Economics for Canadians

First of all, I hope you are all well into your vacation vibe. As there is still over a month left, please keep thoughts of the classroom out of your mind. However, I am writing this post for those of you who will visit the website in a couple of weeks as the beginning of the semester approaches.

Regarding that, I am happy to tell you that I can mail books with a very quick turnaround. Orders placed in Central Canada can be delivered in a few days, while books to the Atlantic Provinces and British Columbia can be delivered in about a week. So, just pop me an email (to bryceATcroecko.com) stating the number of books you require, the address you would like them delivered to, and your preferred method of payment (Interac, PayPal/Credit Card, Cheque) and I will see that the books are there before you know it. Additional pricing and ordering information can be found on the “Ordering Information” page above.

I also wanted to take a moment to formally introduce the updated company logo:

I started working on a new company logo in early 2022, and was delighted with the final result courtesy of my graphic designer, Marisa Scaramella. The logo reflects the fact that Croecko sells economics books, and that at its most essential, an economy must ensure that food (represented by the stalks of wheat) and energy (represented by the sun’s rays) are produced and distributed to people.

Finally, I have published a few of articles in the past few months with the Postmedia newspaper chain, about topics such as Ukraine’s request to join NATO, the Freedom Convoy, understanding the conflict in Ukraine as a proxy war between the United States and Russia, and the prospect of higher interest rates. To read them, please go to:  https://leaderpost.com/author/bryce-mcbride/ 

Welcome to Croecko Publishing. I hope you have time to look around, but if time is limited you might be most interested in looking at one or more of the following:

1. The table of contents for Economics for Canadians                                                                  Table of Contents
2. The correspondence chart outlining how the lessons in the book line up with the updated 2015 Ontario CIA4U curriculum objectives (which have a lot in common with the curricular objectives of other Canadian economics courses)                                              2015 CIA4U Curriculum Objectives and Corresponding Lessons in Economics for Canadians 2020
3. The 4 lesson section on the ongoing Global Financial Crisis (which might be useful for other courses in business and social studies) to get a feel for how the book is written      https://bryce.gumroad.com/l/VhSa (the download is free)
4. A couple of lessons from earlier in the book, The Magic of Markets Lesson 9 and The Policy Balance Lesson 57

I believe passionately in the importance of students learning economics in high school. Before sending out the mailer I was delighted to learn that Manitoba, New Brunswick, PEI, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador had updated their economics course curricula relatively recently. While I sell books regularly to PEI, British Columbia and Ontario, I am excited by the prospect of supporting students in Manitoba and the remaining Atlantic provinces as well.

Thanks again for dropping by. If you have any questions, please write me an email at bryceATcroecko.com. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Cartoon Credit: Jude Potvin

The 2012 First Edition (left) beside the newly arrived 2021 Revised First Edition (right)

I am pleased to announce that today I took delivery of over 2000 copies of the Revised First Edition of Economics for Canadians.

I have some orders to ship right away but this quantity should do me for the next few years, so I am looking forward to satisfying orders for second semester.

Thank you for your continued support.

First of all, thank you for your support. I sold the last copies of ‘Economics for Canadians’ in August and am very grateful to the schools and districts which have used the book over the years.

Looking forward, a second printing of 2000 copies is underway that should have copies available for sale by November, in time for winter term.

I had planned to write a new edition of the book but in the end I opted to go with a reprint with some small improvements, namely:

1. A partial solutions guide
2. A list of useful references
3. Amendments to lessons to reflect current events and priorities

As well as, of course, correcting typos that got through in 2012, and improving layout and style where possible.

As printing costs have more than doubled, and as postal rates have climbed significantly over the past 9 years, the price of the newly-printed books will be going up. Books ordered as part of a class set of ten or more books will now be $25 per copy, inclusive of postage anywhere in Canada, while books ordered in smaller quantities will be $25 per copy plus postage.

All in all, this is a decision I didn’t want to make but the old pricing scheme didn’t make any sense. Collecting $25 for a book that cost me $20 to send meant that I was not even covering my costs.

Thank you for your understanding and I look forward to hearing from you in the next few months. All the best for a great school year that is hopefully free from lockdowns and disruption.

First of all, congratulations on making it through the school year just past. The school shutdowns mandated in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 and the move to online learning posed a great many challenges to students, teachers and parents. However, in true Canadian fashion, people adapted and learned and remained connected.

Looking ahead towards the next school year is an act of clairvoyance at this point in time. That being the case, I fully expect that schools will only order books as the situation becomes more clear as we move into late August. The good thing is that I have a very fast turnaround time, so orders placed in Ontario will be delivered within a week while orders placed in B.C. can be delivered within 12 or 13 days.

