Recent content by Brad Sallows

Sure. Eventually democracies around the world are going to have to decide whether they're going to back a terror-exporting country, or go all in to take it down.

Why should they? Almost all famine is caused by governments in their own countries, and the "economic crisis" exists only because Iran won't confine its war with Israel/US to attacks on Israel/US and their facilities. "Well it's rational for them to do this thing that is actually a crime under...

They pretend to limit the change of an exogenous variable which is beyond their control from which they calculate a result. Control freaks, who exercise a strange kind of denial when the real world exceeds the parameters within which they want to operate.

Probably. They're paying about $1.50 CAD per litre; the US isn't a country with a food security problem; and they'll mostly be the last ones suffering as things run down. You're describing problems that are much more acute for a lot of other countries, most of which seem to be reassuring...

Melania pointedly explaining why she is not part of the pig-wrestle and demanding she be left out of it is not really any kind of cause. What I see happening is that others tried to help their cause by drawing her into it, and she is just refusing to play.

Economics is a study of what happens at the margins. Everyone who stays in a house longer than intended before downsizing is militating against solving the "housing crisis". Everyone who puts off or gives moving for a better employment opportunity is militating against solving the...

Israel was essentially being left by the "international community" to be the shit-magnet for Iran's terror exports. Available information indicates that this is Israel's war (initiator), not the US's or Trump's (joiner), even though the US obviously immediately claims the role of senior partner...

Problems people are describing with property taxes sound like governments too stubborn to apply an already used-in-Canada solution. Assessments rise and fall freely depending on market values (what similar properties are selling for in a neighbourhood). A mill rate is applied as a multiplier...

I'm writing about how incentives affect the latter. Ordinary people are not actually too stupid to understand what happens when they sell a home, and if rules change so that costs will be higher than anticipated, they're more likely to put off moving for a job or downsizing. It's observable...

For most of the working class, genteel CPP/OAS/GIS poverty. For some, living with family, until social changes "broke" the family model for many. For some, modest savings. For some, downsizing from house to small apartment (for ease of living as well as liquidating some assets). '70s/'80s...

Stop playing the politicians' game of trying to find new money for them to spend.

It will encourage people to sit on property as long as possible and refrain from sinking money into upgrades. (It yields incentives similar to rent controls.) This is a good policy only if you favour stagnation.

Capped rates is yet another a political fix applied by politicians to make their own lives easier. Punishing homeowners for it is bizarre.

The Strait was already "tolled". The "toll" - the price only occasionally overtly demanded by Iran and paid - was for most countries to tolerate Iranian meddling beyond its borders, particularly against Israel, without having to endure much retaliation/punishment within its own borders. The...

Close the strait to all traffic by doing the same thing Iran does. Invite China to deliver the community's ultimatum to Iran.