Category Finance
Seeing through Sovereign Wealth Funds?
In the first country, the government imposes a 50% flat tax on each individual's income, and uses the proceeds from that tax to finance an annual $10,000 transfer payment to each individual. The government has zero debt. In an otherwise identical second country, the government has a sovereign wealth fund that owns a 50% non-voting […]
Negative Average Cost but Positive Marginal Cost of Debt-Finance
If the rate of interest on government bonds is less than the growth rate of the economy (r<g), then the average cost of bond-finance is negative. A government that has issued bonds, and issues more bonds each year to keep the debt/GDP ratio (B/Y) constant (which is sustainable), can have permanently higher spending, or permanently […]
Capital flows vs Kapital flows (simpler version)
Let me try to make the intuition of my previous post simpler and clearer. Suppose a country wants to invest more, because the profitability of investment has increased. It wants to increase the stock of kapital (machines) in its factories. There are three ways it could do this: 1 Divert some of its own production […]
Capital flows vs Kapital flows (very wonky)
This is only partly a response to Paul Krugman's posts. Mostly it's me trying to get my own head clear on something. This is a difficult topic, and this post is not as clear as it should be. So I don't expect many, or any, to fully understand it. I don't properly understand it myself. […]
If r < g, bond-finance is like currency-finance
A world where the interest rate on government bonds is (permanently) less than the growth rate of GDP ("r<g") is a weird world. The government can run a Ponzi scheme, where it borrows (sells more bonds) to pay for the interest on the existing bonds, so the stocks of bonds grows at the rate of […]
So, what *are* the differences between a Government’s Budget and a Household’s Budget?
You've probably seen examples. Some poor non-economist says something like: "Governments, like households, must live within their means". And economists all point their fingers and laugh and say that's a fallacy. So, what are the differences between a government's budget and a household's budget? And do those differences matter? This is just a simple "teaching" […]
The Devil You Know vs The Market For Lemons
I told my friend Mike I was thinking of trading my car in for one that used less gas. Nowadays I would talk about the Market for Lemons as a reason against doing what I was thinking of doing. But in 1974 I didn't know about Akerlof's famous paper, and neither did Mike, who was […]
Balancing Ontario’s Budget…In 1875
We often long for simpler times and search for them in our not so distant past. As an economist that does public finance and economic history, the public accounts of the past can offer me an interesting diversion. Governments, at any time in history always take in revenues and make payments and the budgets and […]
Federal Budgetary Comparisons: Canada and the United States
It is federal government budget season in both Canada and the United States and I thought it might be useful to provide a few visual comparisons on federal government finance for the two countries. While the expenditure responsibilities and composition of the two federal governments as well as the relationships and responsibilities with lower tier […]
Understanding Banks and Two Monetary Policy Instruments
Sometimes I write posts about things I don't understand and want to understand. (Or don't understand very well and want to understand better.) This is one of those posts. Suppose the government nationalises all the commercial banks, and merges them into the Bank of Canada. And suppose the Bank of Canada abolishes paper currency. So […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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