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The Welcome Death of Peak Oil
Reprinted from DrJandMrK.com The original, slightly longer version of my Letter from Calgary column in the October 2013 issue of the Investment Executive newspaper: Improved technology and more...
View ArticleMore French Fury
Two years ago, the French government lost its precious AAA bond rating from Standard and Poor’s. Last week the agency cut the beleaguered nation’s credit rating again, this time from AA+ to AA. As...
View ArticleOut of the Red through the Black Market?
Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa wants to eliminate the province’s $11.7 billion deficit without raising taxes. Besides eliminating tax credits and loopholes to raise the effective tax rate...
View ArticleIncreased Minimum Wage, Decreased Economic Prosperity
Standard microeconomic theory shows that deviations of a price from its natural level bring forth bad results. In my experience, students most easily grasp the pernicious effects of price controls when...
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Taking Pride in State Failure
What do “normal” people want from politics? Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic contends to know. In a recent diatribe, he slams National Review Editor-at-Large Jonah Goldberg for taking sweet delight...
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Krugman’s Clear Crystal Ball
Free market economists use New York Times columnist and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman as their constant punching bag. He makes a convenient target. He’s uber-Keynesian, providing a constant flow of...
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Soaring High Without Big Data
Now that the U.S. government shutdown is behind us it is instructive to review what we went without for those weeks. Recently writing for the Financial Times, Robin Harding reported that experts...
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American Thanksgiving
Today, Black Friday, millions of Americans are lining up at stores to get the bargains they have waited a year for. Many Canadians are probably also making the trek across the border to partake in this...
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Lies, Damned Lies, and Government Statistics
Reprinted from WindRock Wealth Management There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. - Mark Twain, 1906[1] With all due respect to Mr. Twain, he did not extend the...
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Against “The Libertarian Case for a Basic Income”
Matt Zwolinski, of Bleeding Heart Libertarians fame, has a new post on Libertarianism.org in which he attempts to defend a so-called “Basic Income Guarantee”, whereby the government pays everyone (or a...
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From Busker to Beggar: How the State Keeps Down the Poor
As surprising as it may be to some, I was not always the zealous and single-minded advocate for liberty I am today. For three years, I studied film scoring at the Berklee College of Music in Boston,...
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Canadian Artists Need to Swim on Their Own
Getting involved with politics is always a dicey move. This is especially so considering the only reason for seeking out the state is personal benefit. Whatever advantage one derives from the political...
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Kotlikoff on Unfunded Federal Liabilities, 2013: $205 Trillion
Reprinted from LewRockwell.com The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is acting in a bipartisan way to cover up the biggest single threat to the bipartisan political alliance that is stripping...
View ArticleMy letter to the NY Times re: Free Market Capitalism Works Every Time
Re: Dwindling Tools to Raise Wages, by Eduardo Porter Dear Sirs: Economic law is a deductive and not empirical science, meaning that market research cannot determine the effects of raising the minimum...
View ArticleA Christmas Gift for Torontonians
Do you shop at Home Depot? If so, then I have some good news for you this Christmas season. It turns out that Home Depot’s higher ups have decided to stage a big expansion in Canada. They are going to...
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It’s Not About Rights
The idea of a government-supplied basic income is, once again, making rounds. The proposal is even tugging on the ear of some so-called libertarians. And yet, a tax-financed income for all is nothing...
View ArticleRogoff, Reinhart and Ricardian Equivalence
The largest economics controversy of the year belonged to Ken Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart for their research describing the relationship between economic growth and government debt. Their research,...
View ArticleA Simple Math Question for Bankers
Think back to your high-school math class, and reminisce about this question: “Train A departs from Union Station at noon travelling eastward to Halifax at a speed of 80km/hr. Train B departs three...
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China’s Failing One-Child Policy
Implemented in 1979 in a bid to alleviate social, economic and environmental problems in China, the country’s one-child policy was once heralded as a textbook example of good government policy. Faced...
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Fractional-“Collateral” Money Creation
Economists view the money creation process through two separate channels. Each has its own economic effects as well as risks. In the current fiat monetary system, central banks can increase the amount...
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