Category The 2008-9 recession
International Employment Update: U.S. Resilience and Australian Exceptionalism
I thought it was time for an updated look at employment creation in the advanced economies given that we are now at just over five years since the 2008-09 Great Recession that walloped world economies. I’ve taken the IMF World Economic Outlook Database employment numbers for the period 2007 to 2013 to get employment levels […]
Real wages and old-time macroeconomics
I posted this graph at Maclean's earlier today: The hook of the piece was that Canadian real wages had increased in Canada, and I made the point that this increase was largely due to the Bank of Canada's undershooting its inflation target. I went to the FRED site and put together a similar graph, using […]
Canadian Macro Performance: Better than the G-7 but…
We are of course quite used to repeated claims that Canada has outperformed all other G-7 countries in job creation and GDP growth during the recovery from the 2009 recession. Our better fiscal performance is also trotted out especially with respect to the net debt to GDP ratio. However, if instead of the G-7, we […]
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 […]
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.
Calvo vs Mankiw/Reis, and IT vs PLPT/NGDPLPT
An economy is humming along very nicely in full long run equilibrium. All real variables are at their natural rates. Actual and expected inflation are both equal to the 2% inflation target. As the years go by, the price level goes: 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, and everybody expects it to continue 100, 102, 104, […]
As the Federation Turns: Quetarian Public Finances
Quebec and Ontario, the twin pillars of the Canadian federation, have much in common given that they share the economic space of the Windsor-Quebec axis – an economic region nestled around the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence waterway. Once upon a time, they were even one province but that fiery marriage had its ups and downs and […]
Recessions and Making Babies
It would appear that the severity of the global recession is affecting fertility rates in many countries. The fertility rate as measured by the number of live births per woman in Europe has dropped substantially in a number of countries according to The Economist. These results suggest that rather than lowering the opportunity cost of […]
Where’s the deflation? The supply side of banks
If banks go bust and firms can't get bank loans to finance their operations, that has supply side effects too. A firm that has plenty of customers, but can't get financing to produce enough goods to meet the demand, may raise prices. And if a firm closes down because it can't get financing, its competitors […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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