Dan Cohen
@dancohen.bsky.social
Critical urban and economic geographer studying the marketization of education and other social institutions (he/him). https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=S265d9kAAAAJ&hl=en
If there's such a thing as the Odd Lots confidence index, the latest few episodes are pointing in a worrying direction. The call is coming from inside the house at this point.
November 17, 2025 at 2:20 PM
If there's such a thing as the Odd Lots confidence index, the latest few episodes are pointing in a worrying direction. The call is coming from inside the house at this point.
Excerpt from the Bank of Canada's rate decision. Monetary policy cannot target specific sectors.
Unless of course you are talking about the financial sector... then we've got hundreds of billions, can lend to new actors, and can 'crank it up to 11' as a BoC deputy governor put it.
Unless of course you are talking about the financial sector... then we've got hundreds of billions, can lend to new actors, and can 'crank it up to 11' as a BoC deputy governor put it.
November 16, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Excerpt from the Bank of Canada's rate decision. Monetary policy cannot target specific sectors.
Unless of course you are talking about the financial sector... then we've got hundreds of billions, can lend to new actors, and can 'crank it up to 11' as a BoC deputy governor put it.
Unless of course you are talking about the financial sector... then we've got hundreds of billions, can lend to new actors, and can 'crank it up to 11' as a BoC deputy governor put it.
I spend too much time on presentation slides, but I'm happy with this one about the need for financial geographers to think more about liquidity and what Martine August, @emilyrosenman.bsky.social and I call relational financial geographies (see here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...)
November 13, 2025 at 2:59 PM
I spend too much time on presentation slides, but I'm happy with this one about the need for financial geographers to think more about liquidity and what Martine August, @emilyrosenman.bsky.social and I call relational financial geographies (see here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...)
Working on my first comprehensive talk on the work I've been doing on the spatiality of monetary policy. Unreasonably happy with this slide on central banks (lack of) spatial imaginaries. If I have any NZ followers, I'll be giving the talk at the University of Auckland on December 5th.
November 11, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Working on my first comprehensive talk on the work I've been doing on the spatiality of monetary policy. Unreasonably happy with this slide on central banks (lack of) spatial imaginaries. If I have any NZ followers, I'll be giving the talk at the University of Auckland on December 5th.
Canadians are being asked to make sacrifices for a budget that meets the moment. Apparently that means cutbacks to services to fund $1 billion to "support new and emerging fund managers" and to incentivize pension funds into investing in venture capital. Austerity for thee, largesse for finance.
November 6, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Canadians are being asked to make sacrifices for a budget that meets the moment. Apparently that means cutbacks to services to fund $1 billion to "support new and emerging fund managers" and to incentivize pension funds into investing in venture capital. Austerity for thee, largesse for finance.
Did not know that Zohran's dad was college roommates with former Canadian Liberal party leader Michael Ignatieff.
November 5, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Did not know that Zohran's dad was college roommates with former Canadian Liberal party leader Michael Ignatieff.
Back home in Toronto in the same bar I watched a lot of the Raptors championship run. May have arrived ridiculously early to grab a prime seat 🤣
October 27, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Back home in Toronto in the same bar I watched a lot of the Raptors championship run. May have arrived ridiculously early to grab a prime seat 🤣
This, from the Financial Times, is why my research has pivoted to monetary policy. The dynamics financial and economic geographers study are interested in are enabled by the implicit promise of the giant public de-risking regime at the centre of the economy.
www.ft.com/content/ce8b...
www.ft.com/content/ce8b...
October 23, 2025 at 12:54 PM
This, from the Financial Times, is why my research has pivoted to monetary policy. The dynamics financial and economic geographers study are interested in are enabled by the implicit promise of the giant public de-risking regime at the centre of the economy.
www.ft.com/content/ce8b...
www.ft.com/content/ce8b...
As a fan of Toronto sports that aren't hockey, I am aware of the power of a team of destiny. We welcome the poor odds!
October 21, 2025 at 4:57 PM
As a fan of Toronto sports that aren't hockey, I am aware of the power of a team of destiny. We welcome the poor odds!
Urban planning, Urban geography, Urban political science
October 8, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Urban planning, Urban geography, Urban political science
Recruiting for a study on how Quantitative Easing policies impacted home buyer decisions in Canada from March 2020 to October 2021. If you know of anyone that bought a home during this time please forward the posting and/or this website: www.queensu.ca/quantitative...
October 2, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Recruiting for a study on how Quantitative Easing policies impacted home buyer decisions in Canada from March 2020 to October 2021. If you know of anyone that bought a home during this time please forward the posting and/or this website: www.queensu.ca/quantitative...
Rereading Vineland before going to see One Battle After Another and found this gem of an easter egg. Opportunity here to turn this into an incredibly niche cookbook with recipes like 'A Thousand Antipastos'
October 2, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Rereading Vineland before going to see One Battle After Another and found this gem of an easter egg. Opportunity here to turn this into an incredibly niche cookbook with recipes like 'A Thousand Antipastos'
This was a fun methodological project. We built new software that outputted different data streams: the raw data and how that data was algorithmically remodeled by Google. This allowed us to see how these models produced locations that fit the needs of data gathering for surveillance and profit.
![“Intellectually, [urban location data] is a great challenging problem. But what about commercially—is this important? The answer is a resounding Yes!”
