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1. Storm clouds on the horizon better than storm clouds overhead

   As 2018 draws to its end, there are dark clouds on the horizon. Interest rate increases spooking the stock market, the continuing trade skirmish between the United States and China (which threatens to become an all-out trade war almost ...

2. Nordhaus, the Nobel, Harper, economics and populism

   Trade is good for both countries, but not everyone in both countries benefits from trade. ...

3. ‘Six months’ notice’ and The Art of the Squeeze

   Brian Mulroney: Mr. Turner, with a document that is cancellable on six months’ notice? Be serious… Please, be serious. John Turner: Well I have never been more serious in my life. Brian Mulroney: Please, please. That was the final ...

4. Economists almost unanimous—rising trade barriers not good

   Trade with China may actually have increased manufacturing employment in the United States. ...

5. The United States calls the kettle black

   Canadians owe Donald Trump a debt of gratitude for repeatedly referring to our average 270 per cent tariffs on dairy products coming into—or trying to come into—this country. For many Canadians, that’s probably the first they’ve heard of ...

6. The end of Trump-whispering

   I wrote in January about how economists, apart from warning about the consequences, don’t have an awful lot to say about how best to fight a trade war. Adam Smith himself wrote that such wars were a situation in which policy be left to ...

7. Congress resists crony diplomacy—good!

   Even an economist with libertarian tendencies, which I am, thinks there are times when it’s actually reassuring to have a “deep state,” though it would be nice if it weren’t quite so swampy. The Wall Street Journal reports that some ...

8. TPP redux—The Art of the Bad Deal

   You encourage 11 of your allies to get together with you in a trade and investment deal. You impose structure and content on it. Then at the last minute you decide you yourself aren’t going to join. After they go ahead and finalize the ...

9. Is Canada’s latest NAFTA strategy too ‘insidious and crafty?’

   In Book IV, Chapter 2 of The Wealth of Nations, where he enumerates the benefits of free international trade, Adam Smith leaves only a tiny role for governments. He says the United Kingdom should support its merchant marine because ...

10. How can people so smart understand economics so little?

    Everybody complains about the pace of change these days, but most people seem to adapt pretty well. One way things are different now is podcasts. They’re the medium of choice for more and more people while driving, exercising or, in my ...