Jun 2 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — It is hard to assess how much Donald Trump is the cause of his country’s disintegration, and how much the consequence. Suffice it to say that the times brought forth the man: the perfect embodiment of all the fears and resentments – of foreigners, of minorities, of liberal elites – of the Republican base.
May 29 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — Even before Wednesday’s British Columbia Supreme Court ruling in the extradition case of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, the government of China was warning of the effect an adverse decision for Ms. Meng would have on relations with Canada. A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry demanded her immediate release, to avoid “continuous harm to China-Canada relations.” […]
May 27 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — Unveiling details of the new Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy in April, Justin Trudeau took care to stress that abuse of the program by greedy employers would not be tolerated, promising “stiff and severe penalties for trying to take advantage of this system and of your fellow Canadians.” How fine, then, to discover among those lining […]
May 20 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — When it comes to relations with China, there would appear to be two choices. On the one hand, there is the position of the Liberal government and certain corners of the business community: a hazy mix of complacency, denial and appeasement. In this view, China is either the next global hegemon or a useful counterweight […]
May 14 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — Every time the Parliamentary Budget Officer opens his mouth, the deficit shoots higher. On March 27, PBO Yves Giroux projected the shortfall for the current fiscal year, which started on April 1, at the then-staggering sum of $112.7-billion. By April 9, that had climbed to $184-billion; by April 30, $252-billion. This week, Mr. Giroux told […]
May 13 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — At most times and in most circumstances, bailing out corporations with public funds makes little sense. If the company is viable, it doesn’t need the money; if it isn’t, all the more reason it shouldn’t get it. At best, it’s a zero-sum game. Most often it’s a net loss for the economy, forcing firms with […]
May 8 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — There are, it has been said, two kinds of writing about economics. The first is the work of academic economists – rigorous, methodical, incremental – in which a set of assumptions about the relationship between certain economic variables are expressed as equations, which when solved simultaneously yield certain conclusions, which are then tested against reality […]
May 5 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — What issue could be urgent enough to move the publishers of most of the country’s newspapers to unite in a common cause – and not only management, but the leader of their largest union, as well? The pandemic crisis? The recession? World peace? Not exactly. The issue that prompted the nation’s newspapers to take out […]
May 2 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — The Parliamentary Budget Officer’s latest forecast puts the federal deficit for the current year at $252-billion. The economy is now projected to shrink by roughly 14 per cent. Some eight million people have applied for the federal emergency benefit. All of these numbers are likely to get worse for some time, as the country struggles […]
Apr 29 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — There is a cluster of arguments making the rounds, especially on the right, and it goes like this. The models were wrong. They’ve underestimated the infection rate, and overestimated the death rate. Many more people than is believed have been infected; the vast majority will recover, and be immune. Lift the lockdown, then, and leave […]
Apr 18 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — Belatedly, and with great reluctance, governments across Canada have recently released their projections of how far and how fast the COVID-19 pandemic will spread among their populations. Their hesitation was understandable, though not for the reasons given: that forecasts of this kind are inherently uncertain, or that they did not want to incite panic. Rather, […]
Apr 15 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — A month in, with the entire population under house arrest, the economy in ruins, the health care system under siege, and the number of dead still mounting, the feeling is universal: We must never let this happen again. How to prevent it, though? There, consensus breaks down. Two schools of thought have emerged. For the […]
Apr 7 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — At time of writing, Canada had roughly 18,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. On its own, this does not tell us much. Is 18,000 a lot or a little? Only by comparison with some other benchmark – with previous experience, with other countries, with hospital capacity, with the population – can we begin to make sense […]
Apr 3 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — The nature of a contagion is that it grows at a speed that always just exceeds our awareness. It seems dormant for a long while, then suddenly it is surging. No sooner have we adapted to this than we find it has grown still further, faster. It is like a tsunami in this respect. Far […]
Mar 31 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — Should we sacrifice Grandma for the GDP? That more or less sums up the debate in much of the U.S. media over the past week, ever since U.S. President Donald Trump mused aloud to a Fox News reporter about relaxing the already patchy American shutdown of social and economic activity in time for Easter – […]