Finance committee  You're asking me to conduct a forecast, and I don't really want to make weather forecasters look good. Essentially, the factors for that type of rebound don't seem to be there. However, the one thing I would offer is that in the wake of the pandemic, if you want to think about

Finance committee  Let me answer that in two ways. Unpredicted changes can happen. No one predicted the pandemic and its effect on the economy. The other thing you have to keep in mind is what's happened over the last 20 years. Inflation has been low. Part of that has to do with internationally int

Finance committee  That's a very good question. I guess my first answer is that I actually don't do monetary economic history. The size of the increase is certainly outside of my living memory and my recollection of similar types of events, even during times of increases in public spending. The l

Finance committee  Well, at that time, that was the approach they used. I mean, with World War II, the debt was contracted at, I guess, what you would term “patriotically low” interest rates, given that it was the fight to save democracy. That, in a sense, assisted the process of borrowing, because

Finance committee  Well, that's a function of two things. In terms of the rapid paydown, first, there was a large demobilization after the war effort, so expenditures, of course, came down very quickly. There was also, in the immediate period right after the war, essentially a very large economic b

Finance committee  That's an interesting point. I think if you're going to have federal policies targeted at the manufacturing sector or a specific business sector to produce domestically like that, it's very important to work with firms in that sector when designing those policies. I think if

Finance committee  I think in the long-term, productivity is everything. That's been said by other economists. You have to be able to boost the ability of your factors of production. I know it sounds like such a cold term, but labour and business productivity have to rise. If they don't, in the lon

Finance committee  Could you specify what you mean by the current plan and global neighbours? Do you mean the economic plan or the...?

Finance committee  I can't read the mind of the finance minister, but essentially 30% of our output is exports—30% of our national income is exports—so whatever we do, we have to pay attention to our competitors, and it's probably very important that we be as nimble as possible in assisting our fir

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to speak at these pre-budget consultations in advance of the 2021 budget. I commend the committee for reaching out to the academic community of economists for public input on this important process. It's been sa