The Progressive Economics Forum

Conservative Senator Hugh Segal is actively promoting the very old new idea of a Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) and Senate Committe hearings may soon follow. I’m all for providing more money to low income families and would willingly scrap social assistance as we know it for something that is more generous and less punitive – [...]

The House of Commons Finance Committee has just released its pre Budget report and recommendations. There’s a lot of common denominator all party agreement here, including on some modestly useful items. The report focuses on the impacts of thr high dollar and on tax measures. http://cmte.parl.gc.ca/cmte/CommitteePublication.aspx?SourceId=225139  What I find perhaps most interesting – and rather [...]

Thomas Palley has posted a good discussion of the relationship between economic theory and policy, which includes a useful taxonomy of contemporary economists.

Today’s job numbers are surprisingly strong given the alarming deterioration of the US economy. They are very likely to lead to a further rise in the dollar, a reluctance on the part of the Bank of Canada to cut interest rates any further in the near future, and even a quick election. But we should not [...]

In BC, with a Thone Speech next week and the provincial budget the week after, the speculation has been around what additional measures might be announced in relation to BC’s commitment to a one-third reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 (relative to 2007 levels) and 80% by 2050. A carbon tax figures among that [...]

I just love the way “free markets” work. Here is a classic example of  price “stickiness.” In Ontario I have the privilege of purchasing my gas from an independent supplier under a fixed term/fixed price contract, or at a fluctuating price from my distributor, Enbridge. The rational economist in me tells me that it should [...]

A lot of US progressives, including Dean Baker, and Larry Mishel from the Economic Policy Institute, are weighing in on the need for a significant fiscal stimulus package, in the range of 1% of GDP. http://www.epi.org/subjectpages/stimulus.cfm Citing – entirely reasonably – the need for measures which will have a quick impact on a slowing economy, [...]

Neo liberal orthodoxy is crumbling in the wake of the ever-deepening manufacturing crisis. Witness yesterday’s call from the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association for domestic procurement policies linked to major public investments in infrastructure and transit projects – long advocated by labour and derided by mainstream types as a return to dreaded “industrial policies.” As [...]

Lynn Williams, former International President of the United Steelworkers, has posted an excellent speech on a major American blog. Although the title refers to rebuilding the labour movement, the text touches upon many of the broader policy issues discussed on our blog: how to design a stimulus package, rising inequality, public healthcare, the economics of [...]

The International Energy Agency requires member countries to maintain emergency oil reserves in case oil imports are temporarily disrupted. Canada was exempted from this requirement because we are a net oil exporter. However, the current pipeline system and NAFTA’s energy chapter limit our ability to supply eastern Canadian consumers with western Canadian petroleum. Western Canada’s [...]

A week ago, John Edwards ended his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. Although it’s unfortunate that he is out of the running, he succeeded in shifting the race onto a more progressive track. His campaign pinned-down the two leading candidates in favour of implementing universal healthcare, raising the minimum wage, providing economic stimulus, getting [...]

Yesterday, I attended the Poverty Olympics, held in the heart of the Downtown Eastside, aka Canada’s poorest neighbourhood. It was a wonderful few hours of well-orchestrated political satire. There were opening and closing ceremonies, a torch ceremony, a new mascot (Itchy the bedbug), and of course, events (the poverty line high jump, the welfare hurdles, [...]

Alberta’s economy looks ever more like a runaway train. Climate change raises the prospect of needing to slow this train down, something that would be advisable even if rising temperatures were not reaping havoc, because the boom has made labour scarce, housing even scarcer, and created a number of other social and environmental problems. With [...]

One of the big challenges in reducing greenhouse gas emissions comes from transportation. Here in BC, for example, transportation accounts for 40% of our annual emissions. Of that more than a third (14% of the total) is from personal transportation. So any serious emissions reduction plan has to eventually come to grips with cars. To [...]