Relative to inflation, Albertans are being paid less per hour than they were a year ago. Today, Statistics Canada released Consumer Price Index figures for May 2007. Comparing these figures with the latest Labour Force Survey reveals that Canadian wages grew only 0.8% more than Canadian prices from May 2006 through May 2007. As always, the national figure masks significant […]
Read moreIn New Left Review, Clive Hamilton writes a review and critique of George Monbiot’s Heat. There are a number of interesting passages. First, he gives this doozy as an indicator of how grave the issue is in the USA: In recent years wealthy Texans have discovered the joys of sitting in front of a log fire. As it is usually […]
Read moreAn article in the Globe wonders what comes next for a Harper government that seems stuck: unable to move up in the polls despite delivering on its most populist proposals, but unable to deliver the goods for its core supporters because of, well, the polls. And interestingly, its best moves have come by doing the right thing and breaking its […]
Read moreAround lunchtime I got a knock on the door, and a good-looking young woman was there to make a sales call for Univeral Gas. She was seeking to convert my natural gas supply under a newly deregulated market. I asked her if she would leave behind materials so that I could think about it. No dice. She wanted me to […]
Read moreThis post was inspired by my wife, a non-economist (thankfully) who asked me the other day for my opinion on the endless equalization debate. My answer was simple: follow the politics. As every insider knows, the excommunication of Bill Casey, an MP from Nova Scotia, is only the tip of the iceberg of discontent over the Conservative government’s proposed equalization […]
Read moreAs Andrew Jackson points out, there are some interesting musings in the US about progressive taxation. In a recent post, Mark Thoma cites four good reasons for progressive taxation: Personally, I’m not much on redistribution simply to make outcomes more equal. But there are (at least) three reasons to depart from this. First, when there is change such that makes […]
Read moreThe Globe’s story, Canada Post NAFTA win sets precedent, for UPS vs the government of Canada with respect to Canada Post, is a bit misleading. It comes across as “see, those whiners about investor-state were wrong all along”: Chapter 11 was controversial from NAFTA’s inception because critics charged it would allow foreign investors to challenge, and alter, government policies and […]
Read moreIn the Globe and Mail it is reported: A flurry of increases in the past month has sent Canadian mortgage rates to their highest level in more than five years, and consumers shouldn’t expect a return to the low interest rates they enjoyed in the first half of the decade. The story quotes Benjamin Tal of CIBC World Markets, commenting […]
Read moreHopefully, the radio interview that I just did with Saskatoon’s News Talk 650 will help to counteract Randy Burton’s column in today’s StarPhoenix. Burton claims: There is one overarching reason why we should be cautious about accepting the predictions of doom that await Saskatchewan if it joins a trade agreement with Alberta and B.C. The people who tell us less […]
Read morehttp://www1.hamiltonproject.org/views/papers/furman/200706summers_bordoff.htm At the Canadian Economics Association, I presented a paper (to be published by the CCPA Inequality Project this Fall) on the case for more progressive taxation of income. In a nutshell, my argument was that the tax side of the tax/transfer system must be relied on more to counter growing income inequality, since only the tax side can close […]
Read moreI’m not a big fan of business journalism. For the most part, it’s a lazy, sycophantic, uninspired, biased, occasionally self-interested (in a conflict-of-interest sense) and worse yet, boring business. I should know, I was once part of the fold. In my experience, at least half of financial journalists are in it for the food (gotta love annual report/annual meeting season […]
Read moreAfter a week of public hearings in Regina, the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly’s Standing Committee on the Economy has moved to Saskatoon. Fortunately, CUPE was able to import Steven Shrybman for some expert testimony. Luckily, he wasn’t caught up in any “inter-provincial barriers” on his way from Ottawa. Some of his testimony was reported in today’s Leader-Post: Ottawa-based trade lawyer Steven […]
Read moreFrom his rabble.ca column: In a judgment rendered June 8, the Supreme Court of Canada has reversed itself and recognized that freedom of association includes the right to collective bargaining. by Duncan Cameron June 13, 2007 Fundamental labour rights, pursued historically, and recognized under international conventions, must be respected in Canada, according to the highest court in the land. In […]
Read morehttp://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2100771,00.html Interesting piece on the fortunes being made at Blackstone as the private equity kings take themselves public. CEO Schwarzman made $398 Million last year, and will trouser $449 Million when they go public on top of his continued stake in the business, valued at a staggering $7,700 Million.
Read moreRelentlessly Progressive Economics (old site at progecon.wordpress.com) was suspended earlier today by WordPress due to a complaint about copyright violation. We are working to cleanse our posts so that they are within the definition of fair use (though this is contested terrain). Wikipedia’s article on fair use of copyrighted material is here.
