Apologies for the shameless self-promotion, but if you're in London, ON tomorrow (Tuesday), I'd like to invite you to a free symposium on income inequality.  I will be presenting along with Trish Hennessy of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Michael Shapcott of the Wellesley Institute. My talk – Income Inequality, a Tale of Four Countries examines what the […]

Yesterday NDP leadership hopefull Brian Topp released a taxation policy paper [PDF].  Sun News interviewed Topp last night and I acted as a responder – video available here.  One particular item of interest is the introduction of a new 35% tax bracket starting at $250,000 (the existing highest tax bracket starts at $132,406 in 2012 and […]

Spotted at Marginal Revolution - a proposal by Scott Sumner: Replace the corporate tax with a payroll tax of x% on everyone making more than $100,000/year. Have x% be the tax rate that replaces the lost corporate tax revenue. That would help the poor, it would help the middle class, and it would help the rich. […]

It is erroneously believed by some that the original U.S. constitution had a clause decreeing that a black man was "worth" only 60% of a white man.  The three-fifths compromise, rather, was a mechanism for determining how slaves (not blacks, though in the 1770s only 8% of the black population were 'free', so there was […]

There are two types of TV shows I cannot stand – people sitting around talking about politics and people sitting around talking about sports.  They're full of people shouting at each other and making really, really stupid arguments.  I can feel my IQ dropping whenever I watch even five minutes of one of these shows. […]

Inspired by The Price Is Too Damn High, Canadian Edition and Frances' post on behavioural economics. There is a temptation for non-economists to answer any question that puzzles economists by simply declaring "people are irrational!" "Why are prices so much higher in Canada?" "PEOPLE ARE IRRATIONAL!" "What explains the equity premium puzzle?" "PEOPLE ARE IRRATIONAL!" etc.

A follow up to this.  It would appear that the answer is likely, in fact, regulatory-based transaction costs (or at least perceived transaction costs).    Not nearly as exciting as I'd hoped, though I'd need a rigorous study to have any real confidence in the answer.  Anyhow, as a Canadian business person competing with U.S. […]

About five years ago, I was on a trip to Manhattan and I bought a Baltimore Orioles cap.  It is easily the best hat I've ever owned – it fits my head like a glove.  Unfortunately it's getting pretty worn from heavy use.  I decided to see if I could find another one just like […]

Say hello to Denise: Her name is Denise and at first glance she's kinda hot.  But she's actually less real than a Penthouse Pet. Instead, Denise is a James Cameron wet dream, a virtual non-human AI radio DJ. Built by a company called Guile 3D, she was designed to be a virtual assistant.  In that […]

Labour economics was one of my areas at Rochester, but I have not studied it since I left.  As such, to say I have not kept up with the literature would be to put it mildly.   What follows is an experiment in using "the economic way of thinking" and not based on any research. […]