Coming Soon: The National Interest
A short series on oil, debt, Canada & the carbon tax
Hi everyone,
I just wanted to thank you for signing up for my substack. I hope you’ve been enjoying it. The comments, suggestions, feedback and response are all very encouraging.
I wanted to let you know about an upcoming series of articles I am working on about Climate Change, the Carbon tax and some of Canada’s economic, political and ideological challenges in getting things done.
Initially, I thought I could cover the story in one post, but it quickly became clear that to do the subject justice (and fit it in e-mails) that it would require a series.
If you’re enjoying the substack, you’re not alone - we have reached nearly 700 subscribers and readers in 40 countries, and 29 states in the U.S.
As much as possible, I’ve tried to keep posts free - and I have to say, I am glad to see our ideas being validated. In my first post, I said the Bank of Canada needs to change its monetary policy - and it’s happening.
The criticisms I’ve made about economics are also being shared and voiced by experts in the field - the most recent one being Angus Deaton, who was awarded with a Swedish Central Bank Economics Prize named after Alfred Nobel, and published this statement on a blog through the International Monetary Fund.
You can read it here - it’s quick and pithy. Deaton’s conclusions are really important.
He says that mainstream, orthodox economics doesn’t adequately address:
Power imbalances - “Without an analysis of power, it is hard to understand inequality or much else in modern capitalism.”
Ethics - “In contrast to economists from Adam Smith and Karl Marx through John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek, and even Milton Friedman, we have largely stopped thinking about ethics and about what constitutes human well-being. We are technocrats who focus on efficiency.”
Efficiency - “After economists on the left bought into the Chicago School’s deference to markets—“we are all Friedmanites now”—social justice became subservient to markets, and a concern with distribution was overruled by attention to the average, often nonsensically described as the “national interest.”
Empirical methods: “Historians, who understand about contingency and about multiple and multidirectional causality, often do a better job than economists of identifying important mechanisms that are plausible, interesting, and worth thinking about, even if they do not meet the inferential standards of contemporary applied economics.”
Humility: “It would be good to recognize that there are almost always competing accounts and learn how to choose between them.”
In Canada and around the world, we are dealing with crises and instability, because rigid systems and ideologies are crumbling and being stressed by changing circumstances. A natural reaction is to retreat to old and familiar ways - which is happening in our discourse.
My goal at the outset was to share articles that explain, illuminate, and offer real solutions.
With that in mind, if you are enjoying my Substack, please consider signing up for a paid subscription. It’s only $8USD a month.
And if you know anyone who might be interested in my substack - be sure to let them know.
And of course, feel free to share by e-mail or post on social media.
Thanks! You’ll be hearing more from me soon.
Dougald Lamont