Trump Sets the Optimal Global Carbon Tax! Bravo! Maintain the blockade on Iran until Iran Makes the World Safe for Iran

“Carbon taxation, coupled with cross-region and cross-generation financial transfers, can both correct the carbon externality and produce a global win-win, raising the welfare of all current and future agents across all regions by 4.3 percent.” larrykotlikoff.substack.com/p/trump-sets...

Going Beyond Academic Credentials By Examining Actual Economic Policy Records Some records are better than others, but we all make mistakes.

Some records are better than others, but we all make mistakes. wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/going-beyo...

Forget the Credentials. The Record Is Dismal on Both Sides. So here we are. Pierre Poilievre has gone on a podcast to inform the nation that Mark Carney — Harvard BA in economics, Oxford MPhil and DPhil in economics, former Governor of two G7 central banks …

Dr. Linday M. Tedds: “Everyone currently yelling about everyone else’s economics education has participated in economic policy that I, as an actual working economist, find indefensible. Let me tell you why.” deadfortaxreasons.wordpress.com/2026/04/20/f...

Lowering Gas Taxes *Will* Lower the Price of Gas, But It Might Not Be Obvious By Looking at the Pricing Signs The Devil is in the details.

A reminder since today is lower-tax day. wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/lowering-g...

Edmonton folks! I’m looking to interview a first-time buyer for a story i’m writing.

If this is you or someone you know, send me a DM for further details.

Thanks in advance!

Super Troopers 3 | 420 Countdown YouTube video by Broken Lizard

Holy moly! There is going to be a "Super Troopers 3"! www.youtube.com/live/9JrN8A9...

Pierre Poilievre is picking a fight he can't win The Conservative Party of Canada is apparently spoiling for a fight over who is more trusted on economics with the only prime minister to ever serve as governor of two different central banks. Good lu...

“Challenging a guy with [Carney's credentials] to a contest of who understands economics better is a new and previously uncharted form of machochism, especially from someone whose own education on [it] seems to primarily involve YouTube videos and podcasts.“ www.nationalobserver.com/2026/04/20/o...

Happy 420! Also, Why Do We Still Not Have Flying Cars? "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads" ("Back to the Future")

Everything I know about heroin was learned from Velvet Underground records, and everything I know about weed was learned from Cheech & Chong and Jay & Silent Bob movies. Which leads me to flying cars… wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/happy-420-...

Sunday Fun-Day Post: It Took Me Over 25 Years to Even *Listen* to Metallica's Load Albums. Here is What I Thought About Them. A recovering gatekeeper tries to listen to these albums with an open mind.

A recovering gatekeeper tries to listen to these albums with an open mind. wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/sunday-fun...

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Dreams Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Dreams

It has worked for me! www.smbc-comics.com/comic/dreams-2

When Gasoline Retailers Prefer to Run Out of Gas Rather than Raise Prices Also, that time when a gas station manager was fired for raising his price without *really* raising it.

Tales from the months when I drove around Guelph recording retail gasoline prices. wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/when-gasol...

The Naked Budget 2½: The Smell of Expiry In my last post, I argued that the Carney government is dismantling Canada’s women’s state not through cuts but through the expiry of time-limited funding — and that the trajectory take…

Part Deux is up on Dead for Tax Reasons.

On Monday: 394 organizations, unspecified dollars. The press release is careful to count organizations rather than dollars. You should be careful about that too.

deadfortaxreasons.wordpress.com/2026/04/17/the-naked-budget-2%c2%bd-the-smell-of-expiry/

When Gasoline Retailers Prefer to Run Out of Gas Rather than Raise Prices Also, that time when a gas station manager was fired for raising his price without *really* raising it.

Also, that time when a gas station manager was fired for raising his price without *really* raising it. wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/when-gasol...

Watery gas suspected, dozens of vehicles repaired after fuelling up at south Edmonton Esso | Globalnews.ca Dozens of vehicles with suspected water contamination in the gas tank are being repaired at mechanics across Edmonton after they fuelled up at a southside Esso station.

“Gasoline containing a significant amount of water has been pulled from the fuel tanks of numerous vehicles towed to repair shops all around the Edmonton region, after they broke down shortly upon being fuelled up at the same southside gas station.” globalnews.ca/news/1180513...

Why Pierre is questioning our PM’s economic credentials. I came from nothing and built something.

“Poilievre became a political staffer at 18. An MP at 25. He’s never run a business or had to make payroll. He’s never had to worry about having enough...to retire. Never had to put something back...because his money ran out before the end of the month.” arlenedickinson.substack.com/p/why-pierre...

How ANNE OF GREEN GABLES Inspired A Horror Punk Graphic Novel PUNK'N HEADS creator Dave Baker gives us a peek inside the pages of his new horror comic and shares how inspiration can come from seemingly unlikely sources.

How ANNE OF GREEN GABLES Inspired A Horror Punk Graphic Novel www.fangoria.com/how-anne-of-...

“I could go to a festival in a unicorn outfit and no one would bat an eyelid. Nobody cares”: From teenage rebellion to gatekeeping and mental health, we interviewed a therapist to try and understand h... Why do some people love metal while others hate it? Why do metalheads gatekeep? And does heavy music make us more logical thinkers? We hit a practicing therapist with the big questions.

