Russell David “Russ” Roberts (born 1954) is an American-born Israeli economist. He is currently a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and president of Shalem College in Jerusalem. He is known for communicating economic ideas in understandable terms as host of the EconTalk podcast. Roberts describes himself as a classic liberal, stating, he believes … Read more
Ha-Joon Chang was born in Seoul, South Korea, on 7 October, 1963 (there are stories about what life was like in South Korea in my youth in the Prologue of my book, Bad Samaritans* and also the Introductory chapter of the latest book, Edible Economics – A Hungry Economists Explains the World*). I came to … Read more
While Milton Friedman preaches the gospel of the free market and free trade, he ignores anything that interferes with the beauty and metaphysical elegance of his ideology. Warren Buffett – by contrast – practices the trade of business in the real world. Buffett uses the term “economic moats” to describe a company’s ability to maintain … Read more
As of 2021, approximately 74.1% of Canada’s union members work in the public sector. This is significantly higher than the private sector, where unionization rates are much lower. Of course that percentage doesn’t include private sector workers whose employers use significant assets owned by, or subsidized by the Canadian Government. Things like our major ports, … Read more
If we include the self-employed as ‘workers’, fully 98% of Canada’s private sector firms have less than 50 employees. Zero point one percent of firms have 500 employees or more. These large firms account for a little les than a third of private sector employment. They are large, hierarchical organizations. Clearly the senior managers of … Read more
So what is critical thinking? In this post we’ll examine how one Carleton University business professor used his critical thinking skills to rationalize an 8.4 million dollar salary to George Weston’s grandson during the pandemic. George Weston Limited is probably Canada largest company with an estimated 155,000 employees. The conglomerate has deep roots in the … Read more
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