Ben Atkinson, PhD

HOW DARE YOU POST ABOUT ME LIKE THIS! 😭

When we help people get back on their feet, we can *all* benefit regardless of what knocked them down in the first place. wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/approach-p...

Can you hear my eyes roll all the way from Alberta? Top Trump adviser blames Alberta referendum for trade deal delay www.ctvnews.ca/world/trumps...

This is the best post mortem on the Alberta referendum that I have seen 😂

As Dr. Jared Wesley correctly argues, gerrymandering is not only unconstitutional and un-Canadian, but also un-Albertan and un-Conservative. wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/with-the-r...

“In grad school, micro is the weeder, especially for MA students. In my day it was Varian. If you know, you know.” I still have nightmares about the Second Welfare Theorem. It took the prof *two hours* to teach the proof, and it *was* on the final! deadfortaxreasons.wordpress.com/2026/10/24/a...

I want to highlight the following line from this article by Aaron Wherry: "notably, none of the immigration questions won a majority in Calgary”. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

“But look at the money” is not a valid excuse for brushing away national security threats and blatant violations of international human rights. wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/we-should-...

Ruin a song by adding "in my pants" to the title Makin’ a Mess in My Pants www.youtube.com/watch?v=cukP...

The immigration policies Danielle Smith wants to create will harm more than just the immigrants she is directly targeting. It will harm the rest of us, too. wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/albertans-...

Actual Canadian interference

🌭 ca.news.yahoo.com/alberta-prem...

As it stands now, majority of Albertans who voted on the other nine referendum questions are against the constitutional questions, but they are all for beating up on immigrants. The Albertans who did not vote on those questions at all just did not care about immigrants. results.elections.ab.ca/8400

Now four of the other nine referendum questions have gone No! results.elections.ab.ca/8400

Two more of the other nine referendum questions have now switched to No. results.elections.ab.ca/8400

Please enjoy my cartoon for Thursday's Toronto Star

Danielle Smith has proven herself to be a dangerously incompetent puppet for a very small minority of Albertans who want to burn the world down. She needs to go so we can repair the damage she caused. wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/i-am-happy...

If you remember the Alberta referendum results being delayed last night for voting in Lavern Community Hall (in Cardston-Siksika): the vote there ended up being 307-6 (98%) in favour of Option 1.

Also, please ignore the fact that I've spent the last five years telling you it's broken.

Jason Kenney says separatism has weakened both the UCP and federal Conservatives in Alberta

Way lower. Abacus had it at less than 10%.

In Econ speak. Alberta voted to charge temporary residents for health care and school. Who works the line at Cargill High River and JBS Brooks? Newcomers and TFWs. Tax their labour and someone pays: either they leave or wages rise. Enjoy the beef prices. Just don’t call it a tax.

I look forward to seeing all those current Albertans taking those jobs at the Cargill meat packing plant and those agricultural jobs in the upcoming season. Also also look forward then to them not complaining about meat, fruit, vegetable prices. /s

Turns out we are not counting votes after all! We arrived at 6:50AM to our local Elections Alberta office to be told the count went so quickly overnight that our services were no longer needed.

I had a very interesting — in a good way — day working one of the referendum polls yesterday, and I will write more when I have more time and can reflect on the broader news on the subject. But for today, I have will be working on counting votes! If nothing else, I will enjoy sleeping tonight!

“Laura Secord’s daughter voted in 1844 — and it cost Ontario women the ballot for 70 years“ www.theifp.ca/news/municip...

Please vote tomorrow if eligible, and if you have not already done so. wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/tomorrow-i...

As an economist, why do I like gas taxes? - Ramsey: demand for gas is relatively inelastic, so the tax is less distortionary than taxes on goods with relatively more elastic demand -Pigou: gasoline use has externalities, so tax it to change behaviour in a way that accounts for those negative effects

Bill Graveland: “Three people died Thursday when a transit bus set off a chain-reaction crash on a busy Calgary road and rear-ended another bus to ignite an explosion." www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

Can we please have a list of acceptably adult leisure activities?

Let’s all do everything we can to ensure voting in this referendum is as quick and easy as possible! wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/if-you-are...

Thanks to their work, we now know how to control inflation without “demand destruction” and “legions of down-and-out unemployed blue-collar workers cutting back on essential purchases”. wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/more-recom...

Macroeconomics is better when based on micro-foundations! wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/and-the-wi...

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2026 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford “for microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation.”

Alex Tabarrok: “Twenty-five years ago Tyler told me he thought Robert Hall should win the Nobel. He has been a contender for so long today’s award was a surprise! Hall has an unusual number of unexpectedly creative papers. His best known is on consumption.” marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevo...

From an Econ perspective, the whole point of intellectual property law is to protect the incentives to invest in intellectual property be ensuring those who create new art and new innovations can benefit from it. An underappreciated danger is that AI erodes this protection.

Damien Echols has written two must-reads on “the botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee, and the upcoming execution of a terrorist by firing squad that will supposedly be livestreamed”. wallsandbridges.substack.com/p/on-the-wes...

I depend on free expression protections. I’ve used them. That’s why UCalgary’s handling of a residential school denial table on the eve of Truth and Reconciliation Day troubles me. The principles didn’t require silence. They required work nobody did. deadfortaxreasons.wordpress.com/2026/10/10/c...

Democracy and market-based approaches be damned.

Justin Wolfers: “Saying that cutting taxes for truckers addresses cost of living is nonsense. It’s the kind of nonsense one could imagine being bought and paid for by diesel companies.” newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/america-do...

Finances of the Nation was a godsend for me when I was collecting data for my Taxation term paper back when I was a PhD student.

Awww, what a shame. globalnews.ca/news/1209127...

“Only four per cent of members see no drawbacks to Alberta separating from Canada. When asked about the potential benefits of Alberta separating from Canada, 59 per cent of respondents indicated they see no benefits.” calgarychamber.com/whats-new/re...