Category Livio Di Matteo
One of These Countries is Not Like the Others
Given that the Finance Minister is presenting the Federal Fiscal Update today in Fredericton, it is instructive to review some fiscal comparisons right out of the release of the 2012 Federal Fiscal Reference Tables (which in turn used the OECD Economic Outlook May 2012 numbers for the international comparison). Figure 1 plots the ratio of […]
Bond Villains as Fiscal Stimulus
I’ve known my friend Harold since high school and over the years both of us have given a lot of thought to the problems of the Northern Ontario economy while watching much of its traditional economic base in resource extraction and processing slowly disappear. Harold has spent a good many years in the economic development […]
Provincial Debt Update
The 2012 Federal Fiscal Reference tables are out and the information on provincial net debt is interesting especially when the growth of net debt is considered.
An Economic Salute to US Presidents!
Well tonight is the next US Presidential debate and what better way to help set the stage than an economic retrospective on American Presidents and their relative performance when it comes to economic growth. I went onto Eh.Net and have obtained real per capita US GDP in 2005 constant dollars for the period 1790 to […]
Value for Money in Health
The Conference Board is having a Summit on Sustainable Health and Health Care October 30th and 31st in Toronto featuring a plethora of media, industry, health service and academic experts who will focus on the need to refocus the health system “from treating acute illness to preventing and managing chronic disease so governments, healthcare leaders […]
Is the Stationary State Coming?
Robert Gordon has recently published an NBER paper titled “Is U.S. Economic Growth Over? Faltering Innovation Confronts the Six Headwinds”. The paper questions the universal assumption that gained currency in the 1950s with Robert Solow's work that economic growth is a continuous process that will persist forever. Indeed, Gordon suggests that the past 250 years […]
Why Dalton Left
Its no coincidence that on the same day as the Ontario Fall Economic Statement was released, Dalton McGuinty suddenly announced his resignation as Premier of Ontario. After the political acrimony and angst of dealing with teachers, doctors, civil servants and the opposition in a minority government situation, the outlook for Ontario’s 2012-13 deficit is 14.4 […]
What Does Health Spending Buy You?
Last WCI post, I used the OECD 2012 Health Data spending statistics to examine the growth of total health care spending. The question I want to look at this time is what does increased spending yield a health care system in terms of the health care resources available? While we are concerned with the cost […]
Health Spending Update: Into the 21st Century
The OECD released its Health Data 2012 statistics several months ago and they are certainly worth a glance given that rising health spending is still a big international policy issue, and the capacity to pay has taken a recessionary hit during the first decade of the 21st century.
Winter is Coming…
Well, here are some depressing statistics from Banca D’Italia’s recent release on Italy’s economy.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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