Category Finance
Transfer Dependency’s New Friends
Well, I decided to finish off my postings on provincial revenues and go to the Federal Fiscal Reference Tables which provide a federal transfer revenue variable for each province from 1987/87 to 2009/10 as well as provincial revenues. I have a plot of nominal per capita transfer revenues and not surprisingly it shows an upward […]
Canadian mortgage debt
I feel bad about writing too many abstruse theory posts. How many angels can dance on the head of a monetary pin? Here's something more practical. Think of it as a companion to Livio's post about Canadian house prices. Why would we worry if Canadian house prices are overvalued? One important reason (though not the […]
Provincial Revenues: Another View
Well, in response to a comment in my last post asking how much variation in per capita revenues there is across the provinces, I've provided a graph of real per capita revenues (1997 dollars) for each province for the period 1975 to 2008 with the data that was used to compile the average and median […]
Asset Management
My brother thinks of himself as a farmer, which he is. But I think of him as an asset manager. He has chosen to hold his assets in land, tractors, ploughs; and that's him, driving his tractor, pulling his plough over his land, fixing the tractor, fixing the plough, managing his assets. He earns his […]
People of Plenty
American historian David Potter’s book People of Plenty argued that resource abundance shaped the American attitude towards possibility and opportunity. Abundant resources set the stage for wealth accumulation and created a society that believes that everyone can become rich through their own work and effort and that initiative and opportunity are the key to social […]
Money, interest, employment, and luck
Monetary disequilibrium theorists must face this question: "If this recession was caused by an excess demand for money, how come interest rates are so low? Doesn't an excess demand for money mean an excess supply of bonds and rise in interest rates?" [Warning: this post is long, rambling, and unclear. I ought to tear it […]
The Efficient Election Market Hypothesis
I'm not displeased by the election results last night. But. Economists talk about "Market Failure" — cases where markets will not lead to an efficient (Pareto Optimal) allocation of resources, because of: market power; externalities; asymmetric information; adverse selection; moral hazard; etc. Good economists then go on to talk about "Government Failure". Just because the […]
Collective Disasters and Individual Responsibility: Lessons from the Kobe earthquake
Japan's 1995 Kobe earthquake resulted in the loss of 6,432 lives, and the complete destruction of over one hundred thousand buildings – a loss of homes comparable to that caused by Japan’s recent tsunami. The people of Japan rebuilt then. Can they rebuild now? (In the pictures: a post-earthquake collapsed expressway; Kobe's expressway today).
Functional Finance vs the Long Run Government Budget Constraint
(I had been planning to write this post before Steven Landsburg started a whole blogosphere argument about what taxes are for. Honest!) Functional Finance says you only use taxes if you want to reduce Aggregate Demand to prevent inflation. The Long Run Government Budget Constraint says you use taxes to pay for past, present or […]
Garth Turner bleg
There's a job needs doing, but I'm not the best person to do it. Because I was never that good at variances and covariances and CAPM and stuff. One of you finance guys would be much better.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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