SmartGreen Policy

Translation: I am a small-minded person who takes satisfaction in the 5% loss in the value of bitcoin on the 2nd day of trading for spot-price bitcoin exchange-traded funds. I apologize for borrowing for this unserious topic President John Kennedy’s famous and serious speech proclaiming America’s commitment to defend West Berlin. One of the landmark speeches of the Cold War even though a literal translation of “Ich bin ein Berliner” would be “I am a jelly donut".

The inflation rate is 7.1% (annualized over 19 months to November 2023 from April 2022) for Canadians using bitcoins to finance consumer purchases vs. 3.8% annualized inflation for those paying with Canadian dollars over the same period. I coined the term, HighPierreInflation, for the inflation rate for Canadians using bitcoins to pay for goods and services. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/09/22/pierre-poilievre-not-fit-to-pick-bank-of-canada-governor.html HighPierreInflation is my tribute to Pierre Poilievre and his public suggestions that Canadians could hedge against inflation with bitcoin and other crypto currencies:  “digital currencies … giving people an opportunity to protect themselves against inflation” (September 2021)   “the freedom to use other money, such as Bitcoin…Choice and competition can give Canadians better money and… let Canadians opt-out of inflation with the ability to opt-in to crypto currencies.” (March 2022) https://web.archive.org/web/202203

CBC reporter Kate McKenna: "Pierre Poilievre got the name of PEI wrong in French several times. He called it the "Île de Saint Édouard" in French. It's Île-du-Prince-Édouard.” https://twitter.com/katemckenna8/status/1691863030437474523  This post represents substance-free teasing with no malice intended.  My own French skills are terrible – far below Mr. Poilievre’s quite good French. I am well aware how easy it is to go wrong speaking in a tongue other than mother’s.  That said, the CBC report prompted a quiet smile during these dog days of August.

On 28 March 2022, Pierre Poilievre  stated: “The Trudeau government is ruining … the Canadian dollar, so Canadians should have the freedom to use other money, such as Bitcoin…Choice and competition can give Canadians better money and… let Canadians opt-out of inflation with the ability to opt-in to crypto currencies.” https://web.archive.org/web/20221003183845/https://www.pierre4pm.ca/make_canada_the_blockchain_capital_of_the_world Poilievre put his money where his mouth was on March 28 and used a restaurant bitcoin machine to buy a shawarma . What has happened to those who tried to opt out of inflation in Canadian dollars by using bitcoin to pay for daily living expenses? April was the first full month that someone could have followed Poilievre's " opt out of inflation with bitcoin" example. September is the latest month in Statistics Canada's Consumer Price Index (CPI) report. The number of bitcoins needed to pay for CPI items jumped by 103.6% in the five months fr

I summarize why not in Canadian Public Policy ’s October 2020 special issue on impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. Full text: https://www.utpjournals.press/ doi/pdf/10.3138/cpp.2020-073 Abstract: https://www.utpjournals.press/ doi/abs/10.3138/cpp.2020-073 Stephen Harper urged Alberta to introduce a separate provincial personal income tax (PIT) in his 2001 firewall letter when he was taking a break from partisan politics. Premier Ralph Klein ignored Harper’s idea rather than burden Albertans with unnecessary costs. Current Premier Jason Kenney revived the Alberta PIT plan in November 2019, but put the idea on the back burner after the COVID-19 crisis blew a hole in the Government of Alberta’s accounts. Proponents of a separate Alberta PIT must pin their hopes on a future federal government agreeing to Quebec’s request to grant provinces the right to collect all income tax and then send the federal portion to Ottawa. Even if Quebec succeeds, I explain in my article why other provinces may

I have 3 articles in Tax Notes International ( TNI ) on Donald Trump’s crusade against foreign Value Added Taxes (VATs) -- known in Canada, Australia and New Zealand as the Goods and Services Tax or GST.  https://www.taxnotes.com/document-list/contributors-authors/sayeed-adil   Trump’s false notion that VAT is an unfair trade barrier was fed to him by his team of trade advisers:  • Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross  • US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer  • Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro, PhD  Trump successfully nominated David Malpass to be World Bank President. Malpass made the same mistake about VAT in a New York Times article. (Scroll down to his 3rd last paragraph.) https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/01/opinion/why-this-economy-needs-donald-trump.html The “VAT as trade barrier” error may not fade into history if Trump is defeated. Sadly, economic nationalist believers in the same error may wield influence in the Biden Administration and Democratic Congres