This is Howard.

I am an Economics, Politics, & Philosophy student living and learning in Toronto.

Currently matriculating at the University of Toronto.

A frequent adventurer, A finance enthusiast, Sometimes a chef, Always a student.

This is where you will find the many parts that sum up me.

My academic research, my economic models, my financial philosophy, my other philosophies, my political analysis, my poetry, my epiphanies, and sometimes my adventures.

These are my passions. And who are we, but our passions?

Education

University of Toronto

Economics Major, Focus on Corporate Finance.

Politics Minor, Focus on Banking Regulation and Europe.

Philosophy Minor, Applied Focus on Business Ethics and Markets.

Credentials

Current Pursuits

I’m always working on something on the main and side.

Currently modelling correlation between financial literacy rates and economic productivity in OECD countries; researching Anglo-American vs. Continental Europe models of corporate governance and financing by comparing efficiencies and political institutions; furthering research and modelling on Eurozone Crisis effects on monetary policy, banking regulation, fiscal balance sheets, political support for EU, Brexit, and Greece; analysing philosophical theories on the morality of taxation and income redistribution; preparing for the CFA Level I exam, and more.

Also planning my next adventure to Patagonia in the very near future, mastering French classics in the kitchen, and sharpening my German.

Interests

•International macroeconomics •FX modeling •Savings and investment modeling • Capital allocation •CAPM •Bond valuation •Options pricing •Political economy •Eurozone Crisis •Geopolitical risk •Electoral systems •Brexit •Market morality •John Rawls •Principal-agent relations •Pricing systems (philosophy) •Determinism and free will •Human nature •Philosophy of emotions, and more.

My Work

  • The Cooperative: A Theory of Ownership

    What is a firm? Who makes up a firm? Where does the firm end? Should a firm hire or contract? To consider these questions, I look towards Henry B. Hansmann’s theory of the firm encapsulating capital structures, corporate governance, principal-agent problems, and information asymmetry. On the way, we answer the age old question: why are firms overwhelmingly owned by their investors?

  • The Euro Disaster: An Economic Union in Disunion

    As economic crisis and political chaos once again descended upon the Continent in 2009, Europeans, like each time before, rose to the occasion and pointed fingers amongst each other and across the pond. I point out that the crisis was a result of institutional failures within the EU–a bureaucratic failure within the world’s biggest bureaucracy.

  • Retreat from Globalism: A Domestic Diagnosis

    Trump may have sparked America’s retreat from globalism, but make no mistake: this was no means a sudden shift. Drawing on historical parallels, I argue that internal forces within America, such as economic inequality and working class discontent, that uniquely shape its foreign economic policy all but ensured its modern day retreat from the global order it built.

  • Legal Prostitution: An Economic Analysis

    Should prostitution be legal? Can we put a price on morality? Who stands to lose or gain from legalising sex work? And how much? To answer these questions, I draw on economic conceptions of efficiency to make a case for legal frameworks that neither encourage nor discourage sex work, but uphold efficient and sufficient institutions to encourage negotiation and societal welfare.

  • Is America a democracy?

    Elections and Fair Fights in America: An Institutional Account

    When Trump secured the White House despite losing the popular vote, Democrats cried foul. If America is a democracy, how could its President rise to it highest office in such an undemocratic fashion? Drawing on the Constitution’s provisions and institutions, and the Founding Father’s competing tension between democratic and republican values, I seek to provide an institutional account of why the Republican Party of today enjoys an electoral advantage over the Democratic Party.

  • Ostpolitik: Europe in Hindsight, Europe of Foresight

    Gambles, choices, risks, and dilemmas. The Europe of today is certainly facing no easy reality as it confronts an unstable Russia to the East. In this commentary, I provide a short history and analysis of how Europe’s choices of the past has come back to haunt the Europe of today’s already fragile peace. For the first time since the Great Wars, the stakes have never been higher, and the costs are only growing by the day.

  • Taxation and Redistribution: A Moral Critique of Welfarism

    In the words of Ben Franklin, two things in life are inevitable: death and taxes. While most may be habituated to the taxation of wealth in the pursuit of redistributing equal opportunities, perhaps society should more closely scrutinise the Taxman. In this philosophical critique of welfarism, I challenge the assumption that equality necessary equates to justice by reimagining conceptions of property rights.