Canada’s annual inflation rate rose to 6.7% in March, making it the highest jump since January 1991 and well above market expectations of 6.1%. For pandemic-weary Canadians, many of whom experienced career setbacks over the past two years, this economic vise is tightening against the backdrop of sustained housing prices, substantial supply constraints, and geopolitical conflict that has led to record prices at the pumps.
While it can seem like a very personal situation, inflation affects us all and there are mathematics at the root of many decisions being made at a national level. For instance, when prime rates go up, how is the percentage determined? And what does this increase then mean for mortgage rates? How do institutions like the Bank of Canada use math to respond to these and other complex variables that ultimately become the economic reality we navigate through a crisis?
Date: June 28, 2022 at 5 PM EDT
In this edition of What the Numbers Say, we invite you to submit your questions to a panel of experts whose job it is to make sense of the facts and figures.
Please send your questions to the panel by June 27, 2022 to
Registration: Register here and you will receive the livestreaming link upon registration.
Speakers:
Dr. Luis Seco
Dr. Seco is the director of RiskLab, a global-based laboratory headquartered in Toronto that conducts research in financial risk management. Seco is also president and CEO of Sigma Analysis & Management Ltd. He is currently the director of the Mathematical Finance Program at the University of Toronto. In July 2019, the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences announced the appointment of Dr. Luis Seco as Director of the Fields Centre for Quantitative Analysis and Modelling (Fields-CQAM) through to July 2020.
Dr. Amy Peng
Dr. Peng is the inaugural Associate Dean of Innovation in Teaching and Learning (ITL) in the Faculty of Arts. Prior to assuming this role, Amy was Associate Professor in the Department of Economics (since 2010), Interim Chair in the Department of History (2021), Interim Chair in the Department of Criminology (2019-2020) and Undergraduate Program Director for International Economics and Finance and the Economics and Management Science programs (2016-2019). She recently contributed an article to The Walrus on the topic of inflation in Canada.
Dr. Mario Seccareccia
Dr. Seccareccia has been teaching at the University of Ottawa since 1978. He has authored/co-authored or co-edited a dozen books or monographs, over forty special issues of journals, and has published over 100 articles or chapters of books. He is also editor of the International Journal of Political Economy. His principal research interests are in the areas of monetary economics and macroeconomics, history of economic thought and methodology, labour economics, and Canadian economic history.
Moderator:
Dr. Louis-Phillipe Rochon
Dr. Rochon is Full Professor of Economics at Laurentian University, Canada, where he has been teaching since 1994. Before that, he taught at Kalamazoo College, in Michigan. He is currently co-editor of the Review of Political Economy. He is the founder and past editor (now emeritus) of the Review of Keynesian Economics. He is the author of over 125 articles in peer-reviewed journals and books, and has written or edited 26 books. He has been guest-editor for the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, the International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, the European Journal of Economic and Social Systems and the International Journal of Political Economy. He has published on monetary theory and policy, post-Keynesian economics, and fiscal policy. He is on the editorial board of Ola Financiera, International Journal of Political Economy, the European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, and Problemas del Desarrollo, Cuestiones Económicas, and Credit and Money.
The recording of the discussion can be found here.
