Chris Neill 🐧

ICYMI, a tale of two long weekends. My column on Ford’s plan to remove large parts of Wasaga Beach from the provincial park. Ontario desperately needs more public space not less. 16 million strong w parkland established for half that population.

Check out our latest working paper!

Painting of a woman swimmer diving as if from a height against a red background

Katherine Bradford, Diver Red, 2011 #womensart #Monday

Lovely to hear, Shirley. Hoping that keeps on keeping on.

Decomposition Methods in Economics
by Fortin, Nicole & Lemieux, Thomas & Firpo, Sergio (2011)

Just one dumb thing after another.

It really might help if Amerocans took a look at how other countries set their electoral maps.

Then again in the current environment in the US, where statistical agencies can't maintain their independence, no reason to really think an electoral commission could.

Patio season convinces Ottawa woman she doesn’t live in desolate arctic hellscape 90% of year - The Beaverton OTTAWA – As local residents welcome patio season, Sana Khan, a thirty-two year old  public servant, appears to be struck with a severe case of amnesia, tragically unable to recall that she lives in a ...

Patio season convinces Ottawa woman she doesn’t live in desolate arctic hellscape 90% of year

It’s Easy to Hate Traffic Cameras. But They Do Save Lives. They raise issues of fairness, and critics claim they’re only about revenue. More speed and red-light cameras, however, would prevent a lot of deaths and injuries.

Yes, traffic cameras work, but it's a myth that people hate them!

Survey after survey shows that most people support automatic enforcement (and often want more of it).

This is a false controversy, fed by a minority of disgruntled drivers & journalists seeking narratives with conflict.

(a) probably impossible; and (b) You want to be the one to tell him he's an embarrassment? Better to just keep on feeding the ego. Who cares what it does to the country do long as you're still on the gravy train.

Photo featuring a standing woman wearing a cloak with significant symbols and motifs in black yellow and blue

Anna Brown Ehlers, master weaver of the Tlingit tribe, Pacific Northwest Coast #UnravellingWomensArt

Navarro? Hassett? Bessent? Lutnick? They're all competing to see who can do the most elaborate prostrations for their Dear Leader.

Look, if you cut prices by 50% 30 times then that's obviously a total cut of 1500% so it's totally possible and all these people criticizing his maths as being a fantasy just need to think harder.

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And I wouldn't call it sad. It's enraging. I am saddened by some of his supporters.

At least one of his papers was on my PhD tax econ reading list (I thought he was on the wrong side of the issue, iirc, but still).

There is a bit of a history of smart people going off the rails later in life, but typically on topics outside their academic wheelhouse. This is just shilling.

1/Kevin Hassett had long ago discredited himself as a scholar by parroting claims about the economy he knew to be false. Even so, parroting the lie about rigged statistics, is a new low. The academy should ostracize him the same way a fabricator of research should be ostracized.

Nominating this guy for hypothetical kicking out of the guild also.

Apparently there's no need for any form of long-run planning needed for businesses on tariffs, whatever the Dear Leader decides on the day after doing all his analysis will be the right decision.

bsky.app/profile/atru...

To this day, the roster of prominent economists who urged Senate confirmation of Hassett in 2017 owe the country an acknowledgment of error. medium.com/@hassett.eco...

Lake Ontario swim route from Oakville, 3km.

Saturday morning Lake Ontario swim - looks as though my sighting is improving.

Almost perfect conditions (mornings are a bit chilly for me tbh, but can't complain about water temp of 20C).

YouTube video by stevekilbey2 THE CHURCH - The Unguarded Moment

youtu.be/Osz-GQbX37o?...

Economist Amartya Sen won a Nobel in part for asking: Why did India avoid the mass famines that killed tens of millions in China? His answer: a free press. Journalists could expose suffering and shame governments into action. Silence and avoidance, by contrast, can be deadly.

if Canadian leaders were focused on non-extractive growth, they'd poach all of the STEM researchers

It is massive. Thanks to Peter Deppeler on Twitter for the footage. #GazaGenocide #MarchForHumanity

QEW yesterday someone was driving on the shoulder over the speed limit for at least a km. Routine for people to pull out into the merge lane to speed down and use the shoulder to cross into the next merge lane was. No enforcement (saw one speed camera, but people doing 20 over weren't stopped).

If you haven’t gotten into marginaleffects yet, this may be your chance. Learning about it has been quite transformative for how I think about statistical modeling 🪄

Government attacks on statistics are a certain way to get economics associations to publicly criticise a policy. The Canadian Economics Association objected when Canada dropped the mandatory long-form Census in 2011. Rightly too.

Won that battle, though iirc only after a change of government.

Vixens score Super Netball revenge, upsetting Fever in grand final The Melbourne Vixens are Super Netball champions for the first time since 2020 after beating the heavily favoured West Coast Fever 59-58 in front of a sold-out Rod Laver Arena.

Exciting netball grand final: www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

Hot dog spill shuts down highway in Pennsylvania commuters' wurst nightmare By Associated Press UPDATED: August 1, 2025 at 5:16 PM ET SHREWSBURY, Pa. (AP) - A truckload of hot dogs spilled across a Pennsylvania interstate Friday after a crash that briefly clogged the heavily traveled artery in both directions.

A writer waits a lifetime for a moment like this.

YouTube video by Carbie Warbie This Is Serious Mum - TISM - Greg! The Stop Sign

Greg! The Stop Sign!!

(From the 90s when of course everything was great for the kids and there was no existential angst or anything.)

youtu.be/JwI2NrVYqIE?...