In today’s Globe column I weigh in on the issue of whether balanced budget legislation is worth while or not. My view is that the history of parliamentary democracy is…
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MLI hosted a debate earlier this week about whether Canadians should worry about income inequality. One of the common economic fallacies that found its way into the debate was the…
Thanks to the generosity of the Japanese government I have just returned from two weeks in the land of the rising sun. A fascinating visit that gave me a week’s…
My latest musings for the Globe/ROB’s Economy Lab revolves around the context and significance of the year’s most important budget: Quebec’s. After years of failed attempts, the new Liberal government…
The Tories are often rightly criticised for ignoring inconvenient expert advice and knowledge in pursuit of their political objectives. This is decried by the opposition as crass pandering to the…
The critics of judicial activism tend to focus on the Supreme Court (SCC) and its individual decisions. I think that’s a mistake. There are systemic forces at work undermining the…
We all know that uncertainty is the great enemy of prosperity, but people often forget why that’s true. Uncertainty’s great cost is that most forms of investment require years to…
As the Koch brothers and their friends publicly contemplate spending nearly $1bn in the 2016 US election cycle (about the cost of a major presidential campaign) to reward their political…
One of President Obama’s recent themes in his criticism of the Keystone XL pipeline is the dismissive comment that it will transport “Canadian oil”, as if that were obviously a…
Yes, there is something deeply unattractive about the scold who smugly wallows in others’ debacles because he warned that the worst might happen. On the other hand, sometimes the scold…