It's The Economy, Stupid

I have been chatting off and on with an American economist, Kenneth Thomas, whose research is meant to point out the problems with business subsidies.  He has a good blog today contrasting the U.S. and European experience. Dr. Thomas’ disgruntlement…

I stumble across this issue yesterday.  The Department of Finance Canada tells us New Brunswick got $1.483 billion in Equalization this year while the NB government had budgeted for $1.632 billion.  I suspect there is a reason for this discrepancy.  It…

Just finished that movie, The Company Men,  with Tommy Lee Jones and Ben with the last name repeated over and over by that duck in the insurance commercial.  It’s not a particularly good movie but it does hit on a…

For those that missed it, the Daily Business Buzz site had an amusing picture associated with the story of the NB Throne Speech.  It said that Premier Shawn Graham was going to outline his government’s plans for 2012 in the…

After describing my column as ‘a load of manure’, one of the commentators on my Economy Lab post today suggested that the Maritimes need more jobs in the $35,000-$60,000 range and not more in the $100,000 and up range.  …

In my column in the TJ today I take another crack at this. I have to reiterate my view that the real reason to try and reform EI is not to “get those lazy slackers” or the other statements made…

It’s a tongue in cheek reference, of course, but it is true that persons earning higher incomes pay far more taxes than those in the middle and lower end of the income distribution.  And it is also true that the…

I find this story about the NRC strange.  It seems like just yesterday the feds were talking about having the NRC centres at the centre of technology cluster development across Canada.    Now, they are talking about pulling the plug…

I can’t remember the city but there was a place in the US back in the 1990s that just decided one day to attract chocolate and candy manufacturers from Europe.  The jurisdiction sent over delegations to Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, etc. and ended…

Thought I would take another stab at this issue of the symbiotic relationship between the big biz and the small biz in a healthy economic ecosystem.   It’s a mostly an argument I have been losing.  From pundits to politicians…