The Progressive Economics Forum

Jack Layton unveiled the NDP’s policy platform today.  Among other things, it promises to eliminate the deficit (i.e. balance the federal budget) within four years.  I’m not sure it should. Several years back, I had the opportunity to take a directed reading course from John Smithin.  In addition to being a long-time member of the [...]

This political crisis is completely the fault of the Prime Minister. Having laid the groundwork for a solid economic update last week – by saying in Lima that he had learned the lessons of the Great Depression and that he would not rule out deficits – what was tabled was a plan that did nothing [...]

I wasn’t originally planning to write a longer analysis and critique of Flaherty’s fiscal and economic statement beyond our immediate response because, like most people, I expected it would at least show some reasonable recognition of the problem and at least the framework for a stimulus program (besides, I had young children to pick up [...]

“I think there’s probably a lot of great buying opportunities emerging in the stock market as a consequence of all this panic.” – Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Oct 7, 2008, cited in the Globe from his CBC interview The TSX index closed that day at 9829.55 Today’s close was 7724.76. Thus, the TSX has dropped [...]

Lettre ouverte de la part d’économistes canadiens à propos de la crise économique actuelle et la réponse du gouvernement qui s’impose La crise financière mondiale qui s’aggrave, la chute des prix des matières premières à l’échelle mondiale et le risque grandissant d’une récession mondiale dévoilent des faiblesses inquiétantes de l’économie canadienne. Le simple fait de [...]

The Progressive Economics Forum’s open letter is now making the rounds. Signatories include four chairs of economics  departments, two former Presidents  of the Canadian Economics Association, a former federal  Secretary of State (Finance), and  a former Quebec Minister  of  Industry. Here’s the text and the 88 signatories: Open Letter from Canadian Economists on the Current [...]

Polls and elections go together like right-wingers and tax cuts, but this election campaign seems to be particularly poll-obsessed. The media’s coverage has been weak on issues with excessive attention on the horse race among the main parties. In those polls what is most striking to me is how little has changed since the 2006 [...]

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) have just posted to their web site a fine and timely book, edited by Teresa Healy. http://www.policyalternatives.ca/Reports/2008/09/ReportsStudies1960/index.cfm?pa=BB736455 The book consists of about 40 chapters dissecting the two and one half year record of the Conservative government across a wide range of issues – from jobs and the economy, to [...]

The Liberals released a “costed” platform today. http://www.liberal.ca/platform_e.aspx There’s a lot to like here in terms of the Liberal Party’s programmatic commitments to child care , support for manufacturing investment, green job creation, public health care, student aid, basic infrastructure, dealing with poverty, and so on – but I stand by my earlier argument that [...]

Harper today announced that he would include self-employed workers in EI for purposes of paid maternity and parental leave. Extending such EI coverage is a good idea, and Quebec has already done this through a provincial adaptation of the EI program which requires a separate provincial premium rate. In Quebec, partcipation by the self-employed is [...]

As the federal political parties begin to make promises of new spending or tax cuts, the question arises as to how much fiscal room is available to Canada’s next government.The short answer is that the Conservatives and Liberals have locked themselves into the same fiscal box, and only the NDP has the room needed to [...]

It has to go down as one of the most modest reponses to the manufacturing jobs crisis one could imagine. On Friday – literally on the eve of the election call -  Human Resources Minister Monte Solberg announced that four Ontario EI regions – Huron, Niagara, Oshawa and Windsor – will be added to the [...]

It was reported today that Stephen Harper will go to Michaelle Jean on Sunday to ask that Parliament be dissolved and an election be held. But what if Jean said no? First, take a step back. An editorial in the Toronto Star put it this way yesterday: Prime Minister Stephen Harper is about to pull [...]