Are oil pipelines scary? They seem to be. When activists attack proposals for pipelines from Alberta to the United States, or Canada's west coast, the public listens. Too much, perhaps. Click here to read the rest.
The City of Ottawa is struggling mightily with the “Presto” card for public transit, a cutting-edge late 20th century system where instead of paper tickets or cardboard passes you actually use a digital medium. Wow. Just imagine if, say, banks found out about this concept. One day we might buy gas by swiping a credit card. Or, to fantasize, a cup of coffee with a smartphone app. Click here to read the rest.
Even for a desperate politician, B.C. Premier Christy Clark’s attack on the Northern Gateway pipeline was exceptionally mean and stupid. It’s no accident Canadian provinces are not allowed to behave like highwaymen. But it is astounding that Clark doesn’t know it. Click here to read the rest.
Hey Presto, it's the magic of government. Coming soon to an Ottawa bus near you, convenient high-tech electronic payment. Or not. Click here to read the rest.
Bip... bip... bip... bip... Drives you nuts, doesn’t it. Those drivers who leave their turn signals on for miles as they drift down the road. But they might lurch sideways if you do try to pass, even though when they do turn, they probably don’t signal. They should. Click here to read the rest.
I've always treasured a crack by Rose Friedman about the illusion of precision in economics. Her husband Milton was half-way through declaring that if you can't measure something you don't really understand it when she interrupted with "If you can't measure it, measure it anyway". Which brings me to Michael Ignatieff's latest swaggering statement that he and his party will support the Tory budget provided they get quarterly updates including how many jobs it is creating. The trouble is, you can only know how many jobs it created if you know exactly what would have happened in employment markets if the budget had been different or absent. And since we can't run history two different ways we can't even if we have really fast computers that let us pretend we've somehow created a spreadsheet that completely accurately captures every interrelationship in the economy and accounts for chance as well. (To test this proposition, plug 1980 data into the spreadsheet and see if it predicts 1985.) On the plus side, this approach lets talking heads sound wise and politicians talk tough while acting weak. If you think that's good.
During the campaign, the Tories said no deficits; wouldn't be prudent. Now they insist that only hair-raisingly huge deficits are prudent. As, apparently, is leaking your budget so it won't terrify people on the day. It's as if "prudent" were a magic word that justifies anything you decide to do. Except they didn't really decide to do this. Spending rockets up in good times and bad and when revenue drops off big deficits gape and none of it is the result of financial or political calculation. It's structural features of the budget the politicians neither control nor understand so they babble gravely in an attempt to look relevant. Happy budget day.