Category International
The Holy Roman Eurozone
I started writing this post yesterday. It's already out of date. This is what I wrote yesterday; I will continue the post below. Greece has now gone, at least in expected value terms. With bond yields increased to over 13% today, there is no way I can see Greece running a primary surplus big enough […]
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 […]
The Division of Labour between interest rate and exchange rate
Stephen's graphs show quite clearly that Canadian monetary policy must tighten before US monetary policy. I'm convinced. But what does monetary policy mean? In this context, I'm going to ignore other interpretations, and just focus on interest rates and exchange rates. What is the division of labour between increasing interest rates and appreciating exchange rates? […]
International reserves and involuntary borrowing
Borrowing is nearly always voluntary. Somebody might want to lend to me, but they can't force me to borrow from them if I don't want to. But there's an exception. A country that issues the reserve currency can be forced to borrow from other countries, if those other countries want to lend to it. This […]
Economic nationalism is the last refuge of incompetent managers
At one point during the coverage of last Thursday's budget, Allan Gregg suggested that some of the measures – liberalizing the telecoms market, tariff cuts – would bring economic nationalism back to the public agenda (my immediate reaction). And today, Jeffrey Simpson is talking about the perils of the 'branch plant economy'.
What is going on with Canadian holdings of US Treasuries?
Regular commenter Kosta points us to this release of major foreign holders of US Treasuries, noting that Canadian holdings increased by a factor of six between December 2008 and December 2009 (from USD 7.8b to USD 48.3). That may be from a low base, but even if you scale the numbers by GDP – as […]
“Time to stop fretting over the Canadian dollar”
That's the title of a column I wrote for Canadian Business. Go read it – there'll be doughnuts. http://media.entertonement.com/embed/OpenEntPlayer.swf Mmm Donuts sound bite Homer Simpson sound bites
“Dispelling Canadian myths about foreign direct investment”
That's the title of a nice survey for the Institute for Research on Public Policy by Walid Hejazi, available here. After being a hot-button topic for the past half-century or so (note to non-Canadians: yes, really), FDI has accumulated a thick crust of myths that could do with some dispelling: The debate around foreign direct […]
Economic growth and convergence
One of the main predictions of standard neoclassical growth models is convergence. If there are diminishing returns to capital, countries that have relatively higher levels of capital will have lower rates of return on investment than will countries in which capital is relatively scarce. Since poor countries offer higher rates of return on investment, they […]
Greece, the Eurozone, and Canada
I have been following the story about Greece. Like some other Eurozone countries, Greece has high deficit/GDP and debt/GDP ratios. Unlike Canada, but like Canadian provinces, Greece cannot print money. Eurozone countries are like Canadian provinces, as I argued in here back in January. But the Eurozone, unlike Canada, lacks a federal fiscal authority. The […]
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