Read morehttp://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/ebrief_46.pdf
Read moreBecause it looks like a simple rebuke of the zealous anti-union tactics of BC’s Campbell administration, observers Back East may have missed this significant ruling by the Supreme Court on Friday. Below is the story from Saturday’s Vancouver Sun, and a commentary from a columnist in today’s Sun. Interestingly, the term “judicial activism” crops up fairly early in the story, […]
Read moreThe following letter is printed in today’s Globe and Mail: Re Harper signals shift from Africa to Americas (June 8), Announcements by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and International Trade Minister David Emerson that Canada intends to negotiate a free-trade deal with Colombia can only be described as chutzpah. Consider: More union leaders are killed in Colombia than in all of […]
Read moreThe following column by Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post’s Financial Editor, does a much better job than I did of explaining the Conservative government’s flawed barley plebiscite. This column, which is particularly interesting coming from an ardent free-marketer like Johnstone, touches on a couple of the Harper government’s favourite tactics: 1. “The Thin Edge of the Wedge” – holding a plebiscite […]
Read moreThe Senate has posted transcripts of the Standing Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce’s meetings on May 16, when I testified about “issues dealing with interprovincial barriers to trade,” and May 17, when Marc testified about this topic. Marc has already posted his written presentation. My section of the transcript follows: Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Trade […]
Read moreJohn Tory, the leader of Ontario’s Conservatives, has pledged to join TILMA if elected. Given Premier McGuinty’s stance on the issue, it seems that electing many more New Democrats may be the only way of keeping Ontario out of this pernicious deal. Based on how things are unfolding in Saskatchewan, public consultations might be of benefit to Ontario. Opposition to […]
Read moreBUSINESS WEEK, JUNE 18, 2007 http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_25/b4039001.htm COVER STORY By Michael Mandel The Real Cost Of Offshoring U.S. data show that moving jobs overseas hasn’t hurt the economy. Here’s why those stats are wrong Whenever critics of globalization complain about the loss of American jobs to low-cost countries such as China and India, supporters point to the powerful performance of the […]
Read moreAfter a week of public hearings, CanWest’s long-time Saskatchewan political columnist has essentially come out against TILMA. The following lines are from Murray Mandryk’s column in today’s Regina Leader-Post: The unions and the left have been raising some very valid questions over why Saskatchewan needs to sign on to this trade agreement and what the impact might be if we […]
Read moreOver at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative, Stephen Gordon has assembled an interesting comparison of the current expansion vis-a-vis the previous two (roughly, the 1980s and the 1990s), benchmarking performance on a number of key indicators. One of his conclusions is rather unusual: he finds strong real wage growth over the past four years. This is contrary to the numbers I have […]
Read moreWhat follows is a revised and extended version of the comments I made at a panel on the Canadian economy organized by the Bank of Canada and the IMF at the recent Canadian Economics Association meetings. An Update on Canada’s Two Economies – Implications for Workers and for Monetary Policy Andrew Jackson Chief Economist Canadian Labour Congress The Hidden Jobs […]
Read moreToday’s labour force survey shows an alarming deterioration in job quality and gives the lie to the idea that Canada has a very tight job market just because we have a low unemployment rate. In May, we lost 58,000 paid jobs in the private sector, offset by a big jump in self-employment (up by 56,000.) Fully two-thirds (69%) of the […]
Read moreA couple of hours ago, Industry Canada put out the following press release. In forecasting this release last night, Canadian Press again repeated the Conference Board’s thoroughly discredited estimates of TILMA’s benefits. As far as I know, the proposed April 2009 deadline for “full labour mobility” is the deadline toward which provincial governments were already working with the regulated professions […]
Read moreOn Tuesday, I testified before the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly’s Standing Committee on the Economy, which is holding public hearings on joining TILMA. The Legislative Assembly is broadcasting the hearings and promptly posting the recordings. To see my presentation, click “Video 1” for June 5 and use the bar immediately below the screen to advance the time to 48.5 minutes. A […]
Read moreThe Economist (Charging around the city: How green and safe are they?) asks about the safety of electric cars on the streets of London. But to me, the big news is that there are electric cars on the streets of London! I mean, how cool is that? I saw a documentary last year called, Who Killed the Electric Car? (wee […]
Read moreSome fascinating and counter-intuitive insights about traffic management from an article in Vancouver magazine. I have tried to de-Vancouverize it somewhat to distill the key insights that are more broadly applicable, but it is ultimately an article about Vancouver, with its somewhat contrary starting point of not having freeways going into the heart of the city: … In 1968, the […]
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