Category Nick Rowe
Alpha Beta and the Libra Twist
Suppose I promise to be in the same place as you; but you make no promise to be in the same place as me. Then I am Beta follower and you are Alpha leader; because you go where you want to go and I must go to the same place to keep my promise. We […]
Accounting Identities and the Implicit Theory of Inertia
Animals can be divided into Carnivores and Non-Carnivores: A = C + NC. Therefore, if we add some wolves to an island of sheep, the number of animals on that island will increase. It's easy to see why that argument might not be right. Wolves kill sheep. But if you didn't know that fact about […]
Fiat Bling
I visited a country where people wore paper money as jewelry. Richer people wore larger denomination notes, to signal how wealthy they were, and poorer people wore smaller denomination notes. Only the very poorest wore none at all. Then I learned the paper money wasn't used as money. They only produced one homogeneous good called […]
Robinson Crusoe and the Carbon Tax Rebate
Suppose I impose a carbon tax on Robinson Crusoe. But I give him a rebate exactly equal to the tax he pays. That tax plus rebate will have no effect on Robinson Crusoe's behaviour. He knows that if he cuts carbon by 1kg, and pays $1 less tax, his rebate also falls by $1, so […]
Interest Rates and Money Growth; Two Types of Central Bank
I want to imagine two different types of central bank. The first type of central bank cuts nominal interest rates to increase money growth. The second type of central bank raises nominal interest rates to increase money growth. In both cases the increase in money growth causes Aggregate Demand to start growing, and eventually causes […]
Inflation and the Debt/GDP ratio
I'm trying to write a simple explainer. The best way to understand how inflation affects the debt/GDP ratio is to start out with a scenario where it doesn't. Then look at ways in which the real world is not like that scenario. Here's the "No Effect" scenario: The Bank of Canada suddenly decides to raise […]
“Are we at full employment yet?”
I vaguely remember having seen this movie before, the earlier British version. And it's a frustrating movie to watch, because nobody knows where full employment is, except maybe when we've driven past it and can see it in the rear-view mirror. And the question itself always gets confused between asking where full employment ought to […]
Are Open Market Operations wrong-signed when nominal rates are negative? (No)
I'm going to start out with a silly unrealistic thought-experiment. Then I'm going to say why I think my silly unrealistic thought-experiment might matter. A central bank issue two types of money: $1 notes; and $100 notes. The two types of money are not perfect substitutes: the $1 notes are convenient for small purchases; the […]
Explaining S=I: Inventories vs Adding up Individuals
It's easy to teach students the arithmetic showing that actual saving must equal actual investment (S=I). But many students (quite rightly) want more than the arithmetic. Because S=I is not intuitive, and good students want to understand the intuition. I think that most profs will try to explain the intuition by talking about inventories of […]
Keynesian Beauty Contest SRAS shocks
[I'm not fully happy with this post. I think it does an OK job of explaining SRAS shocks that the central bank accommodates. But it doesn't say what happens when the central bank does not accommodate SRAS shocks. And I would like to integrate George Selgin's analysis of SRAS shocks in Less Than Zero, which […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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