Category Media
The Globe’s Konrad Yakabuski succumbs to the monetary union zombie
And so it continues. I noted on Wednesday that the Globe and Mail's lead editorial on exchange rate policy demonstrated a singular lack of understanding of the economics of exchange rate policy. A particularly astute commenter noted that it was only a question of time before the zombie notion of monetary union started lumbering across […]
Economic illiteracy goes viral
It turns out that I may have been unfair to Patricia Croft (chief economist of RBC-whatever-it-is) over here. As Erin Weir points out, she's not the only high-profile professional economist to go from remarking on the relatively small quantity of Canada's official reserves to making the clanging error of concluding that the Bank of Canada's […]
Why we need more Canadian academic economics bloggers
The economic story du jour is the appreciation of the CAD, and Peter Mansbridge had a panel of economists on The National last Tuesday to discuss it. I get the impression that this is a semi-regular recurring feature. The discussion was – how shall I put it? – unsatisfying.
On the role of house prices in the last expansion
I have at various points (here and here) been driven up the wall by lazy journalists who have worked under the assumption that if the US housing market was crashing and burning, then so was Canada's. This premise has led to any number of articles cut-and-pasted from the south with 'US' being replaced by 'Canada'. […]
Journalism and Economics
Brad De Long thinks very highly of Greg Ip, even when Brad thinks Greg gets something wrong. Brad thinks Greg is very sharp. So do I. But the other reason why Greg Ip is such a good economic journalist is that he was thoroughly trained in both Journalism and Economics. And I'm very proud to […]
Tomorrow’s CPI release will say that headline inflation is negative. But that’s not the same thing as deflation.
I'm not looking forward to tomorrow's CPI release. Not because I'm expecting bad economic news, but because I'm expecting bad economics journalism. (You may want to check out this post before continuing.) Tomorrow's headline inflation number will be calculated as follows: take the June 2009 number, divide by the June 2008 number, subtract 1 and […]
US dollar rises on bad employment news. And on good employment news.
I can never get enough of these sorts of articles: Loonie weakens as jobless data spooks investors: Canada's currency weakened after a U.S. government report showed employers cut more jobs in June than economists forecast, diminishing prospects for the country's economic recovery. "A worse number is going to be bad for risk appetite," said Shaun […]
It is Canada’s sad fate to have a comparative advantage in really bad economics journalism
Murray Teitel embarrasses us in front of the English. And we hadn't even begun to expunge our collective guilt for Naomi Klein. Please please please go out and buy a copy of Filthy Lucre. Buy several; give them to your friends. Or else I may have to start stitching US flags on my luggage when […]
The housing market: the oversold story of the Canadian recession
Here is what is hopefully one of the last of a once-robust breed – The Apocalyptic Canadian Housing Market Story: Judging by the latest real estate data, the Canadian housing market could scarcely be better. Average home prices are up more than 16 per cent this year, and in May they hit an all-time monthly […]
Bad economics du jour: The National Post on the deficit
Today's edition of the National Post offers up two variations on the same clanger, namely that the upcoming deficits are due to a ramp-up of spending. Terence Corcoran – Don't blame deficit on the economy: Today's deficits in Ottawa are a direct product of five years of fiscal expansionism and continued spending increases. Spending has […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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