How Can a Political Scientist get this and many (freshwater) economists do not

O.k. I wrote this years ago. Maybe 2003, maybe 2005: And while NKs accept the basic logic of the rational expectations augmented Philips curve (that is, that the NAIRU is semi-fixed in the long run) monetary and fiscal policy can … Continue reading →

The economy lab, the dark age of free trade theory, and the naive view on natural resources and economic development

Over at the Economy Lab in the Globe which Failed, which itself has gone from bad to worse, one of the economists they keep in their stable has either produced an extraordinarily naive analysis or a dishonest one.  I am … Continue reading →

Mankiw’s students walk out

So about ten percent of Mankiw’s students figured out that Mankiw is a neoliberal. Harvard students should have known that by grade six. Better late then never I suppose.

How to read economic language for bias: “wage inflation” in Newfoundland and Labrador

Sometimes we read things and we get that gut feeling that we are being subtly manipulated.  Economics is of course full of this subtle manipulation.  Words like “choice”, and “efficiency” and even phrases like “free trade,” “efficient markets” and my … Continue reading →

Reswitching, relative prices and linearity

Ok so only 1000 people in the world understand this and only 10 care about it: economics for the most part has long since given up its empirical pretensions when it comes to its ontological assumptions.  Still I suspect the … Continue reading →

Canada: persistently 2nd worst in class

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During the last election much was made about Canada’s relatively good performance during the last recession.  What was conveniently left out of the discussion by all political parties is just how dismal Canada’s macroeconomic performance has actually been over the … Continue reading →

UBC economist Milligan throws cake at educated, unemployed youth

I tuned into a rebroadcast of this morning’s the CBC’s the Current while cleaning the kitchen this evening which had an unusually good documentary on the problem of youth unemployment; specifically, the problem of university undergrads in finding jobs.  As … Continue reading →

Just who are Paul Krugman’s people? And a side dish of MMT

I know Paul thought he was just being relaxed. Moses knows we all have a right to relax de temps en temps but it is a really remarkable slippage. In his latest post he writes: So: I basically think of … Continue reading →

Lowered expectations: Canadian Productivity

Pace Stats Can, annual labour productivity was up 1.4% for 2010 which was a level not seen since 2005. In the Canadian context that makes the latest release noteworthy. Sad really. Even more so given the bulk of the gains … Continue reading →

Never count on economists to defend the public interest

This is something that should always be kept in mind in economic policy discussions: most economists are pro-Market, not pro-Public Interest. It is especially important to keep this in mind when we read commentary such as this, in which an … Continue reading →