The Globe and Mail deserves full credit for continuing to publish stories on environmental toxins. After being in circulation for decades, many chemicals are now (slowly) being put to the test, and some may even be taken out of circulation some time in the next decade. A first step being taken by the feds is labelling of what is in […]
Read moreTwo Canadian macro articles diverted me from my best laid plans today. Side by side, the two make for some interesting observations on the state of the Canadian economy, as well as some fodder for thinking about what drives investment. The first, a Statscan piece by Phillip Cross, is a demand-led investment story, with most attention on the resource sector, […]
Read moreStatistics Canada’s economic review of 2006 contains an interesting passage about consumer responses to higher gas prices. One would expect that as gas prices rise, drivers would consume somewhat less gas in the short run (gas demand is inelastic, so the reduction may be small), and to change their behaviour over the long-run by purchasing more fuel efficient vehicles. This […]
Read moreSupply-side economics (and its trickle-down theory) is a zombie, intellectually dead but continuing to roam the halls of the public debate. Witness the 2001 BC elections and the mantra “tax cuts pay for themselves”, a free-lunch argument that we can have tax cuts and not have to pay a price in terms of cutting social programs (note: as of 2007, […]
Read moreGeorge Monbiot takes us behind the curtain of the IPCC report-making process, and who is really pressuring whom to censor what: The Real Climate Censorship Posted April 10, 2007 It’s happening, it’s systematic, and it is precisely the opposite story to the one the papers are telling. By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian, 10th April 2007. The drafting of […]
Read moreOver at Economist’s View, Mark Thoma got a snowball rolling (trickling?) downhill by citing a revisionist article by Bruce Bartlett on the history and legacy of supply-side economics. He then put forward a lengthy and useful theoretical response, after which all kinds of interesting commentary followed. I have taken this updated post for a summary, which includes the original oped […]
Read moreThis missive below from the Conrad Black trial must be really embarrassing for Black. Reading about this horrible trip and his feelings of inadequacy next to young honeymooners, I feel kind of sorry for the guy … OK, it’s gone now. What is amazing about the doomed flight is that Conrad could have had it all – and kept the […]
Read moreOver at MaxSpeak, the state of housing and whether or not it is a bubble is reviewed: THE GREAT HOUSING BUBBLE FLAP Probably most who read this blog accept that there was a bubble in the US housing market, and that it has come to an end. Some regulars here, notably the notable Dean Baker, were early out the door […]
Read moreA report from the front lines of the battle over early learning and child care in the United Kingdom, which appears to be in a similar space as Canada – supported by academic and policy elites, but with too little action on the political side to overcome the great inertia of the existing patchwork system. Taking great care We should […]
Read moreTwo recent reports from the Globe below point to the failures of our regulatory system. The first is on bisphenol A, an endocrine disrupter, and the second on trans fats. The challenge is a regulatory approach that insists on bullet-proof evidence of harm – which can take decades to accumulate – before action is taken to remove a chemical from […]
Read moreThe New York Times reports on the inequities generated by global warming below. The April edition of The Atlantic also featured a story on the same theme, but it was really poorly done. While the article makes a few interesting observations of what might happen in different parts of the world, Gregg Easterbrook, from Brookings, was more inclined to treat […]
Read moreLance Freeman of Columbia University argues against congestion pricing: The Equity Considerations of Congestion Pricing Getting stuck in traffic is fast becoming one of those necessary evils that everyone complains about but seldom does anything about it. Or at least anything that seems terribly effective. Neither additional road building nor public transit seemed to have had a major impact on […]
Read moreLast week, the Sierra Legal Defence Fund published a legal analysis on the environment and TILMA. Below is an excerpt from the press release, and the full document is here. This is an important analysis as BC’s point man on the file, Colin Hansen, has been claiming that the environment has been set aside as a “legitimate objective”. April Fools’ […]
Read moreOver at Wired, Leander Kahney comments on this week’s deal between Apple and EMI to sell EMI’s catalogue free of digital rights management (DRM): How Steve Jobs Calls the Tunes Steve Jobs’ new partnership with EMI to sell music without copy protection is a lesson in how to wield power in the digital age. Carefully and strategically, Jobs set up […]
Read moreThe authors of this paper address the relationship between (overly rigid) intellectual property laws, in copyright and patents, and externalities (spillovers), with a rethink of the assumptions driving the economics. Spillovers MARK A. LEMLEY Stanford Law School BRETT M. FRISCHMANN Loyola University of Chicago – Law School Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper No. 321 Columbia Law Review, Vol. […]
