Things only an economist would say

It has, this year, been an embarrassment of riches on the Democratic side--a half-dozen or so candidates any one of whom would have a reasonable shot of being in the top 20% of American presidents if elected, compared to zero on the Republican side.-Brad Delong

-Check it out

This is the first time I've heard confidence intervals applied to politics. Running the numbers, there has been 43 presidents. So the next one would make 44, (44*20%)=8.8. I'm going to round this off and assume that he means they have a shot at being one of the top nine presidents of all time. Glad that's cleared up.

Brad Delong explains his vote for Obama because the philosophical differences between the two democrats are minor, but Obama is better at making speeches. I think he is missing an issue. Obama is also the better candidate to restore America's image. This is very closely related to Obama's speech making ability. The media focuses entirely on personal issues during the American election.

Obama has seemed to put the America haters on the defensive. They fall back on the line that they like Obama, but there's no way that America could elect a black president. This isn't supported by the evidence. Message to Americans reading this: PROVE THEM WRONG!

Hire Canadians first law

Universities in Canada have regulations mandating that you can only hire foreign professors once you "close the Canadian market." This may end up actually working against Canadian professors. How? Suppose a University has five "top tier" candidates for a job. Three foreign and two Canadian. You lose the first two interviews because they are highly qualified and are lured away by other universities. Now if you want to go after the other three highly qualified candidates you have to "close the Canadian market," insuring that the position will be given to a foreigner.

I'll concede that there are other stories you can tell where the law works in the favor of hiring the Canadian worker. However, when you place restrictions on hiring practices for Canadian universities, you hurt students too. Given these two factors, I doubt that this law is something worth continuation.

-Credit Cornelis Van Kooten for bringing this to my attention.

I'd like to give Microsoft some credit

...but they make it so hard sometime.

Worst-case scenario for trade

In a speech today, Nicolas Sarkozy said that Bombardier was welcome to bid in contracts for trains in France if Canada extended the same courtesy to Alstom. In order to analyze the effects this would have, lets consider what most people think to be the worst-case scenario. This being where Alstom is able to drive Bombardier's trains completely out of the market, leaving their workers unemployed. However, these workers wouldn't just sit around. They would relocate to firms with more innovative ideas and resources; increasing Canada's GDP along the way. Meanwhile, we would be able to utilize better trains at lower cost in Canada. Does it sounds like the worst case scenario is better than what we have now? That's because it is. Free trade is good for both Canada and France.

Recession in Journalistic Honesty

A couple days ago I wrote that people seemed to be jumping the gun in declaring a U.S. recession. Today BC Local news wrote this:

"Although market participants are now a bit more optimistic that the U.S. will come out of the current recession in fairly short order – maybe as short as three to six months – the damage currently being done will have widespread impacts on the U.S."

Current Recession? It is true the U.S. MIGHT be in a recession, but that is speculative and we have no data to support it. Try imagining a world where journalists are allowed to report any uncertainties as facts...pretty scary. We shouldn't let something like this go.

Should Microsoft and Yahoo be able to get together?

First of all, if the merger between Microsoft and Yahoo is defeated (I'm assuming Yahoo will take the bid), it should be due to CONSUMER exploitation. Not because Google is complaining about it. Google claims that a merger would allow Microsoft to exploit consumer positions in E-mail and instant messaging. This doesn't pass my sniff test. Instant messaging is already incompatible with competitors, so a merger won't change anything there. I doubt they would start charging for instant messaging or e-mail because they are both fairly old technologies. This merger would only give Microsoft large positions in decaying "web 1.0" technology. Google has won "Web 2.o." I think this deal will have to do more with the battle for "web 3.0" than monopolization.

How about those Canada only contracts

Many people support the idea of "Canada only" contracts for public works because they believe that it will increase Canadian living standards by keeping the profits at home. This is not the case. Yes getting the exclusive right to bid on a government contract does enrich the company who gets the contract. However, the workers and resources that it takes to complete these projects are drawn from other sectors, this in turn leads to lower productivity. Lower productivity leads to a weaker economy and lower living standards. Sadly, Canada only contracts are a political plow to play on peoples patriotism, while politicians enrich those who contribute to their campaigns.

Dominic D'Alessandro is my hero

...isn't he yours? He is the chief executive of Manulife Financial, an insurance company. The conference board of Canada recently released a report showing foreign takeover of firms raise Canadian living standards. In response, Mr. D'Alessandro gives some of the funniest arguments against foreign takeovers I've heard in a while:

"There's something wrong when you have too few leaders. Every country needs its heroes, and I think Canadians are poorly served by the point of view that says 'It doesn't matter'"

--I think that Canadians would want their heroes to be people who DON'T use the government as a hammer to lower citizens living standards, while enriching their own paycheck. The next quote is even better:

"there's a total absence of any passion, all of it is numbers"

--YOU RUN AN INSURANCE COMPANY DUDE!

Here's the link to the original Reuters article
-Credit to David Scoones for bringing this article up in class