Hot Topics in Economics

Glen Hodgson Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist Forecasting and Analysis

The Beach Boys wrote and performed a popular song in the 1960s that extolled the virtues of California girls. The image created in the song was of a young woman who was tall, blond, tanned and slim, and ...

Kip Beckman Principal Research Associate, Economic Services

Our current economic outlook calls for only a modest increase in world oil prices from around $95 in 2011 to $100 this year – an increase that would not hurt the global economy. However, this projection assumes that the standoff between Iran ...

Glen Hodgson Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist Forecasting and Analysis

Recent months have seen an improvement in a wide array of U.S. economic data. The labour market finally seems to be on the mend, and the economy has momentum that should be maintained in 2012 as long as ...

Mario Lefebvre Director Centre for Municipal Studies

For years now The Conference Board of Canada has been pressing this country not only to recognize the importance of its large urban centres, but to put in place policies that would allow our largest cities to reach their full potential. At ...

Kip Beckman Principal Research Associate Economic Services

The world’s attention is fixed on the debt and banking crisis in Europe and how this will play out over the next few months. Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain piled up the debt after they joined the euro-zone. When the severe global ...

Glen Hodgson Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist Forecasting and Analysis

There is little talk today among thought-leaders in Canada of a guaranteed annual income, or GAI, as an efficient and effective way to combat poverty—despite mounting evidence of rising social inequality and never-ending concerns about social exclusion. The Conference ...

Glen Hodgson Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist Forecasting and Analysis

The critical financial problems in Europe are forcing all governments to re-examine how their fiscal deficits and public debt are managed, even if they are not in a state of turmoil. The richer euro-zone members, led by Germany and ...

Kip Beckman Principal Research Associate Economic Services

The great economist John Maynard Keynes argued that during depressed economic times when consumers and businesses are reluctant to spend, the government should step in and fill the void and help create jobs via, for instance, infrastructure spending. While most economists accept ...

Glen Hodgson Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist Forecasting and Analysis

Greece, Italy and a few other euro-zone members are facing a hard period of fiscal austerity in an effort to remain in the eurozone and restore their credibility with private financial markets. Fiscal austerity will be painful, prolonged, and ...

Kip Beckman Principal Research Associate, Economic Services

The numbers are staggering. Three years after the housing crisis, 14.6 of the 51 million mortgages in the United States are underwater, meaning that mortgage debt is greater than the value of their homes. National home prices have tumbled by around 40 ...