The new President of France, Francois Hollande, has stated that he is against the severe austerity that European governments have been adopted and forced into by the EU, ECB and most notably, by Berlin. He has stated that the solution to France (and Europe’s) economic problems is more government spending. He is calling for the …
Category Archive: Economics
May 15
On Jobs and EI
I fully support the statements by Finance Minister Flaherty regarding the idea that there is no bad job, and that people on EI should have reduced opportunity to refuse to take jobs that are “unsuitable”. It is ridiculous for Thomas Mulcair and Peggy Nash of the NDP to argue that “skilled workers” who have education …
May 12
On CO2 Emissions in the Oil Sands
In today’s National Post, John Ivison and Andrew Coyne provide an interesting dichotomy about the debta surrounding climate change, the oil sands, CO2 emissions and the politics of perception. Ivison starts by stating that Ottawa (i.e. the government of Canada) must act to reign in oil sands emissions, or else the critics will be proven correct …
May 12
Jeff Rubin is a misguided Malthusian
Jeff Rubin, former economist at CIBC, has in the past few years, turned into a modern Malthus, proclaiming the end of the world as we know it. However, his writings are lacking in the breadth of analysis truly required to understand the problems we face, and he underestimates the ingenuity of humanity to solve problems. …
May 10
A response to eco-hypocrites
Robert over at smalldeadanimals sent an excellent letter to Charles Adler this week. I recommend it to all. I too work in one of the industries the eco-nuts hate – I have spent my nearly 20 year career designing facilities that either extract petroleum from the earth, refine it into the fuels we use, or …
May 06
On the Quebec Tuition Deal
Premier Jean Charest and his government have made a terrible mistake. They have essentially given in to the students by signing a deal that they can raise tuition but must cut other fees. First, how does this fix the fiscal imbalance of the Universities? The total income will not rise as much as planned, leaving …
Apr 29
More on Students Whining
Further to my previous post, one key thing I’d like to know about the protests in Quebec: What subjects are the protesting students majoring in? I’d be willing to bet that most of them are not studying a STEM field. I would like someone to go poll these students and ask two questions: Name …
Apr 28
On the Quebec Student Whining
The ongoing protests of university students in Quebec over the gall of M. Charest to raise their tuition by $1625 over five seven years, and the growth of that movement to argue over other “social” issues makes me shake my head. Students in Quebec have had it too easy for too long. Truth be told, …
Apr 19
On Living Wages, a silly socialist idea
This week, Brian Pincott, one of the left-wing members of Calgary City Council (#yyccc) tweeted about an article published by his former co-alderman, Joe Ceci. This article espoused the idea that government should legislate a “living wage”. Let us examine a few points Mr. Ceci makes: We’d need to begin by valuing all working …