Monthly Archives: March 2010

New House Pricing Data Released

Posted on March 31, 2010 by

This just rolled into my inbox: Teranet – National Bank House Price Index™ For the first time in nine months, none of the six metropolitan markets surveyed showed a monthly increase of as much as 1%. The rise was 0.9% … Continue reading →

Posted in house prices | Leave a comment

Quebec Budget: Packed with Regression and a Zombie

Posted on March 31, 2010 by

The Quebec budget released yesterday is packed with an increase in regressive taxation (both in terms of user fees and sales taxes) and a Zombie. Let us start with the list of regressive tax measures and then move on to … Continue reading →

Posted in Budgets, Class War, Quebec Budget, regressive taxation, Solidarity Tax Credit, Welfare Policy | 4 Comments

Dictator, Stalinist, Nazi, Communist, Fascist

Posted on March 30, 2010 by

Sparked by recent events south of the border and the ease with which these terms seem to get thrown around I think is necessary to have a conversation about what these terms actually mean and why it probably is not … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Propaganda | 9 Comments

Brad Delong: In the Long Run we are all GOOOD!

Posted on March 29, 2010 by

Brad DeLong is one of those scribblers I just do not read much any more. First he widely shilled for neoliberalism and the litany; then woke up to find that free trade had not been the boon to Mexico it … Continue reading →

Posted in American politics, economic crisis, liberal economic theory | Leave a comment

Public Investment, Insitutions and the Boomer Greed Hypothesis

Posted on March 29, 2010 by

That would seem to be the policy advice emanating from both New Keynesian and Post Keynesian economists. With capacity under-utilization and insufficient private investment there is neither an argument about inflation or crowding out to be made. Yet the discourse … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Public and Private goods, Tax Cuts | Leave a comment

Macro Models, Reality and Policy

Posted on March 29, 2010 by

Testimony of David Colander Submitted to the Congress of the United States, House Science and Technology Committee for the Hearing: “The Risks of Financial Modeling: VaR and the Economic Meltdown.” September 10, 2009 Some non-economists have blamed the financial heart … Continue reading →

Posted in economic crisis, Free Markets, liberal economic theory, Models, Neoclassical, Neoliberalism, New Keynesianism | Leave a comment

Prediction

Posted on March 29, 2010 by

The sky will fall, the sky will fall, the sky will fall.

Posted in Canadian Politics | Leave a comment

Canadian Central Bankers Past and Present: IgNoble Truths

Posted on March 28, 2010 by

What an odd week. David Dodge wants an adult conversation about tax levels and the quality of public services. This clearly runs afoul of the conservative meme that less is always more. But the big show- stopper had to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Budgets, central banks, Class War, economic crisis, Financial Regulation, Free Markets, Gov Debt, Productivity | Leave a comment

Apparently federalists do not do tongue-in-cheek

Posted on March 27, 2010 by

I have a different sense of humour than most because I found the statement below to be one of the most clever utterance coming out of Ottawa for a long time. Pour le moment, nous sommes des résistants. —Bloc Quebecois … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, political humour | Leave a comment

DAS KORN

Posted on March 26, 2010 by

A Critique of Agricultural Economics by Karl “Chuck” Marx (translated by Andrew Kliman) Chapter 1: The Corn Model 1. The Two Factors of the Commodity: Use-Value (Real Corn Goodness) and Value (Substance of Corn, Magnitude of Corn) The wealth of … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics | 1 Comment