An Analysis of Financial Flows in the Canadian Economy
An essential but perhaps overlooked way of looking at the economy is a sector financial balance approach. Pioneered by the late UK economist Wynne Godley, this approach starts with National…
Marc Lee
Rethinking the economics of extreme events
Review of Worst-Case Economics: Extreme Events in Climate and Finance by Frank Ackerman *** Long ago economics was termed “the dismal science,” but in recent years that title has arguably…
Rethinking the economics of extreme events
I was asked to review Frank Ackerman’s Worst-Case Economics: Extreme Events in Climate and Finance. I’ve learned a lot from his writing over the years so it was a pleasure…
Gimme shelter: is Core Housing Need a useful measure?
For a new CCPA blog post on housing (un)affordability, I dove into the latest Census data for Metro Vancouver. I used two series on shelter cost and shelter-to-income ratio, and…
Lessons from the Reagan Era on Managing Twin Deficits
Below is a guest post from Norman Mogil and Arthur Donner. Lessons from the Reagan Era on Managing Twin Deficits Many in the U.S. are harking back to the Reagan…
Extracted Carbon: Re-examining Canada’s contribution to climate change through fossil fuel exports
We just published a new report, Extracted Carbon: Re-examining Canada’s contribution to climate change through fossil fuel exports, by yours truly. It is part of the Corporate Mapping Project, a…
House price inflation and what to do about it
I have a new report out today on affordable housing in Metro Vancouver. While it’s mostly of regional interest, I think the analysis and framework for housing solutions could have…
PEF Summer School 2016
If you are in Ottawa or close by, and are interested in the ideas and debates that are shaping today’s economy, then we have a summer school for you. PEF…
2016 PEF Student Essay Contest is Open!
Please see the essay contest rules (bilingual) and use this submission form. You can download a poster (English, French) here — please help us out and post one in your…
Real test of Paris climate agreement will be how markets and regulators react
So did we save the planet? From the outset, this was never about “saving the planet.” Our spinning hunk of rock has been around billions of years and will continue…
Is your pension in climate denial?
Fossil fuel divestment campaigns have become a focus for climate change organizing, targeting university endowments, churches, foundations and pension funds. While the motivations are primarily moral—if it is wrong to…
Taking credit where it’s not due
On the election’s climate file, Prime Minister Harper has claimed that his is the “first government in Canadian history that has actually been able to see a reduction in our…
Memo from Washington: The Pope’s Call for Climate Action
To start his US tour, the Pope stated that “climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation. When it comes to the care…
Pot: Decriminalize or Legalize?
On the campaign trail, Prime Minister Harper repeated assertions that relaxing pot laws will lead to terrible, horrible things: ““When you go down that route, marijuana becomes more readily available…
Bribing people with their own money: the home reno tax credit
The first major election promise from the federal Conservatives: a permanent home renovation tax credit. On the surface this looks like an astute manoeuvre, given that home renovation has been…
Energy and climate in the Harper decade
The costs of climate change are piling up, and can no longer be ignored. 2015 is poised to be a landmark year, with a new global treaty on climate to…
Climate Justice and the Good Life, for Everyone
In our Climate Justice Project, our research has stressed structural changes and collective action to lower carbon footprints rather than individual behavioural change. The ability of many actors to respond…
BC’s Carbon Emissions on the Rise
It was a good story while it lasted. Over the past few years, the BC government and many in the policy community have spun a tale about the remarkable success…
Low-carbon urban infrastructure: a view from Vancouver
I have a new case study (full pdf; summary article from the publishers) out as part of the Economists for Equity and Environment‘s Future Economy Initiative. I look at the…
PEF 2015 Student Essay Competition
The 2015 competition is now open for submissions. Deadline 04 May 2015. Please help us get the word out! Download a poster here. 2015 PEF ESSAY CONTEST RULES ELIGIBILE ENTRANTS…