Read moreAir travel is a beast for the climate change file, one that is going to be difficult to tackle as we move ahead. For consumers, it is deeply entrenched as a means of getting around the globe, and may be particularly hard to reduce because it would require strong international collaboration. In Monbiot’s book Heat, he argues we need to […]
Read moreThe “uh oh” file is growing, as the next IPCC report comes out this Friday. In it are more graphic descriptions about what warming could mean for the planet and by region. Scary stuff that will hopefully take our governments to the next level beyond recognition and half-measures to something more meaningful. Below are some previews from the Toronto Star […]
Read moreA jury is supposed to be comprised of one’s peers, but Conrad Black’s “Peers” are in the House of Lords and among the global elite. Naomi Klein reports on the class dimensions of jury selection at the Black trial (hat tip here): Class War in Conrad’s Court by Naomi Klein During the jury selection process at the Conrad Black fraud […]
Read moreJoseph Stiglitz compares Europe and America in his latest column. Message to Canada: like the EU we should not be lulled by conservatives’ obsession with GDP per capita differentials. Europe’s success points the way to better world IN some quarters, pessimism dominated the recent celebrations marking the European Union’s 50th birthday. Unease about the EU’s future is, of course, understandable, […]
Read moreWith a surplus that has swelled in recent months to around $13 billion, the Conservatives may be once again contemplating income splitting for next week’s federal budget. The annual cost is high at $5 billion, but this is a perfect wedge issue for Canada’s New Harperment, reducing the size of government while giving most of the tax benefit to its […]
Read moreSome notes by yours truly on the BC economy, based on a presentation I gave this past weekend: As a provincial economy, BC is relatively small and resource-dependent. Over past decades, there has been a growing divide between the “two economies†of Greater Vancouver (plus the provincial capitol in Victoria), with a more diversified and service-oriented economy, and the rest […]
Read moreMathematically, we are all related through our common ancestors. This is because of the power of 2 – that we each have two parents, four grandparents, and so forth back as far as you can go. Assuming no in-breeding, and an average of 20 years per generation, this works out like this: by 20 generations past (approx. 400 years ago), […]
Read moreI went to a lecture last night be Anthony Downs of the Brookings Institution. His main insight that I am still dwelling on is that traffic congestion is an inevitable outcome of the way we have organized our urban societies. And as long as we have successful and vibrant cities, there will always be congestion – at least, as long […]
Read moreWe have been picking on copyright a lot recently, but we should not neglect patents, that other arm of “intellectual property”. Like copyright, patents confer monopoly power. They have little to do with a “free market” but everything to do with real-world capitalism. In his monthly column, Joseph Stiglitz makes the case against patents with a focus on pharmaceutical drugs. […]
Read moreFrom the keynote speech delivered by Paul Krugman at the Economic Policy Institute’s recent conference on The Agenda for Shared Prosperity: A History of America’s Disappearing Middle Class By Paul Krugman …One thing I’ve been noticing on multiple debates in public policies — climate change is another one — is there seems to be an almost seamless transition from denial […]
Read moreEric Reguly sizes up the trial of Conrad Black. Added to the news that the British House of Commons voted to change the House of Lords to a 100% elected body, things are not going well for Lady Slatternly’s lover: If he’s afraid, it doesn’t show If Conrad Black fears for his freedom, his reputation, his wealth (what little […]
Read moreThe Economist so fetishizes “free trade” that it eagerly swallows TILMA without bothering to do any fact-checking. The way this is framed below, you would think people in BC are cheering that they will finally be able to buy Alberta oil. As for evidence, the article points to the Fraser Institute, who has not done any research on the topic […]
Read moreOur politicians are obsessed with tax cuts. The next election will now feature the battle of the tax cuts, with the Canada’s New Harperment pushing for more GST cuts (and who knows what other plans to reduce the size of the federal government) versus Dion’s plan for more personal and corporate income tax cuts. Meanwhile, poverty and homelessness will continue […]
Read moreAnnouncing the Center for the Applied Study of Economics & the Environment, a new US grouping of progressive economists. Here is their manifesto: Real People, Real Environments, and Realistic Economics The wealth and power of humanity in the 21st century could be used to create a far better world. We write as economists who are troubled by environmental degradation and […]
Read moreJohn Ibbitson leaps to the defence of the US entertainment industry and their bid to hold back the tide of history. It is not clear at all what harms are being caused by the existing Copyright Act and why it should be fixed to make rich US entertainment corporations even richer. To channel Dean Baker, copyright laws are an interference […]
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