Identifying Economic Concepts in the News

Positive (or analytical) Economics is objective, without emotion or value judgements. It has to do with "what is," while normative economics has to do with "what ought to be." Positive economics is based on theory, probability, and statistical methods. When searching for positive economic statements I found in the business section of the September 12, 2005 issue of the Toronto Star an article based on the economies foundation and cheaper insurance. This business article written by Steven Theobald is called “Fixed rates now seen as “cheap insurance” and is where I found 2 out of my 3 positive economic statements. The first positive statement I found In this article was when Steven stated “others are predicting mediocre economic growth will force the Bank of Canada to stop at 3 per cent until at least the end of 2006” This statement is based on statistics and has no judgment or opinion from the writer, and because of these characteristics the statement is positive. But beyond that in this statement there is a prediction for the future and is not a factual fact that is present now or had to do with the past which falls into the a conditional branch of Positive economics. Another Positive statement Steven makes is “About 45 per cent of the 45,000 mortgages arranged last year