“Heavy metal has been found to lessen negative emotions by reducing cortisol levels, which helps to lessen stress. ...people who listen to heavy metal tend to think more logically and in more complex terms... Heavy metal has been found to help the most with focus” www.loudersound.com/features/hea...

We Basically Elected Stephen Harper Again. The Receipts Are in the Women’s State. A few days ago, there was a small exchange on Bluesky that has been rattling around in my head. Mary Grace laid out what Budget 2025 actually prioritizes: more business tax breaks including for fos…

For the evening crowd.

What you get is a Harper-era fiscal and ideological architecture, executed with more subtlety and more plausible deniability, and on a trajectory that takes the women’s state below where Harper left it.

deadfortaxreasons.wordpress.com/2026/04/16/w...

Carney paused the gas tax to help Canadians. Some say it helps the wrong ones Canadian consumers and businesses are feeling the impacts of oil price shocks caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. But while a pause of the excise fuel tax does offer some relief, it will do so dispr...

YES! YES! YES!

Natasha Bulowski: “Rivers, who specializes in environmental economics, said the best way to help Canadians struggling with affordability would be to use a means-tested mechanism similar to the existing GST rebate structure...“ www.nationalobserver.com/2026/04/17/n...

Facing eviction, homeless advocate group finds new downtown space While facing eviction from their downtown home, homeless aid group BeTheChangeYYC has found a new home in the city's core.

Bill Kaufmann: “BeTheChangeYYC, which supports the city’s vulnerable population, had been told by the city last July it would need to vacate its home of five years — at 316 7 Ave. S.E. — by Dec. 31.” calgaryherald.com/news/local-n...

Alberta to redraw electoral map, expand legislature to 91 seats in fast-tracked review The process would be overseen by a UCP-led committee of MLAs and would see the number of MLAs grow by four, up to 91

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

“Alberta is poised to overhaul...electoral map, rejecting the proposed boundaries recommended by an independent commission...and striking a new expedited process overseen by a government-led committee...without public consultation.” nationalpost.com/news/local-n...

Has Technology Gone Too Far? AI Just Came for This Guy’s Job as Well as His Wife, Kids, and Assets First, it came for Aaron Blake’s software developer job. Then it confiscated his wife and children. And if that wasn’t enough, AI... Read the full masterpiece

Has Technology Gone Too Far? AI Just Came for This Guy’s Job as Well as His Wife, Kids, and Assets thehardtimes.net/blog/has-tec...

Lowering Gas Taxes *Will* Lower the Price of Gas, But It Might Not Be Obvious By Looking at the Pricing Signs The devil is in the details.

The devil is in the details. wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/lowering-g...

Jury Rules Live Nation Guilty of Running Illegal Monopoly After a five-week trial, the jury revealed that they felt Live Nation and their subsidiary Ticketmaster had operated

"A jury has ruled that Live Nation and...Ticketmaster have operated as a monopoly, overcharging fans on tickets for entertainment events. This comes in the wake of increased scrutiny on the company's ticketing practices by both the Biden and Trump administrations..." loudwire.com/jury-live-na...

Milton Friedman on Pollution: "There's always a case for the government to do something about it." Even Milton freakin’ Friedman was a supporter of carbon taxes!

Even Milton freakin’ Friedman was a supporter of carbon taxes! wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/milton-fri...

Make It Myself

This comic is a good demonstration of opportunity costs and the benefits of specialization based on comparative advantage. xkcd.com/3233/

What Would Milton Friedman Do About Climate Change? Tax Carbon Leading economists at the "Mecca" of free-market economics, the University of Chicago, evoked their most prominent predecessor, Milton Friedman, last week in advocating a price on carbon to address cl...

To show how far Conservatives strayed from conservative ideals, Milton Friedman:

"The way to do it is to impose a tax on the cost of the pollutants emitted by a car and make an incentive for car manufacturers and for consumers to keep down the amount of pollution."

www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmc...

Slashing the Gas Tax Is *Still* a Terrible Idea Both Environmentally and Economically Despite Poilievre's comical accusation that Carney is "badly educated on economics", I have no doubt the PM knows this is a bad economic policy. This is his politician side taking the wheel.

“...price increases due to summer-blend pricing would happen regardless of whether...‘axed the tax’, so the gas tax cut will still make prices almost 10 cpl lower than they would have otherwise been. But my point remains that this is a terrible policy...” wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/slashing-t...

Slashing the Gas Tax Is *Still* a Terrible Idea Both Environmentally and Economically Despite Poilievre's comical accusation that Carney is "badly educated on economics", I have no doubt the PM knows this is a bad economic policy. This is his politician side taking the wheel.

“First, the price of gas will almost certainly not drop by the full 10 cpl. I do expect it to drop by almost 10 cpl because short-run demand for gasoline is very price-inelastic, but it will not drop the full amount.” wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/slashing-t...

Alberta won’t consider matching Ottawa’s summer fuel tax pause until June | Globalnews.ca The federal fuel tax pause will apply nationwide for the summer months, providing immediate relief at the pump — but Alberta continues to insist it won't follow suit anytime soon.

Danielle Smith will not lower her own gasoline excise tax, which is even higher than the federal one. globalnews.ca/news/1180151...