Canada
Alberta government continues with vague economic pronouncements
From the Canadian Press comes the announcement that the Alberta Government feels that it has the oilsands problem figured, since they announced that they have a 20 year plan. Directly from the Canadian Press:
The report says the energy industry should be required “to use best available technology” that is “economically achievable.” The fine print doesn’t [...]
White guys do not look all alike…
Catching up child development and behaviour related articles that I’ve seen and read over the past few weeks.
A study was recently published by Sophie Labrecht, Lara J. Pierce, Michael J. Tarr and, James W. Tanaka, from Brown University and the University entitled “Perceptual Other-Race Training Reduces Implicit Racial Bias“. The team attempted to:
…examine the relationship [...]
Top 5 things I’d like to see Obama do
These are more pet issues that the world saving ideas that top other lists, but they’d make a significant difference in America and in it’s sphere of influence.
1. Trade with Cuba
The trade embargo has allowed a despot to drive his country into abject poverty, and kill thousands. Trade will increase - and would have increased [...]
Why the federal budget is poorly conceived…
Ok, ok, ok. I know it’s late and this topic has been pundited to death, but I figured I should throw my two dollars in here.
The Canadian Federal Government recently (last week) brought down the new budget. In it there seemed to be something for everyone, and like in the US it’ll take us, federally, [...]
Alberta royalties miss the point…
While there are a variety of other issues at play it seems that the Fair Share plan, since changed to the New Royalty Framework and most recently rebadged as the Alberta Royalty Framework, isn’t doing much to improve the prospects of the oil industry.
It’s like no-one pictured oil at less than $50/bbl when the Stelmach [...]
AC/DC efficiency research presented at the AEA
After publishing his mock economics paper, then having the joke missed entirely during a (mini-)rant by Steven Levitt (who later apologized), Robert J. Oxoby of the University of Calgary has reached a new height with the presentation of his paper - entitled ON THE EFFICIENCY OF AC/DC: BON SCOTT VERSUS BRIAN JOHNSON - to the [...]
Why you shouldn’t trust forecasts…
…but, you need them anyway. A simple example showing why financial market forecasts aren’t worth much except in terms of historical forensics.
Recently TD Bank suggests that oil prices will be 30USD in the 2nd quarter of 2009.
In their prior forecast they suggested that the price would be closer to 45USD.
In a report on agriculture from [...]
US Libertarians demonstrate why they are unelectable
An article titled The Left-Libertarian vs. Right-Libertarian Controversy is a clear example the kind nitpicking that makes the US libertarian movement marginal.
Libertarianism is generally defined as individualism, with clear property rights and minimal (but not zero) government - and is clearly an antonym of authoritarianism. A pretty simple definition. Getting into the line between left [...]
New Toronto trash service offers higher incentive to cheat
In caring, kind Toronto, if you want your garbage picked up, you need to place it in city mandated grey bins or you need to have it labelled with city-issued garbage tags. If neither of these is done, you can’t expect your trash to be collected. Additionally home owners must pay according to the volume [...]
Canadians less likely to dole out bribes
Transparency International just released their Bribe Payers Index this week. It tracks the perceived propensity of various nationalities to pay bribes in foreign countries. The rankings are determined by polling almost three thousand executives from around the world with questions like:
How often do firms headquartered in (country name) engage in bribery in this country?
Basic stats:
Canada [...]
Alberta Liberal Party election watch
So the Alberta Liberal Party has 2 days left to vote to determine who the next leader will be to take on the perenially powerful Tories.
I’ve been lucky enough to be on the mailing lists of the three leadership hopefuls, and policy statements and positions have been showing up regularly. None of the information I’ve [...]
Beer ordering gestures studied
A couple of researchers out of the U of A, Elena Nicoladis and Paula Marentette, along with Simone Pika out of Manchester did a study of gestures that various cultures use for ordering beer. They hypothesize:
…it should be possible to guess an individuals’ cultural origin by observing her way of counting up to ten on [...]
