Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Fiscal Imbalance

Andrew Coyne has the best definition I have ever read on the so-called "fiscal imbalance" Quebec keeps talking about:

The fiscal imbalance is one of those things like dark matter or quantum
uncertainty that defy comprehension by the ordinary layman. Its precise
magnitude has been the subject of countless arcane calculations -- the
government of Quebec devoted a whole white paper to the subject -- but its basic
mathematical expression may be reduced, by a combination of Lagrange polynomial
interpolation and dead reckoning, to two lines: 1. Ottawa has money. 2. We want
it.

"dark matter or quantum uncertainty". Now that's good stuff, Andrew!

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