Blair Fix

Download: PDF | EPUB There’s an old joke that economics is too important to be left to economists. In the same vein, I think rich people are too important to be left to the self-help industry. Yes, the popular appeal of you-can-get-rich-too books is obvious. But what’s not obvious is why so few social scientists study wealth.

 1

Clearly, the public thirsts for serious inquiries about the rich.

Stocking Up on Wealth … Concentration

DT Cochrane and I look at the network of corporate power behind Canada’s richest families.

Download: PDF | EPUB

 Blair Fix and DT Cochrane

Every billionaire is … a factory for producing policy failures at scale. — Cory Doctorow The planet has a billionaire problem. According to Oxfam, the world’s billionaires have more combined wealth than the bottom 60% of humanity — some 4.6 billion people. Given this obscene situation, calls are growing to rid the world of the billionaire class. But how do we make that happen?

Mapping the Ownership Network of Canada’s Billionaire Families

With my postdoctoral fellowship wrapping up, I muse about what comes next.

And with that, my postdoc is done.

Backing up a bit, for the last two years I've had a wonderful [research
position](https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2021/05/10/once-more-into-the-fire-of-academia/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} at York University supervised by political economist
Jonathan Nitzan. It was the rare kind of postdoc that allowed me to work
on my own research. (What I did with my time? Look at the last two years
of writing on this blog!)

Anyway, the job's been a blast, but the position is over at the end of
the month. So what comes next? Well, career-wise, I have no idea. But
life-wise, I've got big news. My family and I are leaving Toronto and
moving to Edmonton.

It's a decision that was basically made for us. Like many big cities in
North America, Toronto has become increasingly unaffordable. House
prices are ridiculous. And rents are absurd (to the point where the
Toronto Star is running articles about a [grandma postering the
neighborhood to find an
apartment](https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2023/06/09/a-sign-of-the-housing-crisis-this-grandmother-is-so-desperate-for-an-apartment-shes-postering-hydro-poles.html){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}.) But do you know what city remains affordable? That's
right, Edmonton.

So we're packing house and moving to Edmonton in July. It's a blind leap
and I'm thrilled about it. (Okay, the leap is not completely blind. All
of our family lives in Western Canada.)

![](https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/divider.png?w=120&ssl=1){decoding="async"
style="display:block;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto"
recalc-dims="1"}

While the move to Edmonton is a sound life decision, it's probably a
good way to sabotage my academic career. But let's be honest ... I've
been doing that for years.

Given the choice between padding my academic credentials and doing
interesting science, I've always chosen the latter. The result has been
this blog --- something that's immensely satisfying to write and share
with the internet at large. And judging by the reception, many people
enjoy the kind of quantitative deep-dives in which I engage.

Well, you probably see where this is going. Yes, I'm asking for your
support. But before we get there, let me give you a glimpse into the
kind of effort it takes to consistently pump out new research.

For every 3 words you read on Economics from the Top Down, there's a
line of code that's crunching numbers and making charts. To date, that
means I've banged out about 150,000 lines of code to analyze the data
you get to enjoy. Figure [1](#fig-iceberg) shows the iceberg.

[]{#fig-iceberg}

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large">
<img
src="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/word_code.png?w=723&amp;ssl=1"
decoding="async" data-recalc-dims="1" />
<figcaption>Figure 1: The research iceberg on Economics from the
Top Down. The visible portion of this blog (words spilled)
grows with a hidden code base that crunches numbers and makes charts.
Yes, it’s a lot of work.<a href="#fn1" id="fnref1" class="footnote-ref"
target="_blank" role="doc-noteref"
rel="noopener">1</a></figcaption>
</figure>

### Supporting the commons

Now to the point. I would be honored, dear reader, if you would support
my research. To do so, simply follow the link below and sign up for one
of the various levels of contribution.

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:::

When you become a supporter, you're of course funding my research. But
more than that, you are funding the scientific commons. Everything on
this blog is licensed in the [Creative
Commons](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}, which means it's free to read and free to reuse. (And
it always will be.)

Now the irony is that neoclassical economists will look at my work and
judge it to be worthless ... literally. Without a paywall, my blog posts
have no price. And without a price, neoclassical economists declare that
there's no 'productive' contribution to the economy. So as far as
they're concerned, I'm wasting my time.

Fortunately, neoclassical economists are wrong. Science is most valuable
when it is free to be shared, reused, and expanded upon. But of course,
science is not free to produce. So if you think the work I do has value,
I'd be honored if you helped support it.

### Transitioning from Patreon to Memberful

Now to some logistics for existing patrons. Going forward, I'm
transitioning my crowdfunding from Patreon to Memberful. Here's why.

First, Patreon seems to have a consistent problem with declined
payments. It's gotten to the point that creators I admire ([Steve
Keen](https://profstevekeen.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-new-economics-substack){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}, for example) are looking for alternative ways of
crowdfunding.

Second, Patreon takes a hefty cut of the pie. Now I'm not critizing this
cut, because Patreon provides a whole ecosystem to creators --- a
publishing platform, a way to interact with patrons, payment process,
etc. The problem for me is that I don't use most of these services. I
host my blog with WordPress. I communicate directly with supporters
through email. And only rarely do I post content to Patreon. (I
sometimes post drafts manuscripts, but these can easily be shared via
email.)

In short, all I really need from a crowdfunding platform is a backend
for dealing with transactions. That's where Memberful comes in.
Memberful is a membership service that specializes in handling
subscriptions, and not much else. And for that, it takes a substantially
smaller cut than Patreon.[^2^](#fn2){#fnref2 .footnote-ref
target="_blank" role="doc-noteref" rel="noopener"} So going forward,
I'll be crowdfunding using Memberful.

