What 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 moreMay 29, 2007 OTTAWA – The leaders of Canada’s most important unions and of all the provincial and territorial federations of labour, meeting in Ottawa today as the Executive Council of the Canadian Labour Congress, adopted and issued the following statement: “The soaring Canadian dollar is one of the major factors behind the loss of 250,000 reasonably well-paid manufacturing jobs […]
Read moreIn assessing the Bank of Canada’s Monetary Policy Report, John McCallum asked whether “the budget, with its large increase in spending, might be contributing to an overheating of the economy at this time?” Similarly, in commenting on the Labour Force Survey, Doug Porter of BMO seemed concerned that a supposedly tight labour market and higher wages would spur inflation. Today’s […]
Read moreI’ll be sorry to see Governor David Dodge leave the Bank of Canada. To be sure, I’ll take a good deal of critical distance from his and the Bank’s view that we are operating “above capacity” when real wages for at least the bottom half of the work force are flat, and I think monetary policy as a whole should […]
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