From the category archives:

Economies

The New Poor & the New Structural Unemployment

February 21, 2010

The scary thing about this NYT article are the statistics that it shares about “recoveries” – how each has been weaker than the last in terms of job growth, and how recoveries have been driven by growth in the automobile, housing, and banking industries – the very industries at the root of America’s current woes. [...]

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Answer to the people, not big finance: Should central banks be independent?

February 15, 2010

Hmmm. Interesting question. Should central banks be independent? The Bank of Canada ultimately answers to the people through the Minister of Finance, but as they are quick to point out, operate with considerably more independence than other federal institutions. Is that a good thing, keeping the banks free to run the mechanics of policy without [...]

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Q&A: Greece’s financial crisis explained – CNN.com

February 11, 2010

So what’s the problem in Greece? Years of unrestrained spending, cheap lending and failure to implement financial reforms left Greece badly exposed when the global economic downturn struck. This whisked away a curtain of partly fiddled statistics to reveal debt levels and deficits that exceeded limits set by the eurozone. via Q&A: Greece’s financial crisis [...]

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Feb. 10, 1961: Moses Parts the Waters at Niagara

February 10, 2010

Huh. The US of the Falls has a hydro dam that keeps power production low during the day to keep the falls photogenic, and then cranks up production at night. And, of course, there’s a backstory of land use and abuse (see below), which reminds of the similar controversy around Manitoba’s northern hydro dams that [...]

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Network Neutrality: Simple image explains what it is & why its important

October 29, 2009

Network neutrality, bandwidth shaping, megabits, the FCC, and the CRTC. NN is a confusing, acronym heavy mess that’s ill understood by policy makers and consumers alike (the FCC doesn’t get it). The simple image below explains it nicely. Right now, its implicit that our choice of internet provider (Shaw) doesn’t impact our choice of, for [...]

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Sometimes you need a little D4 or D5. Sometimes you need a lot.

September 29, 2009

As we get to know some of these chemicals better, we discover that they should not be trusted. Health Canada is proposing concentration limits for two common shampoo ingredients, siloxanes D4 and D5, aka, Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane and Decamethylcyclopentasiloxane, respectively. D4 and D5 did make hair easier to dry, silky soft, and easier to work with. Also [...]

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Dude, where’s my savings?

September 29, 2009

Is anyone else alarmed that savings rate and economic growth have been so negatively correlated for the last 20 years? Does anyone wonder, after looking at a chart like this, if the American economy has managed to create anything “real” in the last 20 years? We like to imagine that economic growth is driven by [...]

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Eat the Rich

September 24, 2009

I know its fiscally non-conservative, but I imagine ability to pay taxes and obligation to do so should, to some degree, be matched. However, this article postulates that increasing taxes on the rich will drive them to move to less burdensome municipalities, based on some anecdotal feedback from New York state, where various billionaires have [...]

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Airplanes to get much less comfortable

September 24, 2009

You might not have thought it possible, but airplane seating is about to get worse. Intended for short flights where comfort isn’t considered important (by who?) and claiming passenger count increases of 50% and fare reductions of 30% (who profits here), this design adapts bus and commuter train seating to airlines with decidedly mixed results.

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Easter Island and Canadian Healthcare Policy

July 9, 2009

The health research world is a-twitter today about the longevity boosting effects of a compound called Rapamycin. Hailing from the soil of Easter Island, Rapamycin significantly extends the lifespan of mice, and may do the same for humans. I imagine happenstance discoveries like this to be the tip of the iceberg for radical longevity therapies. [...]

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