're not that difficult to learn how to use. But every single one has numerous design flaws; clunky features that eat up seconds or minutes or hours […]
Why do I hate driverless cars?
I hate driverless cars. That is the fact that needs to be explained. Not justified, but explained. Driverless cars pose no threat to my job, my income, or my wealth. That's not it. The insurance companies, or safety-nazis, might force us to use driverless cars. That would be a threat to my enjoyment of driving. […]
A New Policy Think Tank
Well, there is a new policy think tank in Canada and they have just released a commentary on the minimum wage.
Canada: One Hundred and Forty-Seven Years of Economic Growth
Well Canada Day is once again upon us – we now have 147 years of Confederation to celebrate– and what better way to celebrate than with a brief retrospective of economic performance as measured by per capita GDP. For your viewing pleasure, I present real per capita GDP in $2002 for each of the main […]
The CWEN lunch: an idea whose time has past?
The Canadian Economics Association meetings take the same format every year: sessions start at 8:30 a.m. Friday morning and end at noon on Sunday. The Innis Lecture is Friday evening and the Purvis lunch is Saturday afternoon. From time to time a bold and innovative President-elect will try a new experiment, like I think it was […]
What’s in a Name?
We all know that the word “economics” comes from the Greek “oikonomia” which refers to the thrifty management of household affairs. By extension, the origin of the term “economy” is closely related to the same term as it is from the Latin “oeconomia”, which is again from the same Greek “oikonomia”. From all this, it […]
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