If you're currently supporting me on Patreon, you have two options:

1. **Do nothing**. If you're happy with the status quo, you don't need
 to change anything. Patreon will continue to process your
 contributions. And regarding content, nothing will change. I'll
 still send everything to you directly.

2. **Switch to Memberful**. If you want to switch to Memberful, there
 are two steps. First, cancel your Patreon payment. Then head to my
 [membership
 page](https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/membership/){target="_blank"
 rel="noopener"} and sign up through Memberful.

 (I know this is annoying. But Patreon is a walled garden, meaning I
 cannot auto-migrate patrons to a different platform.)

Whatever option you choose, I'm grateful for your support.

### Looking ahead

Now to what's ahead. Although my paid research position is ending, my
empirical work continues as usual. Here are some things in the pipeline.

#### Billionaire ownership networks

First up is an exciting piece about the ownership networks of Canada's
billionaire families --- something that fellow Canadian researcher [DT
Cochrane](https://www.taxfairness.ca/en/about/people/dt-cochrane){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} and I have been working on for the last few months.

Backing up a bit, when most people think of billionaires, they think of
piles of cash. But the reality is that great wealth is almost always
vested in corporate control. With this control in mind, we've crunched
the numbers and mapped the ownership hierarchy of ten billionaire
families in Canada --- the likes of the Rogers, Westons and Thomsons.

These networks of power --- built up largely through sprees of corporate
acquisition --- are a sight to behold. Look for the write up in the
coming month.

#### Proximity to oil power

Next, I'll expand on some fascinating work by Regan Boychuk. Earlier
this year he published a piece called ['Proximity to Power: The oilpatch
& Alberta's major
dailies'](https://capitalaspower.com/2023/01/proximity-to-power-the-oilpatch-albertas-major-dailies/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}. In it, he tracked how Canadian newspapers sensor news
that is critical of Alberta's oilpatch.

To make the case, Boychuk tracked 20 articles written by [Mike De
Souza](https://thenarwhal.ca/mike-de-souza-managing-editor/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}, and analyzed how they were sliced and diced (or simply
excluded) as the respective newspaper got closer to the center of oil
power in Calgary, Alberta.

As soon as I read this piece, I knew I wanted to dive deeper and analyze
the text in each version of De Souza's articles. I've run the numbers
(using Boychuk's painstakingly gathered text) and it doesn't disappoint.
The propagandistic editing is a sight to behold. Look for the analysis
in the late summer.

#### Inflationary class struggle

Also in the works is a reply to a reply. Back in March, I published a
piece called ['Inflation! The Battle Between Creditors and
Workers'](https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2023/03/23/inflation-the-battle-between-creditors-and-workers/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}. In it, I measured how US interest rates have changed
relative to wages, and how these changes relate to inflation.

In April, Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan responded with a working
paper called ['Inflation as Redistribution: Creditors, Workers,
Policymakers'](https://capitalaspower.com/2023/04/bichler-nitzan-inflation-as-redistribution-creditors-workers-policymakers/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}. They pointed out that different debt holders have
different interests vis-a-vis interest rates.

In particular, bond holders care about the *total return* of their asset
--- a combination of the bond price and the bond interest rate. Looking
at this total return, Bichler and Nitzan show that it behaves
differently than simple interest rates. In short, my initial analysis
probably oversimplified things.

I think Bichler and Nitzan make a good point. My response will look at
other ways to study the redistribution struggle that is inflation.

### An unknown road

Beyond the above research, I've got lots of ideas percolating with only
a vague notion of where they might lead. And for me, that's the most
exciting part of doing science.

I live for the adrenaline rush that sits between the hint of an idea and
the frenetic analysis that follows. In short, I'm a scientist because I
love the journey.

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#### Support this blog

Hi folks. I'm a crowdfunded scientist who shares all of his
(painstaking) research for free. If you think my work has value,
consider becoming a supporter.

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This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
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You can use/share it anyway you want, provided you attribute it to me
(Blair Fix) and link to [Economics from the Top
Down](https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/).

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### Notes

1. [If you have a shrewd eye, you'll notice that the blog codebase
 doesn't start at zero. That's because many of my early posts built
 on the analysis developed during my PhD (which I finished in
 2018).]{#fn1}

 Four years of blogging later, I've exhausted that research, meaning
 I'm writing about brand-new stuff. Consequently, the codebase is
 growing much faster.[↩︎](#fnref1){.footnote-back target="_blank"
 role="doc-backlink" rel="noopener"}

2. [The irony is that Memberful was
 [acquired](https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/patreon-acquires-memberful-1202898766/#!){target="_blank"
 rel="noopener"} by Patreon in 2018. But to date, it seems to be run
 as a separate business. And unlike Patreon, Memberful is built on
 [Stripe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripe%2C_Inc.){target="_blank"
 rel="noopener"}, which is fast becoming the industry standard for
 online transactions. Hopefully that will buttress against lockin
 effects.[↩︎](#fnref2){.footnote-back target="_blank"
 role="doc-backlink" rel="noopener"}]{#fn2}

And with that, my postdoc is done. Backing up a bit, for the last two years I’ve had a wonderful research position at York University supervised by political economist Jonathan Nitzan. It was the rare kind of postdoc that allowed me to work on my own research. (What I did with my time? Look at the last two years of writing on this blog!)  Anyway, the job’s been a blast, but the position is over at the end of the month. So what comes next?

Rogue Scholar Posts

Stocking Up on Wealth … Concentration

Mapping the Ownership Network of Canada’s Billionaire Families

A Blind Leap