Stephen Gordon

Maclean's

Stephen Gordon is an economics professor at l'Université Laval in Quebec City. He started the blog Worthwhile Canadian Initiative in 2005 and has been blogging about economics ever since.

Stephen Gordon

The mini-recession of 2012-13

Only when you look beyond the headline employment numbers will you see the extent to which confidence in the job market plummeted

April 28th, 2014

Stephen Gordon

Looking for the root causes of inequality in all the wrong places

Why the wage-productivity ‘disconnect’ does not explain increased inequality

April 13th, 2014 2 comments

Canada's Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (R) walks to a news conference on the government's fiscal update with Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa October 30, 2007. REUTERS/Chris Wattie (CANADA) - RTR1VHUO

How the financial crisis defined Jim Flaherty’s legacy

The former finance minister deserves extra credit for leadership, our economists say

April 10th, 2014 2 comments

Skeletons of abandoned housing developments in California. (Simon Hayter)

Odds are on a soft landing for the Canadian housing market

Don’t expect a U.S.-style crash. When you dig into the numbers, our housing market doesn’t look all that bad.

March 31st, 2014 6 comments

Pauline Marois

Could an independent Quebec use the loonie?

The Euro crisis exposed why a monetary union between the ROC and Quebec wouldn’t work

March 11th, 2014 5 comments

Liberal Party,

A short history of Nathalie’s family’s income

Economist Stephen Gordon imagines the fictional woman from Trudeau’s speech

February 24th, 2014 43 comments

FEDBUDGET 20140211 TOPIX

About those surpluses everyone wants to spend

Without further austerity, they disappear quickly

February 24th, 2014 23 comments

Champlain bridge

What you need to know about infrastructure

Is there really a crisis in public-sector infrastructure?

February 22nd, 2014

(Adrian Wyld, The Canadian Press)

Liberal economic policy agenda becomes less amorphous

Trudeau’s video offers a few clues, but raises even more questions

February 18th, 2014 208 comments

Operations At The Canadian Mint As Dollar Rises From Two-Year Low

The truth about where the Canadian dollar is headed

Nobody really knows anything

February 18th, 2014 38 comments

David Stobbe / Reuters

Job creation is no longer a top priority

Stephen Gordon explains why focus should be on the quality of jobs, not the quantity

February 17th, 2014 10 comments

Peace Tower 300x300

The budget path out of deficit

Stephen Gordon on how a surplus is possible, just in time for the next federal election

February 11th, 2014 5 comments

gordon_reven_expend_gdp-300x300

Charts: A Conservative plan to reduce the size of government

Direct program spending is on the decline

February 11th, 2014 1 comment

Aaron Vincent Elkaim/CP

2014 budget preview: Econowatch predictions

Is this really a ‘do nothing’ budget?

February 10th, 2014 101 comments

Stephen Poloz Mark Carney

Why was the Bank of Canada so wrong for so long?

When you make the same mistake for four years in a row, hard questions have to be asked

January 22nd, 2014 55 comments