Book Review: GDP

GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History by Professor Diane Coyle offers an interesting popular history of the concept of gross domestic product (GDP). GDP is a mental construct, and is the result of somewhat arbitrary decisions. The book discusses the history of the idea, tied in with economic history as well as the history of economics.

Lessons For Greece From Alberta

The election in Greece has added a new chapter in the ongoing march towards the dismantling of the euro. The rapidity of news coverage and analysis cycles generates the expectation that events will progress quickly, but my feeling is that both sides in negotiations are playing for time. There are strong parallels between what is happening in Greece and the experience within Canadian Confederation during the Great Depression. Unequal political entities faced off within a fixed exchange rate system, and policy was hamstrung by an ideology of "sound" fiscal policy. There are lessons that can be learned from Canada's experience, but one hopes that the outcome in the euro zone will not parallel that of Canada. Canada only escaped its policy trap with the advent of World War II.

Book Review - Austerity: The Great Failure

In Austerity: The Great Failure (2014, Yale University Press), Florian Schui examines the history of thought on the subject of austerity. In it, he looks at the wider definition of austerity, which is the abstention from consumption, and not the narrow definition related to fiscal policy which is how the term is currently being used in economic debates. He argues that the argumentation in favour of austerity policies rely on the moral and political tendencies that come from that wider definition of austerity. That is, if austerity is good for households, it is good for governments.