Prices of flour and other grain-based or grain products have skyrocketed since Russia started its war of aggression against Ukraine. Canada, however, is a major grain producing country like both Russia and Ukraine, so why are we feeling the effects here? Let’s look at production numbers and other data to investigate.
Category Archives: International Comparisons
Some Comparative Corporate Tax Stats
Are corporations paying more or less tax? Here are some OECD numbers on corporate taxation in Canada and abroad to investigate.
Crazy Inflation
Inflation has been biting fiercely the past six months. Here is some OECD data on monthly inflation for the past few months; and annual inflation data for the past thirty years for the usual bunch of countries. Overall, Canada and the Anglosphere seem to have higher inflation rates long-term.
Canadian GHG Emissions and Crude Oil Exports
Gas prices look quite nasty. So does the price of a barrel of oil. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caught the West with its pants down. Russia has threatened to restrict or even shut down gas supplies to Europe[1]. This has begun to enter Canadian politics. The pseudo-Tories and the right have pointed outContinue reading “Canadian GHG Emissions and Crude Oil Exports”
Comparing Inequality in Canada, Mexico, and Russia
This blog often compares conditions in Canada with those in our peer countries using economics data. Those peer countries are usually Western or other advanced industrial states that have substantial economic or cultural similarities with Canada. The most common basket has included Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Japan, Australia, and the United States. How aboutContinue reading “Comparing Inequality in Canada, Mexico, and Russia”
Canadian Labour Force Losing its Edge?
Related to the country’s persistent skills problem is its long-standing anemic labour productivity growth. The Canadian financial and chattering classes have often noted that Canada’s labour productivity growth rate tends to lag. Here are some data to illustrate the problem. The graphs below come from OECD data, for Canada and the usual basket of advancedContinue reading “Canadian Labour Force Losing its Edge?”
Under-skilled: Arts Degree Overproduction?
The apparent paradox of Canadians being among the most educated people in the world and Canadian businesses facing continuous skills shortages will take multiple blog posts and some time to investigate. Fortunately, there appears to be one widespread public claim that can be easily dismissed. This claim is the system overproduces what are called uselessContinue reading “Under-skilled: Arts Degree Overproduction?”
Over-educated and Under-skilled
Canadians like to pride ourselves on our highly educated population. However, the country struggles to train its people in marketable and other practical skills. How is such a contrast possible? Let’s start with some education data to illustrate the contrast. The data shown below is from the OECD, for Canada and eight of our peerContinue reading “Over-educated and Under-skilled”
Union Memberships in Decline
It is a common refrain that the old, stable, unionized factory jobs are a thing of the past in Canada and in much of the rest of the Western world. The decline in union memberships, and in the collective bargaining power they once provided to workers, is often cited as a driver of economic inequalityContinue reading “Union Memberships in Decline”
Our Redundant Bureaucracy of Redundancy
The so-called civil service in Canada has never been so needlessly huge. Below are data from the federal Treasury Board Secretariat [1]. It shows the size of the federal public service, not including the military or the RCMP: The federal civil service shrunk slightly during the second half of the last pseudo-Tory government lead byContinue reading “Our Redundant Bureaucracy of Redundancy”
Epitaph for a Nation 