The Progressive Economics Forum

As I mused yesterday about Facebook’s lack of respect for privacy in a bid to make billions, along comes a story putting Facebook’s valuation at $15 billion. But I’m not convinced Facebook is poised to take over the world just yet. Myspace once sat on top of the social networking world, and I’m wondering whether [...]

The following Canadian Press story is an hilariously accurate report of what happened on Wednesday when the Finance Minister appeared before a Senate committee to pontificate about supposed interprovincial barriers: Flaherty’s remarks came shortly before a senior Finance Department official told a Senate committee that interprovincial trade rules cost the country about one quarter of one [...]

I’ve been on Facebook for almost a year now and have a love-hate relationship with it. For connecting me with old friends, feeling the daily pulse of people I know through status updates, and being a means of coordinating an event or party, thank you Facebook. But I am increasingly disturbed by the callous attitude [...]

My take on today’s Labour Force Survey follows: Unemployment Although November’s 42,600 increase in employment is striking, the 25,100 increase in unemployment deserves as much attention. While the number of workers employed grew by 0.3%, the number unemployed grew by 2.4%. Proportionally, unemployment growth in the last month nearly equals employment growth over the past [...]

My recent paper that found the top 1% of earners actually pay slightly lower tax rates than the bottom 10%, and much less than those in the middle- to upper-middle range, seems to have touched a nerve with my proposal that the rich actually pay more in taxes. For the defenseless and concerned wealthy out [...]

Down in Seattle, at the Sightline Institute, Clark Williams-Derry chews on those bones of cap-and-trade and carbon tax options. Clark gets it that the Devil is in the details when it comes to design of such instruments to avoid adverse distributional impacts. Carbon Taxes: The Good and The Bad Last week’s Washington Post carried an [...]

A dispatch from PEF member (and essay contest winner!) Nick Falvo in Toronto: Just last week, the United Way of Greater Toronto released a report entitled “Losing Ground: The Persistent Growth Of Family Poverty In Canada’s Largest City.” Some of the findings are very disturbing. -After-tax median family income in Toronto is $41,500 ($6,100 less [...]

Nouriel Roubini takes a dig at the Bank of Canada: [Yesterday] the Bank of Canada started to get it by, unexpectedly, cutting its policy rate by 25bps; but 25bps is puny given the liquidity crunch in global markets that has also spread to the Canadian markets.  50bps or more was the minimum necessary to deal [...]

George Monbiot gives us a good briefing note for the UN’s climate change conference in Bali. While the issue’s  should not be understated, I do wonder whether we really need 10,000 people FLYING to Bali to meet “face-to-face”? Surely there is a better technological answer than that. What is Progress?  When you warn people about [...]

Seeing more downside to the Canadian economy compared to worries about inflation, the Bank of Canada lowered overnight interest rates today by a quarter-point. The Bank has apparently been reading the PEF blog, as we have been calling for a rate cut for more than two months. (This is also personally reassuring as I decided [...]

From Today’s (December 3) Toronto Star Canada’s economy is on the cusp of some very tough times, and it will require enlightened and timely central bank action to ensure that our economy avoids a recession next year. The crux of Canada’s economic problems is related to the slowing U.S. economy which threatens to fall into [...]

I was a testator (if I was a woman I’d be a testatrix!) to the Senate Special Committee on Aging today, along with national treasure, Bob Evans, a couple reps from the Canadian Institute on Health Information, and UNB’s Joe Ruggeri. We all pretty much agreed that aging is not the issue it is made [...]

Scott Sinclair, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Opening Statement, Re Proposed Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement Standing Committee on International Trade. Thursday, November 29, 2007 Thank you for the invitation to appear today and for the opportunity to raise some serious concerns about the proposed Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement and Canada’s current approach to bilateral trade [...]

A significant challenge in the TILMA debate has been that journalists often uncritically accept the premise that alleged inter-provincial barriers are a serious problem. Murray Campbell bucked this trend in Saturday’s Globe and Mail, where he drew the link between TILMA and last week’s Ontario-Quebec initiative. Electronically, his column appears under the headline “Premiers try [...]