Canada and the World Backgrounder articles from October 1999

Canada and the World Backgrounder archives from October 1999

Predicting the Unpredictable.(unreliability of economic forecasts)
October 1, 1999... "Economists were invented in order to make weather forecasters look reliable." Graffiti Economists are constantly pressed to make predictions. Politicians, bank managers, stock brokers, farmers, and anybody with an interest in money...

The Rules.(economics)
October 1, 1999... Economics involves elements of psychology, politics, and sociology, all of which can be unpredictable. So, the first rule of economics is that there aren't any rules, only educated guesses Controversy swirls around the nature of economics...

Let the Market Decide.(capitalism)
October 1, 1999... The movers and shakers of the corporate world like to say that the marketplace is a perfect mechanism that corrects its own mistakes; others say there are imperfections in the private sector that the government has to put right Economists...

Monetarism's Counterattack.
October 1, 1999... Inflation has been identified as the biggest threat to stability and prosperity; the campaign to defeat it has been costly and painful The rate of inflation in Canada in 1980 was 10.1%; in 1981 it was 12.4%. With a few ups and downs, the...

From Boom to Bust.(economic cycles)
October 1, 1999... Economists are under tremendous pressure to make predictions about the future direction of the economy; perhaps we expect too much from an inexact science Karl Marx predicted that capitalism would destroy itself. The agent of its collapse...

The Myth and Magic of the Marketplace.
October 1, 1999... Globalization is good for corporations and the governments of most Western democracies have come to believe that what's good for business is good for people What's this? George Soros saying that capitalism is its own worst enemy? George...