Sunday, April 2, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
    • Women’s History Month Fundraiser
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Annual Reports
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
    • Women’s History Month Fundraiser
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Annual Reports
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Poloz book skirts the most interesting policy questions: Philip Cross in the Financial Post

The book short-changes monetary policy, which is what most people want in books from former central bankers.

March 21, 2022
in Columns, Domestic Policy Program, Economic policy, In the Media, Latest News, Philip Cross
Reading Time: 2 mins read
A A

This article originally appeared in the Financial Post. Below is an excerpt from the article, which can be read in full here. 

By Philip Cross, March 21, 2022

Stephen Poloz, former governor of the Bank of Canada, has followed a recent trend among central bankers by writing a book after leaving office. “The Next Age of Uncertainty” is part memoir and part discussion of long-term trends. Unfortunately, it short-changes monetary policy, which is what most people want in books from former central bankers.

Much of The Next Age of Uncertainty analyzes issues Poloz has raised in the past, including an aging population, uncertainty (about which he wrote a long paper in 2014), digitization, and automation. The book offers little that is new on these subjects, either from him or for the world. Rather than re-hashing familiar subjects, Poloz could have drawn on his experience as the head of a G7 central bank to provide unique insights into monetary policy.

Instead, he scrupulously avoids the many interesting questions surrounding monetary policy today, for instance: did Bank of Canada purchases of federal government bonds during the pandemic monetize the debt and fuel inflation? Or does it matter more if the bank buys new or existing government debt? Or if the economy’s nosedive during the pandemic’s onset was less like a typical recession and more like a natural disaster, from which economies typically recover quickly, why was extraordinary monetary stimulus maintained for so long? And what is the outlook for inflation after the massive fiscal and monetary stimulus of the pandemic? Is Canada’s housing market a bubble? There is even a long-standing debate about how to measure inflation — is it just the CPI, or should asset prices also be factored in? In sum, there is no shortage of interesting questions about monetary policy these days.

More fundamentally, Poloz completely ignores concerns about monetary stimulus raised by his one-time mentor, former deputy governor of the bank, William White, one of the few economists to predict the 2008 financial crisis. For years, first at the Bank for International Settlements and then OECD, White has warned about the risks of ultra-easy monetary policy undermining financial stability and lowering long-term potential growth. Poloz clearly was aware of these issues, yet never in his tenure as governor nor in this book does he discuss them. Did he disagree with White or was resistance from the Bank of Canada’s bureaucracy too great? That Poloz doesn’t mention White strongly suggests he disagrees with him, but he never articulates the case for relentless monetary stimulus.

***TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE, VISIT THE FINANCIAL POST HERE***

Tags: Domestic Affairsdomestic policyeconomic policyeconomyPhilip CrossStephen Poloz
Previous Post

The West is allowing Vladimir Putin to ‘escalate’ his way to victory: Alex Wilner in the Globe and Mail

Next Post

At crisis time, Canada is boxed in by its energy policy tunnel-vision

Related Posts

Does the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline hurt Indigenous people? Yes: Stephen Buffalo in the Toronto Star
Columns

Is Alberta Oil Ethical? Heather Exner-Pirot in Alberta Views

March 31, 2023
Canada’s rising carbon tax, energy prices and the Supreme Court: Andrew Roman for Inside Policy
Inside Policy

Canada’s rising carbon tax, energy prices and the Supreme Court: Andrew Roman for Inside Policy

March 31, 2023
Another found of trade negotiations with the US: How to avoid surprises – Lawrence L. Herman for Inside Policy
Inside Policy

Another found of trade negotiations with the US: How to avoid surprises – Lawrence L. Herman for Inside Policy

March 31, 2023
Next Post
At crisis time, Canada is boxed in by its energy policy tunnel-vision

At crisis time, Canada is boxed in by its energy policy tunnel-vision

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Follow us on

Newsletter Signup

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

Inside Policy Magazine

  • Current Issue
  • Back Issues
  • Advertising
  • Inside Policy Blog
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
    • Women’s History Month Fundraiser
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Annual Reports
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.