Matt 
The late Milton Friedman is arguably the high priest of ‘libertarian economics’ – which is also called ‘neo-liberal economics’ – or more commonly ‘neoclassical economics’. In the latter half of the twentieth century, Friedman’s influence has been massive and it continues today. My own library of audiobooks contains 2 of his titles: First, Capitalism and … Read more
According to Oxford University’s OUR WORLD IN DATA, there’s significantly greater income inequality in the US than in all the other G7 countries. They have much more in common with countries under authoritarian rule. Russia and India (which is arguably democratic) exceed all countries in the European Union – as does China – in terms … Read more
Many years ago, I was chatting with a neighbour at my parent’s home on beautiful Saturna Island, located between Vancouver and Victoria on British Columbia’s idyllic West Coast. She asked me what I did for a living, and I told her I was a tax accountant. She assumed I meant personal tax returns, so I … Read more
Microsoft’s CoPilot Service is revolutionizing internet search. A few days ago, I got an email from BUSINESS INSIDER about an article which purported to detail Microsoft’s struggles with Copilot. The title was: Inside Microsoft’s struggles with Copilot According to the article “Customers are dissatisfied, rivals are circling, and company insiders are skeptical: a BI exclusive.” … Read more
Introduction to AI Does Not Pose an Existential Risk to Humanity This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. You can use/share it anyway you want, provided you attribute it to me (Blair Fix) and link to Economics from the Top Down. ABOUT THIS ARTICLE – Editor I was first introduced to … Read more
SUPERSIZE ME Our Insatiable Appetite for Stuff (and Services) Average House Sizes 1950 to 2010 Average House Size 1950 to 2010 (SOURCE: Darrin Qualman’s Blog – 2018) AI Summary by WORDTUNE The average size of a newly constructed single-family detached home in the US is now 2,600 square feet and probably 2,200 in Canada. The … Read more
ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS FOR SMALL BUSINESS IN CANADA How Enhancements to Information Technology Have Impacted Accounting Systems for Small Business in Canada There is no doubt that improvements in information technologies have brought with them a great deal of change to the way we live our lives. Think smartphones, NetFlix™, Spotify™, and remote work. As a … Read more
“Among Canadians, the rate of self-employment—that is, the number of self-employed workers as a share of total employment—has been relatively stable, hovering around 15% over the last decade. However, when we focus on the core-age group (those aged 40 and older), interesting patterns emerge: Overall Self-Employment Rate:In 2018, approximately 2.9 million Canadians were self-employed, up … Read more
While our American neighbors to the South would like to paint themselves as free traders, in fact, they are the probably world’s most successful protectionists. After two rounds of free trade deals in the last 30 years or so, we’ve lost a huge amount of manufacturing and processing jobs – most notably in softwood lumber … Read more
Five short decades ago, the economic landscape in Canada and the world was vastly different. Five decades before that farming was the dominant occupation, and Canada was primarily rural. In this overview, we’ll look at the accounting occupation in Canada and how it has changed during the last five decades and try and understand some … Read more