2018-14 Milton campus will not happen

WLU has been trying for years to open a new campus in Milton. The last government finally agreed to finance the new campus; but the new government has cancelled the funding. Reason - fiscal restraint.

2018-13 Carbon tax

The federal government is introducing a carbon tax. The goal is environmental. Emission of carbon will be taxed, starting at $20 per ton and increasing $10 per year. The revenue from the tax will be returned to households at tax time. The effect is to raise the price of carbon, with limited cost to the population.

2018-12 On Wednesday Bank of Canada is expected to increase the interest rate

On October 24 Bank of Canada is announcing its interest rate decision. It is expected to raise the interest rate, even though the most recent economic data were weak: inflation fell and so did retail sales. To a large extent, the declines were caused by lower prices of gasoline. As we will discuss in due course, the Bank of Canada does not pay much attention to the prices of gasoline because these are volatile and change all the time. It focuses more on the general state of the economy which is booming, and on the inflation rate, which is above target.
By the way, so it happens that only one Bank of Canada interest decision will coincide with the course. The Bank of Canada makes decisions once every 6 weeks; the next one will be right after we finish. So read reports about this one.

2018-11 US president attacks the central bank

Donald Trump yet again attacked the Federal Reserve, US central bank, for raising interest rates.
What is happening? With record low unemployment, fast growth and inflation above 2% the FED hs been increasing interest rates. That is to be expected when the economy is so strong and interest rates so low. But higher interest rates will slow down economic growth and so Trump criticizes the FED.
The FED is, in principle, independent. The president, who nominates FED chair and board members, can dismiss them but only for cause. In general it is believed that a policy disagreement is not sufficient to dismiss a board member.
So the criticism is unlikely to have much of an effect.
In contrast to the FED, the Federal Government can force the Governor of the Bank of Canada to resign in case of a fundamental policy disagreement. It would issue a directive, ordering the Governor to adopt a particular policy. It is believed that the Governor will then implement the policy and resign. This has never happened.

2018-10 Trade agreement signed

The power of a deadline! 2 hours before the deadline the deal was signed. The best source of details is the Guardian

2018-09 Nafta saga so far

In this article,  the Globe and Mail provides a detailed summary of the issues related to NAFTA.  Read it if you are interested - it is too long to summarize.
A few important points:
- Canada is much more dependent on NAFTA trade than the US (obviously); only two US states (Vermont and Michigan) export more than 10% of theri output to Canada; all Canadian provinces export more than 10% of output to the US;
- but: Canada is number 1 trading partner of 35 US states; number 2 for most of the remaining states
- the contentous issues are the dairy protection, dispute settlement and, the Globe article adds, the softwood lumber issue, that has been a thorn in US-Canada relations for a long time.

2018-08 The fate of NAFTA

Nafta, the North American Free Trade Agreement, is being renegotiated. The renegotiation was demanded by the US, which complained that it caused US jobs go to low-wager Mexico.
The US has now concluded a new agreement with Mexico. It has to be signed by the end of the month. Canada-US negotiations are continuing. On Tuesday, the US trade representative said that even after the deal with Mexico is signed, the negotiations with Canada can continue.
There are two main points of disagreement:
1. dispute resolution mechanism. In US opinion, disputes should be dealt with by domestic courts. Canada wants to keep it. Being much smaller, the dispute resolution mechanism provides some way of countering disagreements with the US.
2. Dairy protection in Canada. US wants greater access to Canadian dairy market.
Canada has repeatedly stated that it rather leaves NAFTA than accept a bad deal.
We will see how it ends