Followup to Federal Fiasco - my feelings
Since I’ve been a bit slack on my posts this past week, I missed following up on my political disaster review of last week with an entertaining and engaging blow-by-blow. Since I wrote previously, things happened roughly in this order - focusing on how generally inept Dion has handled this thing from the beginning.
Both McKenna [...]
I aspire to write like Rex Murphy…
because of columns like this.
addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.saucecaptain.com%2F2008%2F12%2Fi-aspire-to-write-like-rex-murphy%2F’;
addthis_title = ‘I+aspire+to+write+like+Rex+Murphy%26%238230%3B’;
addthis_pub = ‘tkuipers’;
Canadian political leaders - someone will lose face
I’ve avoided writing about the whole detent going in Ottawa, mostly because the whole thing has been making me utterly furious - almost apoplectic.
Recently, for the first time in 20 years I’ve become more politically active at all four levels of government that sit, some heavier than others, on top of us - federal, provincial, [...]
Alberta tidbits from OECD stats
After hearing about the interactive OECD regional stats tool I headed over to check it out. If you are at all interested in statistics, economics, demographics or otherwise it’s well worth a visit if you have the time - it’s the kind of tool I’d love to have built. I certainly hope they extend their [...]
Niels Veldhuis says don’t blame greed
An excellent article (PDF) written by Niels Veldhuis of the Fraser Institute lays out solid description of the poor government incentives that significantly contributed to the recent market crunch. He does all of this while discussing the difference between greed and self-interest (one of my favourite topics) and why self-interest is truly what makes the [...]
Toronto Mayor clueless on basic economics
David Miller - the seemingly basket-case mayor of Toronto - has decided to change the way they’re trying to discourage plastic bag use by Toronto citizens.
It seems that the original idea was to force supermarkets to pay their customers a dime for bringing in a reusable bag. The change was to instead have the stores [...]
The Canadian Human Rights Commission publishes report suggesting they were really really wrong
The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), recently famous for the Mark Steyn debacle and other petulant garbage has published a report by Richard Moon, suggesting that the very controversial Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) be repealed forthwith. It goes on to say that the CHRC should get out of the business [...]
Queen’s Deane doesn’t grasp free speech
Patrick Deane of Queen’s University had the gall to trot out this statement when defending his crack squad of thought police:
Freedom of speech and thought is impossible without respect, consideration and a commitment to mutual understanding.
Is he willfully ignorant or merely inept in his understanding of the words he uses?
Freedom of speech needs nothing but [...]
Supreme Court of Canada inflicts health tax on airlines
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) in their infinite wisdom has passed down a decision forcing airlines to accomodate the disabled, even when the costs become prohibitive. Interesting that by this decision they also included obesity as a disability.
Since Air Canada and WestJet weren’t able to prove that accommodation of the disabled, including the exceptionally [...]
King Charles? Nay says I
So Canada has been a constitutional monarchy since inception in 1867. Through that there have been kings and queens with actual influence and those that mostly faded away. I’d suppose that QE II has skated the fine line between the two general possibilities - facing impending irrelevance with grace, good breeding, and poise …
… Unlike [...]
Lego loses to Canuck copy
So after many years battling it out in the courts Lego loses it’s block shaped patent since it’s an obvious shape. From the Financial Post:
EU trademark law “precludes registration of any shape” that is “sufficient to obtain the intended technical result,” the court said. This is the law “even if that result can be achieved [...]
Remembrance Day 08
While war is certainly nothing that I’d wish for, for me my family, my friends or most anyone, I believe that at times war is necessary. There have been certain wars in the last 100 years that have been necessary though I’d presume, given my readings of history, most have been avoidable.
November 11 was established [...]
TRoC explicitly supports Quebec separatism
The Frontier Centre for Public Policy* released an email with a variety of articles showing that the Bloc Quebecois would be utterly sidelined without public campaign cash. Here’s some tidbits from the various articles:
“Without federal financing, the separatist party would likely have been unable to mount a serious campaign in the 2008 election.” concludes [...]
