A New Measure of Core Inflation

While the Bank of Canada's inflation-control target is specified in terms of the rate of increase in the total consumer price index, the Bank uses a measure of trend or "core" inflation as a short-term guide for its monetary policy actions. When the inflation targets were renewed in May 2001, the Bank announced that it was adopting a new measure of core inflation. This measure excludes the eight most volatile components of the CPI and adjusts the remaining components for the effect of changes in indirect taxes. In this article, the author discusses the definition of the new measure of core inflation and describes some of its advantages relative to the previous measure. He notes that the new measure has a firmer statistical basis, has a better correspondence with economic theory, and does a better job of predicting future changes in overall inflation. While the new measure has these advantages, the Bank will continue to monitor a broad range of indicators when assessing the likely future path for inflation.

Commentary : central bank communication and policy effectiveness

Greenspan, Alan ; Monetary policy ; Banks and banking, Central

Information and Analysis for Monetary Policy: Coming to a Decision

This article outlines one of the Bank's key approaches to dealing with the uncertainty that surrounds decisions on monetary policy: the consideration of a wide range of information from a variety of sources. More specifically, it describes the information and analysis that the monetary policy decision-makers—the Governing Council of the Bank of Canada—receive in the two or three weeks leading up to a decision on the setting of the policy rate—the target overnight interest rate. The article also describes how the Governing Council reaches this decision.

Provocation and the Ordinary Person

As a defence to a charge of murder, provocation is at once the most accessible and the most fascinatingly elusive of ideas. We are all familiar with the concept of an emotional breaking point, and we are generally prepared to recognize that a person pushed beyond that point may in certain circumstances kill his or her tormentor. Yet in law, an acceptable breaking point is very hard to define. As Dickson 3. (as he then was) said in Linney v. The Queen, provocation, in the relevant sense, is a technical concept and not easy to apprehend It is also, unfortunately, a concept that juries must wrestle with regularly, and for high stakes. Glanville Williams points out that in England half the intentional killings of adult males are committed in anger. And where those killings are found as a matter of law to have been provoked, the average sentence there is from three to nine years; where they are found to have been unprovoked, however, the sentence is life imprisonment

Indigenous Recognition in International Law: Theoretical Observations

This Essay addresses this question in the context of the evolving status of indigenous peoples in international law. International instruments vest rights in indigenous peoples, and establish indigenous peoples as international legal actors to whom States and other international legal actors owe legal duties and obligations. These developments began between the First and Second World Wars, when the International Labour Organization (ILO) began to supervise indigenous working conditions in colonies. They continued after the Second World War with ILO Conventions No. 107 and 169, which vested rights in indigenous populations located in States that are a party to their terms. More recently, the U.N. General Assembly enacted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which declares that indigenous peoples possess a wide array of rights, including the right to self-determination. It affirms the international legal existence of indigenous peoples by recognizing them as legal subjects, and it renders international law applicable to their relations with States. Some of these international instruments, such as conventions adopted by the ILO, legally bind States that are a party to their terms. Others, like the U.N. Declaration, do not, strictly speaking, legally bind international legal actors, but they nonetheless have diffuse legal consequences for the development of both international and domestic law

We’re on This Road Together: The Changing Fan/Producer Relationship in Television as Demonstrated by Supernatural

This thesis explores the changing relationship between fans and producers of television. The traditional hegemonic relationship between these two groups has changed in the digital age giving fans more access to the production process than ever before. Television is under some duress to remonetise itself in the changing landscape. The cultural, media, and communication theories of Bourdieu, Fairclough, D’Acci, and Jenkins, among others, can help to shed light on the dynamics of this relationship and help to understand how it has changed in recent years. While many studies have examined fan communities and fan cultural production, this thesis will focus on how fan interaction has influenced the production of Supernatural through a close reading of the text of the show. As the television industry increasingly seeks to engage and retain audience members, an understanding of how this new relationship influences the very fabric of television becomes a timely one

Thick Law, Thin Justice

Review of The Thin Justice of International Law: A Moral Reckoning of the Law of Nations by Steven R. Ratner