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Originally posted on 21 March 2018 Provincial Finance Minister Joe Ceci brings down his fourth budget. Many, many moving parts Don't expect a lot of new spending or new tax hikes A path to balance by 2023 has been signalled (more…)

Over twenty-three days, my wife and I travelled to Hong Kong, India, Bhutan, and Bangkok. Below are a few observations married with some pictures and videos of life from these very different locales. While saying, as Canadian travellers "we are enormously fortunate," is trite, our guided tour left us gasping at the appalling poverty, admiring the exquisite craftsmanship, and marvelling at the ubiquity of our fossil fuel culture. (more…)

On 8th December 2016, the Economics Society of Northern Alberta hosted their annual 2017 economic Outlook conference. The Association pulled together a list of eminent economists, a political scientist, and keynote speaker the environmentalist Avi Lewis. This post will summarize presentations of some speakers with a subsequent post covering the remaining speakers. The first speaker was Dr. Avery Shenfeld, chief Economist of CIBC who provided a global outlook.  Shenfeld observed that the “new normal” growth rate for western industrial economy is now 2% rather than 3%. In Europe he noted that the Greek crisis is not over and that there uncertainty concerning the restructuring of Italian banks. With respect to Brexit he acknowledged that UK- Europe trade is very significant and felt that the...