As Canadians flock to the polls later this month, quietly supplying 22% of America’s oil and 13% of its natural gas, its neighbours to the south have barely noticed. Cross-border oil flows are inevitable – given that America controls of a mere 2% of the world’s reserves and consumes almost 25% of supply – and securing its long-term petroleum assumes the full participation of Alberta’s carbon-rich tar sands and the off-shore bounty at Hibernia. Even Governor Palin’s Wildlife Reserve is virtually useless without passage by pipe across Canada’s Western provinces. Given the importance of “Securing America’s Energy Future” during a twin election year, it’s surprising that talk hasn’t returned to NAFTA, cleaner energy, or agricultural subsidies. Then again, maybe it isn’t…

Keynesian reflections from 1919 on the first era of true globalization, complete with bountiful trade, unparalleled upward mobility, liquid labor markets, secure international travel, and a blissful ignorance of the fragility of this new 20th Century World Order…
What an extraordinary episode in the economic progress of man that age was which came to an end in August 1914! The greater part of the population, it is true, worked hard and lived at a low standard of comfort, yet were, to all appearances, reasonably contented with this lot. But escape was possible, for any man of capacity or character at all exceeding the average, into the middle and upper classes, for whom life offered, at a low cost and with the …

Even market cheerleaders are struggling to find good news to rally around these days. With labor, capital, finance, real estate, and consumer markets all reeling from a half-decade of credit-fueled gluttony, and commodities markets cresting near all-time highs, it might seem a bit clichéd to highlight yet another bearish commentator — unless that bear is David Rosenberg, one of the few bulge-bracket economists to voice frequent and convincing skepticism about the “resilience” of modern capital markets and highlight the irrational optimism of the average investor.

See below for yet another in a series of elaborate digital frauds. Somewhat surprising is the considerable improvement in grammar and argument – it may even have been written by a native English speaker. Not surprising is the use of a decade old framework – the Nigerian 419 scheme – to lure unsuspecting Westerners into providing key banking information in exchange for a share in a large and unattributed overseas estate. The “four one nine” comes from the section in the Nigerian penal code which deals with such frauds. To hear Der Spiegel tell it: “A 419 is a mass crime, a money generator, and could aptly be described as the use of globalized methods as revenge by the losers …

It’s no surprise that financial crises – like intercourse, pro sports, and agriculture – run in alternating cycles of boom and bust. Classical economic theory suggests that such cyclicality can be overcome through innovations in resource use, factor productivity, and leverage. Classical history suggests otherwise. In the following rant, celebrity economist Jeff Sachs tackles the two-headed plague of stagflation — part stagnant economic growth, part inflation — and offers the 1970s as an illustrative case study in how to keep a resource-hungry, debt-ridden, war-wearied hegemon from spinning its economic wheels…

Further commentary on the interconnected themes of income disparity, agricultural inflation, and selective de-globalization, this time by Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen. Perhaps most compelling is the charge that a rising tide doesn’t lift all ships, and those who have benefited least from a “flattening” of our economic superstructure are often the most exposed to rising prices and shifting patterns of supply and demand. Also of note is the graphic artist chosen to visualize our scramble for scarce natural resources, yet another gifted Walrus alum…

As financial institutions continue to navel gaze in the aftermath of the credit crisis, confidence in their ability to self-regulate continues to decline. With little trust in their assets, their markets, or even their peers, these global banking titans have sworn off their independence and, like disenchanted teens, are returning home to be cared for by risk-averse, populist policy-makers and their never-ending pool of taxpayers’ dough. The danger here is that both sides are still reacting to deeds already done, and nobody has yet proposed a solution to avoid similar financial chaos going forward. With threats to global income in the order of nearly a trillion dollars, whoever ultimately grabs this hot potato better have pretty thick skin…