Category fun
“The Invisible Hand” on CBC radio
CBC radio is running a new program this summer on economics; it's called "The Invisible Hand". The first episode is scheduled to be broadcast Wednesday morning (this Wednesday – June 27) at 9:30 am and will be re-broadcast the following Saturday morning at 11:00 am. (Half an hour later in Newfoundland, of course.) I am […]
Abolish the Equity Premium Now!
This post is slightly whimsical. I can't decide myself if I'm being totally serious. My argument is certainly less than watertight. But it's not (to me) obviously wrong either. So I'm just throwing it out there.
Visualizing GDP Performance
Statistics Canada just released its GDP statistics by industry for the provinces and territories for 2011.
The rejection letter I’m tempted to send
Dear Dr Untenured, Thank you for your submission to Review of Economic Theory of Consumer Habits (RETCH), dated May 8, 2011. After contacting ten reviewers, all of whom have declined to read your manuscript, I have given up, and am rejecting your paper due to lack of interest. Yours, Frances Woolley, Co-Editor.
A very simple derivation of the balanced budget multiplier in a very monetarist model
This is mainly a brain-teaser. But I hope you find it useful, as well as fun. 1. Assume initially there is no government. So G=T=0, and Y=C+I. (You can add in net exports too if you want, or delete I if you want to make the model simpler still.) 2. Assume MV=P(C+I), where V is […]
The Gambling Economy: A Zero Sum Game?
Two stories in the Toronto Star this week have left me wondering if there is a new grand strategy at work for transforming Ontario’s economy in the wake of its manufacturing decline.
Capital Formation in Canada: The Sequel
I decided to do a bit more work with my Canadian gross-fixed capital formation series for the period 1870 to 2010 to see if I could estimate a simple regression model that might explain its fluctuations. If everything can be explained by a few simple economic variables, then the downward trend in the ratio since […]
Crank it up to 11 for Nigel Tufnel
Nigel Tufnel, lead guitarist of Spinal Tap, gave an unforgettable illustration of the difference between ordinal and cardinal numbers. A three minute clip with lead-in is here, a one minute clip with just the highlights is here. And if you just want to savour the words…
Existentialism and the non-neutrality of money language
OK, this post is a little on the whimsical side. The argument is a lot less strong and clear than I would like it to be. But sometimes you just have to say what's in your head, and hope that will help it get clearer. Read at your own risk (as if that needed saying). […]
How to borrow money
The process is quite easy, provided you borrow enough. Have you ever, dear readers, had occasion to borrow money? Have you ever borrowed ten dollars under a rigorous promise of your word of honor as a Christian to pay it back on your next salary day? Have you ever borrowed as much as a million […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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