Finally, I invite people to read my most recent triad of articles, “Understanding the Affordability Crisis,” “Destroying the Debt Bomb, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Deflation” and “Essential Work and B.S. Jobs.”

As the old economics saying goes, “the solution to high prices is high prices.” This current crisis could be just what the global economy needs to liquidate debt and reset our economies to favour production and discourage speculation.

All the best for a restful and recuperative summer vacation.

In light of the school closures put into effect across Canada to contain the COVID-19 virus, I made PDF copies of ‘Economics for Canadians’ freely available for students and teachers in late March.

I did so as the book is well-suited to independent, guided study as it has short lessons with exercises which can be done daily.

However, now that the school year is at an end I have removed the download links for the student book and teachers’ guide. However, I invite you to look at the chart outlining which lessons from the book correspond to which curricular objectives from the 2015 update of the Ontario CIA4U economics course here:

2015 CIA4U Curriculum Objectives and Corresponding Lessons in Economics for Canadians 2020

If you did download the PDFs during the emergency, I would ask that you not make them available online. The books are my intellectual property. While I was happy to share them during the acute phase of the crisis, going forward I would prefer that people use the printed book which is, after all, less expensive to purchase than to download and print.

I plan to write a second edition of the book over the next year, as I only have around 300 copies of the first edition (published in the spring of 2012) remaining in stock. One improvement I plan to make is to include a partial solutions key at the back of the student book. Another change would be to make regular reference to the key concepts of the course, as suggested by the 2015 curriculum update. However, if you have any other ideas which would help to make the book better, please pass them along in the comments thread to this post, or by email to me at bryceATcroecko.com.

As summer winds down, I would like to wish you well as you welcome your students back from the summer holidays. If you are teaching economics, you know that current events are bringing attention to the subject. The renegotiation of the NAFTA accords and Trump’s trade wars in general and the related battles over supply-managed agriculture and currency exchange rates are all issues which directly affect millions of Canadians. If you want to see my current articles on these and other topics, please scroll down to the bottom of the following page from the website for my International Baccalaureate economics workbook:  http://brycemcbride.com/blog1/articles/

Again, all the best for a great year ahead.

We live in interesting times. The financial crisis of 2008 led to rounds of central bank quantitative easing and interest rate cutting which were intended to bail out the financial system, increase spending and employment, and devalue currencies to make exports more competitive.

The competitive currency devaluations or ‘currency wars’ which began in 2009 now appear to be metastasizing into trade wars. As students of history will be aware, looking at the dark days of the 1930s, we should now be looking for signs on the horizon of an honest-to-goodness shooting war.

Certainly, the evidence coming from the Korean peninsula and Syria, where the U.S. and its allies are engaged in proxy conflicts with allies of China and Russia, is not encouraging in this regard.

If you want to learn more about such issues, please have a look at some recent articles I have written for the Pembroke, Ontario Daily Observer which have also been carried on the Mises Canada and Zerohedge websites.

All the best, and thank you for using the book.

As an educator and as a writer and publisher, the decline of educational publishing is of great concern. Many school districts (and even entire provinces) have instructed teachers to move away from printed textbooks and workbooks in favour of using online teaching and learning resources. I find this tendency troubling for two reasons.

First, while cost-cutting is often presented as a justification for moving away from printed books and towards online materials, this is only true if the online materials are available for free on the internet. Sadly, free resources are rarely of high quality or well-aligned with curricular objectives. On the other hand, high quality publisher-produced online resources often end up being more expensive than printed books, because while a textbook, once purchased, can be used for a number of years, quality online learning resources generally require an annual subscription.

Second, I have observed a persistent preference for physical books over online resources on the part of students. When I taught at the college level, students could buy either a hard copy of their textbook or, for a discount, an electronic copy. They always plumped for the hard copy. When asked why, they told me they liked being able to highlight and underline the text in the physical textbook. Put simply, they preferred the tangible to the intangible.

Economics for Canadians, as a printed student textbook and workbook, serves students and schools on a number of levels. First, it is a high-quality resource that offers students an accessible and systematic introduction to the discipline. Second, despite being a printed resource, it is nonetheless very affordable. Lastly, as a workbook and textbook, students are encouraged to mark up the text and thereby make it their own.

So, if you are looking for a resource which meets the needs of teachers, students and administrators looking for a comprehensive, engaging and affordable introduction to economics, I encourage you consider adopting Economics for Canadians. If you have any questions, you are welcome to get in touch with me via email at bryceATcroecko.com.

All the best for a great 2017-2018 school year.