Category Finance
Correcting DeLong
This post was written by Simon van Norden of HEC-Montreal. Brad DeLong is a very smart guy who writes something like 2,000 blog posts a year. But I have to correct him on a recent one….. The topic is financial regulation and what people knew in the 90s versus what we know now. Part of […]
Canada and the bank tax
The G20 meetings look to be a barnburner: Ottawa rejects IMF bank tax recommendation, shows flavour of summit to come: On Wednesday, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty once again flatly refused to co-operate with any notion of taxing banks, even though the latest overture has come from the International Monetary Fund itself… [W]hile Ottawa supported the […]
The SEC case no one is talking about…
This post was written by Simon van Norden of HEC-Montréal. The news last week that the SEC was filing charges against Goldman Sachs was a bombshell; it dominated the day's headlines and continues to fill blog-space. As it happens, that announcement came the same day as a report that the SEC would prefer that everyone […]
Is intertemporal trade like international trade?
No answers in this post, only questions. If the past is another country, and so is the future: then is intertemporal trade (borrowing and lending), like international trade (exports and imports)? There are two stylised facts about the relation between international trade and GDP: international trade has been rising faster than GDP over the long […]
Because You Asked For It: Small Business Strategy and the Canadian Dollar
Reader westslope recently asked: BTW, does your company top brass pay attention to your MERT model and, perhaps, strategically plan and hedge accordingly? That’s an easy one for me to answer because I am charge of the finances for Nexreg (a small Canadian company that makes the majority of their sales in the U.S.). What […]
Should Canadian investors go shopping in the US?
This piece caught my attention over the weekend: Here's why Canadian investors should go shopping in the US: U.S. stocks have been discounted, and with a strong Canadian dollar there are bargains to be had. Now, WCI is most definitely not the place you turn to for financial advice, but there are some things going […]
The supply and demand for bubbles (in pictures)
I have drawn a picture of the supply and demand for bubbles. I think this picture might make it easier to understand what I was saying in my previous post on the need for a bubble. If the natural rate of interest, in an economy without a bubble, is below the growth rate of the […]
Productivity, the Canadian Dollar and Small Business – A Case Study
Based on a true story one of my clients had to deal with (besides teaching at Ivey, I am a consultant to the chemical industry). The following case explains why there could be, at least in theory, a relationship between productivity levels and fluctuations in the Canadian dollar. Consider a small company in Brampton that […]
Do we need a bubble?
There is something economists have known since 1958 that we don't talk about much, except in private, like in economics journals that nobody else reads. It's a bit too weird. There are two sorts of world. In a normal world, the equilibrium rate of interest is above the growth rate of the economy. In a […]
The Debt of Strangers
Does this question make sense: "Is debt too high?"? It certainly makes sense for me to ask whether my debt is too high. Should I try to earn more income, reduce my consumption, or sell off some assets? And if a friend asks me whether his debt is too high, I could offer him advice […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
Recent Comments