Bootlegged in the sense of being broadcast & recorded up here in Canada. Us with our online streaming rules and broadcast licensing the USTR has called non-tariff barriers to trade. I trust the Americans who have been happy to see the tape will be loudly defending Canada…

Hundreds of public servants to learn about job cuts in the new year nationalnewswatch.com/2025/12/21/h...

Labour admits 60% of parents wrongly targeted in HMRC child benefit fraud crackdown

14 2-yr Postdoc positions at 3 unis, any field (that is under pressure in US), deadline Jan 9

A dense network of interconnectedness and interdependence is about to get denser.

If you work in academia (or just follow the sector), this new mixed methods study of Ontario faculty is worth your time: uwo.scholaris.ca/items/82005d.... Congratulations to Dr. Anne-Marie Bresee

Drunk raccoon found in liquor store suspected in karate studio break-in

A hat-tip to @althiaraj.bsky.social for spotting the poison pill in the draft budget legislation in Parliament apple.news/Ai261EfiGREW... and to a good friend for sharing her piece. I read the bill last night and then I blogged. open.substack.com/pub/robsonj/...

I feel like the currents in the stream have picked up and are overtaking any efforts at hydrographic engineering.

Page 12 of the new US National Security Strategy (accidentally?) refers to other nations as “counties”

Imagine if the PM had just taken time to meet with Coastal chiefs *before* signing the MOU with Smith…

A reminder that Franklin is a book character from Canadian author Paulette Bourgeois and Canadian illustrator Brenda Clark. As a Canadian, Franklin would only be able to enlist if he already had a Green Card (PR). As a Canadian, he would have the right of return to Canada if deported from the US.

The Smith-Carney bitumen pipeline accord would very probably get a better reception at an Alberta NDP convention than at a UCP convention. That's where we're at now in Alberta politics.

This racist screed is « non-compatible with Western Civilization ».

Remember kids, if you raise taxes and reduce tax-benefitted savings incentives, investors will run away. Oh wait!

Our @ubcvse.bsky.social application deadline is coming up soon for next year's MA and PhD entrance cohorts. Full details in the QT below!

Applications are open to join us as an Early Career Cdn. Urban Leader or an Urbanist-in-Residence. Visiting experts are practitioners in civil society, the arts, business, media, or govt. & (emerging) leaders in their urban-related sector. Apply by 26/01 https://ow.ly/wU6o50XurfA

I just can’t even… This is within 48 hours of the US State Department reportedly amending its official policy to say that public funding for reproductive health care when it includes abortion and gender affirming care are *human rights violations* in the eyes of the US Govt. Way to Larry Summers.

that was faster than I would have expected, but still so destructive while it ran Is anyone still saying we need this in Canada?

Seems Canada is very likely to be caught in this…

🚨 Postdoctoral opportunities! 🚨 Hello #econsky! We are hiring 2 postdocs in the department of economics at UCalgary for those working in *electricity economics* Term: 2 years Pay: $80,000/yr + benefits + $10k research allowance Start: July 2026 Details in next two posts 👇

Hoping to carve out some time soon to look at earnings calls for Canadian firms for this same sort of info

This is...sort of brilliant.

Summers conferred with Epstein frequently about how to extract sexual favors from a Harvard econ grad (AB '04, PhD '09) The grad is from China Epstein and Summers referred to her by the codename "Peril" Racism and sexual exploitation in one efficient package bit.ly/3LHpin8

A priori there is no reason that women should ever be associated with the men who talk about them. The fact that they are is plain old patriarchy.

Larry Summers still teaches at Harvard. Imagine what it feels like to be a woman walking into this guy's classroom after reading those Epstein emails. From this Crimson story: www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

John has been tracking COVID benefits cases *STILL* working their way through the courts. READ THIS PIECE. The machine has been working on autopilot. It's time to ask whether this represents an efficient use of public resources - salaries, court time, +++ www.canadianaffairs.news/2025/11/12/o...

READ THIS! www.canadianaffairs.news/2025/11/12/o... $200K to litigate a case against a social assistance recipient who *may* have received $10K in CERB overpayments is not an "inefficiency", but collecting unpaid taxes on luxury yachts or planes *is* a waste of bureaucratic time? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE

"Premiums for consumers buying aluminium on the physical market in the U.S. have hit record highs, driven by steep import tariffs and tight supplies globally." www.reuters.com/world/china/...

I wish financial planners would stop warning ppl about the "OAS clawback" The OAS is the residue of a pension, launched in 1926, to relieve starvation among the very poor Now, it (and GIS) helps those people, but also ppl with modest savings/pensions It's 'clawed back' from the very comfortable

The unheated greenhouse did good this year. Came so close, but the snow and cold has arrived and I’m not prepared to pay the added electric bill to heat it. So, down to the basement in hopes of off-vine ripening.

Fail. Seriously, bad decision.

🚨 A nearly 90-min deep dive on all the implications of #Budget2025 with the always excellent @jrobson.bsky.social Ben Woodfinden and @davidherle.bsky.social Defence, housing, climate, fiscal policy etc YouTube youtu.be/CwMRTCUjCmU?... #cdnpoli

Just recorded a convo on the budget with @tylermeredith.bsky.social & Ben Woodfinden for the always thoughtful and generous @davidherle.bsky.socialon #HerleBurly. 3 things I wish I had said: 1) The taxes cut on luxury boats, planes and underused homes should be seen a piece. It's "capital spending"

Every single woman you know has had this happen to her. Even the goddamn president of Mexico.

Still going back through the budget to find new things I hadn't spotted before. Like this, on page 103, where a list of 25 sample projects are listed for a proposed new infrastructure fund (whose funding and conditions are a bit fuzzy).

This one is even more of a head scratcher than most.

No notes

the #budget offers more public details on tax-agency reconciliation (aka "Automatic filing"). There's some stuff to like in here, even if it's not perfect. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good!

called it

No more Under-used Home Tax...

If you were thinking of buying a boat or private plane, tomorrow will be a good day to go shopping....

Still trying to finish reading the #budget (I was teaching & grading, & had meetings & had to parent today, don't @ me!!!). This is interesting:

Dropping a beta version of this page while everyone is up and processing baseball! This tool lets you search the full text of papers from the American Economic Review, American Economic Journal series, and over 30,000 NBER working papers. paulgp.com/econlit-pipe...

This better not take another 9

One team is having a lot more fun than the other.

I’m not cheering for him, but I like that there’s a player named Mookie in this game.

I wrote about the upcoming federal budget. I don’t disagree that cuts are required, but the path taken to find them hasn’t been amazing.

Somebody at HMRC needs to be canned for this idiotic ‘fraud-detection’ idea. And I fear future use of AI in welfare cases might well produce this kind of story regularly (as they have in Nevada for example).