Dr. Frank van Diggelen (2021), Principal Engineer at Google](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d65xek34lsofgp7feozumi4o/bafkreienrdyfwttzni2m75zdlkpfudc2j3ze7adznjgaix6bdulxdno3xq@jpeg)
September 29, 2025 at 10:59 AM
This was a fun methodological project. We built new software that outputted different data streams: the raw data and how that data was algorithmically remodeled by Google. This allowed us to see how these models produced locations that fit the needs of data gathering for surveillance and profit.
In which surveillance study scholars, computer scientists, digital geographers, and a random economic geographer (me) collaborate to unpack the black box of how/why cell phone companies model your location in cities. There's more ambiguity than you'd think!
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
September 29, 2025 at 10:59 AM
In which surveillance study scholars, computer scientists, digital geographers, and a random economic geographer (me) collaborate to unpack the black box of how/why cell phone companies model your location in cities. There's more ambiguity than you'd think!
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
As Ontario universities are being pushed by the Province and Australian consultants to empower Boards and disempower faculty, the Australian Senate releases a scathing report on consultant spending and a lack of transparency from Boards who don't understand the sector: www.afr.com/policy/healt...
September 19, 2025 at 12:17 PM
As Ontario universities are being pushed by the Province and Australian consultants to empower Boards and disempower faculty, the Australian Senate releases a scathing report on consultant spending and a lack of transparency from Boards who don't understand the sector: www.afr.com/policy/healt...
Yeah, it was just a throwaway line in the budgets narrative for us so easy to miss. Although that sharp increase you found is a bit suspicious. If you're curious they recently raised the policy from $5.2 to $10 million.
September 15, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Yeah, it was just a throwaway line in the budgets narrative for us so easy to miss. Although that sharp increase you found is a bit suspicious. If you're curious they recently raised the policy from $5.2 to $10 million.
I know you're not supposed to fight the last crisis, but it sure seems we've learned absolutely nothing
September 15, 2025 at 1:20 PM
I know you're not supposed to fight the last crisis, but it sure seems we've learned absolutely nothing
There's a one time $25 million payment and then we also have a separate research fund that gets transfers from operating. Also below the line is a $20 million in investment income over budgeted amount that they send to capital. Lots of opportunity for transfers to change the operating picture!
September 13, 2025 at 1:04 PM
There's a one time $25 million payment and then we also have a separate research fund that gets transfers from operating. Also below the line is a $20 million in investment income over budgeted amount that they send to capital. Lots of opportunity for transfers to change the operating picture!
Yeah that's pretty different. This is how it looks here. The interfund transfers line goes to both operating/capital. Students wouldn't pay for housing, food, etc. if they weren't here for the schooling happening in operating is the logic.
September 13, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Yeah that's pretty different. This is how it looks here. The interfund transfers line goes to both operating/capital. Students wouldn't pay for housing, food, etc. if they weren't here for the schooling happening in operating is the logic.
Things rumbling and pressure is building about higher ed funding in Ontario. Three stories on the subject in the past two days. Certainly an interesting graphic from the The Local!
thelocal.to/ontario-post...
universityaffairs.ca/features/ont...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
thelocal.to/ontario-post...
universityaffairs.ca/features/ont...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
September 10, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Things rumbling and pressure is building about higher ed funding in Ontario. Three stories on the subject in the past two days. Certainly an interesting graphic from the The Local!
thelocal.to/ontario-post...
universityaffairs.ca/features/ont...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
thelocal.to/ontario-post...
universityaffairs.ca/features/ont...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
My friend Rosemary suggested that one of the best uses of a sabbatical is to treat it like a comprehensive exam and just read for a few months. Combined that with a trove of books I just got for reviewing a textbook, I'm filling in some blind spots that I've wanted to delve into for a while!
July 22, 2025 at 7:40 PM
My friend Rosemary suggested that one of the best uses of a sabbatical is to treat it like a comprehensive exam and just read for a few months. Combined that with a trove of books I just got for reviewing a textbook, I'm filling in some blind spots that I've wanted to delve into for a while!
Hedge funds are becoming more systemically important, purchasing a larger share of government debt on Canada in pursuit of repo-funded basis trades. As the article highlights, this amps up the risk of financial instability in some of the basic financial plumbing
ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/posthas...
ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/posthas...
July 15, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Hedge funds are becoming more systemically important, purchasing a larger share of government debt on Canada in pursuit of repo-funded basis trades. As the article highlights, this amps up the risk of financial instability in some of the basic financial plumbing
ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/posthas...
ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/posthas...
Super interesting visit to the Bundesbank money museum. Surprisingly detailed and well designed exhibits on asset purchases, transmission mechanisms, and financial plumbing. including a note that monetary policy is political! Can't escape the folk story of money emerging from barter though.
July 4, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Super interesting visit to the Bundesbank money museum. Surprisingly detailed and well designed exhibits on asset purchases, transmission mechanisms, and financial plumbing. including a note that monetary policy is political! Can't escape the folk story of money emerging from barter though.
Through analyzing the BoCs asset purchases and the balance sheets of a representative firm (Daimler Chrysler Finance) we examine the specific sectors and regions that most benefited from the backstop offered by the BoC's position as a market maker of last resort for corporate debt.
June 28, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Through analyzing the BoCs asset purchases and the balance sheets of a representative firm (Daimler Chrysler Finance) we examine the specific sectors and regions that most benefited from the backstop offered by the BoC's position as a market maker of last resort for corporate debt.