Quebec Tuition: Between a Rock and Hard Place?
In the context of student protests over Quebec tuition fees, my friend Luan Ngo has just written a very informative blog post on Quebec’s fiscal situation. While I encourage readers…
inflation
Deflating the Monetary Hawks
Canada’s business press has recently been filled with speculation that the Bank of Canada may soon hike interest rates based on its somewhat more optimistic economic outlook. But today’s Consumer…
Inflation Central
Statistics Canada reported today that consumer prices edged up by 0.1% in February on a seasonally-adjusted basis, bringing the annual inflation rate to 2.6% and the core inflation rate to…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Susan Riley brilliantly slams the message that austerity is necessary for everybody but those who already have the most: Is anyone else getting…
Inflation and Drummond
Statistics Canada reported today that consumer prices jumped in January (by 0.4% or 0.5% seasonally-adjusted), offsetting the drop in December. As a result, the annual inflation rate is now 2.5%…
Recalculating inflation: billions in savings for governments and employers paid for by workers and pensioners
The top story in the Globe and Mail today reports on something I warned about a year ago: Statistics Canada is making changes to the way it calculates the Consumer…
Lower Inflation Frees Carney’s Hand
Statistics Canada reported today that consumer prices decreased in December, lowering the annual inflation rate to 2.3%. The Bank of Canada’s core inflation rate declined to 1.9%. Tame inflation leaves…
Economic Climate and Inequality
The December issue of the quarterly Economic Climate for Bargaining publication I produce is now on-line. This issue has a number of pieces on issues of inequality, including: Rising inequality…
Modest Inflation Outstrips Wages and Canada Social Transfer
Statistics Canada reported today that the annual inflation rate remained 2.9% and the Bank of Canada’s core rate remained 2.1% in November. The monthly increase in consumer prices slowed to…
Jobs Waning, Debt Mounting, Wages Slipping: A Bleak Outlook
Here are some followup comments that supplement my last post. The emerging picture of the Canadian economy is bleak. Inscribed as every government in the Western world is in neoclassical…
Inflation Targeting and the Crisis
Many long-held tenets of neoclassical orthodoxy have fallen by the wayside in the past 3 years, but perhaps one of the biggest dominos that is at least teetering precariously (if…
NGDP targeting: wither monetarism?
Monetarism is like a Zombie: it can be found theoretically wanting, empirically false and technically infeasible but in one form or another it just soldiers on. In some ways the…
The Inflation-Control Target
So, the 2% inflation target has been renewed as it now stands. (Take that, House of Commons Finance Committee, which is holding hearings on the issue next week.) The background…
MYTHOLOGIES: MONEY AND HYPERINFLATION
In an earlier post, Marc Lee mentioned in passing the German hyperinflation episode of the 1920s. It’s remarkable that this event still holds such sway over the popular imagination despite…
The Tories’ Bankrupt Brains
"I see, said the blind man to the deaf dog, who wasn't listening anyway" is a phrase that comes to mind reading reports of federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's press…
The Return Of Stagflation?
Those of us around in the 1970s will remember the term stagflation - a combination of economic stagnation and inflation that created a conundrum for bourgeois economists: do you move…
Bangladesh: Dabbling in Dhaka Stock Markets
A classic stock market boom-bust cycle is underway in Bangladesh, inciting riots after the closure of the country’s main markets in Dhaka and Chittagong this week. The picture painted by…
Switzerland: Swiss Franc -ly Under Attack
Separate reports this week in the Swiss newspaper Neue Zuericher Zeitung (NZZ) are highlighting the difficult choices Switzerland, and by extension other nations, are facing in the continued onslaught of…
Tunisia and Algeria: North African States of Unrest
Reports of civil unrest and suicidal protests in Algeria and Tunisia these past two weeks are highlighting the precarious conditions under which many people across the world live: on the…
Seoul G20: Perplexing Conclusion, Clear Result
The conclusion of the most recent G20 summit in Seoul last Friday, hailed as a success for political reasons by attending politicians, was punctuated with the following agreed upon statement:…