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1. Wake up—Canada has a business investment crisis

   Appeared in the National Newswatch, October 24, 2018 Capital investment is the lifeblood of economic growth and, therefore, of higher living standards. Increased capital, both tangible (machinery, equipment) and intangible (software, for example), boosts ...

2. Trudeau government must act now on trade, taxes as possible recession looms

   Appeared in the Moncton Times & Transcript, September 28, 2018 As Parliament resumes, Canada’s policymakers face a turbulent state of affairs as the United States and China wage an economic Cold War armed with tariffs and Ottawa continues negotiating ...

3. The Canadian economy at the precipice

   Appeared in Business in Vancouver, September 18, 2018 Any projection of the Canadian economy’s trajectory depends heavily upon one’s outlook for the ongoing NAFTA negotiations. If the United States and Canada renew NAFTA, the outlook for Canada’s economy ...

4. Memo for President Trump—Canada runs a trade deficit with the U.S.

   President Donald Trump issued a bizarre pronouncement this week—that Canada engages in smooth diplomatic trickery when it comes to trade relations with the United States. At a meeting with U.S. governors at the White House, the president ...

5. Economists and media fuel confusion on Canada’s economy and economic policy

   Appeared in the Vancouver Sun, November 3, 2017 As the old joke goes, why did God create economists? To make weatherman look good. At times like this, nothing could be closer to the truth (full disclosure, we’re economists). On Monday, Statistics Canada ...

6. Federal fiscal update—Canadians shouldn’t pop the champagne on economic growth

   When unveiling today’s federal fiscal update, Finance Minister Bill Morneau (pictured above, with the prime minister) touted higher than expected economic growth for 2017 as a success story for the Trudeau government. As he told the ...

7. All our trade doors look unattractive now

   I’ve been reading a new paper by Oxford economic historian Kevin O’Rourke called Two Great Trade Collapses: The Interwar Period & Great Recession Compared, a title that, unlike many academic titles, pretty much catches what the paper ...

8. Business investment down, taxes up—bad news for Canadians

   With less than three months left in 2017, despite recent headlines espousing positive economic news, Canada’s economy faces many near and long-term challenges that the Trudeau government must consider as it crafts its fiscal update (due ...

9. Canada no longer among top 10 most economically free countries

   Appeared in the Winnipeg Sun, October 6, 2017 Photo courtesy of Canada 2020 In a global ranking of 159 countries and territories, Canada has fallen from the top 10 countries in economic freedom for the first time ever—and things are getting worse. ...

10. Extraordinary statement by the finance minister captures government’s approach to the economy

    Appeared in Maclean's, September 15, 2017 In a recent CTV interview, one of the most powerful federal cabinet ministers, Minister of Finance Bill Morneau (pictured above), made an extraordinary statement that unfortunately encapsulates the federal ...