Q4 Begins

We began the morning bright and early - particularly thanks to the time change, I'm not a big fan of losing an hour, but will be glad for the extra hour of daylight at the end of the day!

We jumped right into it with global economics (AKA: Global Managerial Perspectives). Today was a fairly light day watching a video about the impact of Wal-Mart on the US economy. But, as I'm sure we'll learn, there are two sides to every coin. Has Wal-Mart been positive or negative? I'm keeping an open mind and hope that the course will give me some insight into the issue. As always, I'm sure that the answer will be 'it depends.'

Class number two was Operations Management. I've heard a lot of horror stories about this one - particularly related to the course load. We only have six weeks after all, so I anticipate some challenges with this one.

Which is why I am now ensconced in the fishbowl diligently trying to get ahead with my readings and problem solving.

Tomorrow is Ethics - I anticipate being frustrated in this class. Not because of the professor or class discussion, but because I'm already upset at the people in the first case. I feel that this quarter will be ripe with cases full of people turning a blind eye.

Also on the schedule is another accounting class (nothing to say about this one yet) and Integrated Thinking Practicum. I really hope that ITP will be a positive experience as I've loved the Design Visa program that I did and in my mind, Integrated Thinking is about coming up with creative solutions to problems that might otherwise not be effectively solved. Note that this is a personal definition, there seems to be several definitions being batted around. With the concept being so new, it's exciting to see how this idea progresses.

For now, on to the books!

Past Exam Questions

You know that you have a lot of work ahead of you when the sample questions are along the lines of "explain X as fully as you can." Basically, tell me everything you can about X, Y, or Z.

I envy anyone that is ambidextrous because my hand will be sore after this one!

Stuck between a rock and a hard place

How timely. With the G7 summit coming to an end in Iqaluit, I've gained some understanding to the financial plight of the current Canadian government. Please be patient with my simplistic analysis of the situation:

In the early 2000s, the Canadian government was enjoying a healthy budget surplus. Elections were fought based largely on whether this surplus should be used to pay down the accumulate debt or cutting taxes. Tax cuts won out shortly thereafter the GST (goods and services tax) was cut from 7% to 5%.

What I've learned in class:
1. The GST is a roundabout way of encouraging saving because the tax is only paid when you buy something.

2. Lots of saving = increased productivity. Why? Basically, the more households save, the more funds are available for borrowing. Interest rates are lower thus corporations are apt to borrow funds to invest in buildings and equipment which are used to produce more things.

3. Budget deficits ultimately increase interest rates and cause investment (& productivity) to fall.

If the above is true then the cut in GST, the promise that helped elect the current government, was a terrible idea and has severely impacted our ability to dig our way out of this recession.

Less intake in taxes means the government is now running a (growing) deficit which will ultimately mean that the interest rates must rise (currently interest rates are artificially low). Rising interest rates mean less investment and lower productivity. Plus, households aren't saving as much which again means that the supply of funds available for borrowing is reduced. Ouch!

I now understand the tough position that the government has put themselves in, but I'm having trouble being sympathetic. If in 3 weeks, I can learn the basics, the government should have done a better job anticipating this eventuality.

Bah! I can't believe I just posted about politics! I'm having trouble deciding whether I've hit a new high, or low...

Guess who just contributed to the GDP?

Yup, I bought fries from Swiss Chalet for dinner. Delicious, crispy fries i.e. potatoes grown in PEI.

GDP, what wouldn't I do for you?

On another note - I read in the paper today that StatsCan is releasing two reports this Friday: November gross domestic product and December industrial product and raw materials price report. By then, we should be able to understand these as our first Macro quiz is on Friday. Time to start making flash cards!

Last Lecture

This morning is our final Economics lecture before the final. Not sure if this is a good sign, but my classmates and I seem to be on the same page. I keep leaning over to my neighbour asking for clarification and then a classmate will ask the same question aloud. I really need to stop worrying about asking a dumb question because there actually are others in the class thinking the same thing.

On another note, today we have the best discussion going than we have had all term. Maybe we need the threat of an exam before every class...

More Logic, Less Math!

Economics Quiz #3 this morning and it went better than expected. By that I mean that there were more logic questions than math questions. When we took up the test, it became obvious that the class did better on the 'math' questions than on the ones that required logic, so I actually did pretty well in comparison. Fingers crossed that logic will continue to play a big part in the course because the math confuses me!