Friday, August 20, 2010

Economists make the strangest bed fellows...

Yeah I know that the quote should read that politics make "the strangest bed fellows" but given our current economic reality, I really do think that economists make the strangest of all bed fellows.

I recently came across a post from a blogger that easily and succintly summarizes why the Canadian economy is doing better than the U.S. economy and why economic conditions in Canada will support that effort:

Eh Canada.

I had to think hard about linking to him. Why? After all of my years in the States I still believe in a few fundamentals - namely public education and a social safety net. And consumer protection against the excesses of banks or lending institutions. And this blogger and I may share some views on the economic reality but we are very far apart on political issues.

This blogger is not only conservative but I think he is a Libertarian and dare I say it - a tea partier.

However, he has just made the case for me - governments can be pro-business AND provide social services.

I lived in the States for eight years. You do get used to the hockey jokes but it always drove me nuts when people would focus on the socialist nature of the Canadian government without looking at the numbers.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the link! You might have more in common with libertarians than you think. I notice all of your Economics blogs in your left bar are among my favorites.

    "Libertarian" doesn't necessarily mean no public education and no social safety net. Perhaps extreme purist libertarians would go that far, but most libertarians I know just want incrementally smaller, less intrusive government.

    W.C.

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  2. Thanks for the feedback - much appreciated!

    Yes, I agree that I may have more in common with the libertarian movement than I think I do. My reading habits do give me away. I came across this article , which resounded with me on a number of levels.

    And earlier in the year this great interview with Naomi Wolf (probably left to where I am) who is incredibly smart and great at understanding macro cultural and political trends.

    We are living in interesting times.

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