Its amazing how much a budget can contain while avoiding addressing the most critical questions of an economic crisis: How are we helping the most vulnerable, particularly those who have lost their jobs? Â With over $2.6 billion in spending on additional EI and retraining programs in 2009, the government has managed to not allow one additional unemployed person to […]
Read moreWhat a difference a year makes. A year ago anybody who proposed nationalizing the banks in Canada, the United States or the U.K. would probably have been dismissed as a looney lefty. Now widescale nationalization of major banks is being raised as a serious alternative in leading articles in the Economist and the New York Times. An on-line debate of […]
Read moreI don’t usually read (or cite) Sherry Cooper, chief economist for BMO Capital Markets, but in a recent article she was on the money: Layoffs and reductions in hours worked have been accelerating in recent months and cover firms in virtually every sector of the U.S. economy. The same has been true in Canada, but to a much lesser degree […]
Read moreSo Industry Minister Tony Clement is now insisting that cuts to workers wages will be a condition of any bail-out package for the auto industry. This comes after an economic statement that was going to remove the right to strike and legislate public sector wages, and before a budget that could also include wage cuts or constraints for workers. I don’t recall constraints […]
Read moreI 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 from school, feed and put […]
Read moreI was intrigued by what is happening in Iceland, so the following is a piece I’ve written on it. It has some introductory macro-economics in it, which I think it is good to keep in perspective as we consider the frantic attempts being made to prevent an economic depression. The economic and financial collapse of 2008 is shaping up to be […]
Read moreOf all the high-flyers and assorted fraudsters now coming down to earth, this one is just too rich and comical to pass by. Owen Lippert, now scandalized as the wholesale plagiarizer from Australian Prime Minister John Howard in a speech he wrote for Stephen Harper, was the former Director of the Law and Markets Project at the Fraser Institute before […]
Read moreThe 110 page U.S. Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 is certainly better than Paulson’s original 3 page proposal, but it falls so far short of what is needed that I wonder whether it will do more harm than good.  Despite its growth in size, it is still little more than a bail-out-come-swap financing deal for the  financial sector. The question […]
Read moreOnce again, there seems to be a heavier hand in censoring or editing Statistics Canada’s releases. This morning The Daily reported that: “Spending on research and development in the higher education sector amounted to $9.6 billion (current dollars) in the fiscal year 2006/2007.” but there was no word on whether this was an increase or decrease from the previous period, which Statscan releases […]
Read moreOn the eve of the Beijing Olympics, recognition should certainly go to the scores of workers who toiled to build the stunning spors palaces and who have made China into the economic powerhouse it is today. Instead, many have received layoff notices and warnings to leave the Chinese capital, as the New York Times reported today. A remarkable 4 million […]
Read moreAs Andrew Jackson has written recently on this blog, the New Brunswick government is proposing a set of truly dreadful tax reforms. The proposals include: a 10% flat tax for personal income, or a two-tier rate at 9% and 12% reducing the corporate income tax from 13% down to as low as 5% a carbon tax increasing the provincial sales tax by […]
Read moreCUPE has published the June 2008 issue of the Economic Climate for Bargaining publication that I put together on a quarterly basis. Previous issues are also available through this link at our website.   In addition to regular items on national and provincial economic forecasts and analysis of recent employment, inflation and wage developments, this latest issue includes: A very brief primer on […]
Read moreThere is a lot of the colour green all over Dion’s Green Shift plan. But after reading it, the greenery appears almost as superficial as the green shift caps that Liberal MPs wore awkwardly with their business suits at the launch yesterday. Dion’s plan is really a proposal for a tax shifting budget and doesn’t contain any new proposals to […]
Read moreWas it just me or did others get a nagging feeling about the intent behind Air Canada’s surprise announcement of 2,000 layoffs yesterday? The media coverage played along the lines of their press release, with a strong focus on the rising cost of fuel. This is certainly an issue, together with the impact of the higher Canadian dollar and the […]
Read moreThe Federation of Canadian Municipalities released a large poll today — the largest of its type on municipal issues. The poll seems reasonably well done with decent questions and language. Many of the results are to be expected: strongest support for increased funding for health care, with increased funding for local infrastructure as a solid second in terms of priority. What surprised […]
Read moreMark Weisbrot and his colleagues at the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Analysis have just released a report that estimates the economic impact of a U.S. slowdown on the Americas, including Canada.   They estimate the impact simply through trade adjustment, assuming in the low adjustment scenario that the U.S. trade deficit falls from 5.2% of GDP in 2007 to […]
Read moreThe New York Times has an article today about how, unlike households, American corporations are piling up cash. Unlike most American consumers, whose failure to save has exasperated economists for years, the typical American corporation has increased its savings so sharply that it probably has enough cash on hand to completely pay off its debts. While I haven’t looked at […]
Read moreFinance Minister Jim Flaherty set very low expectations for the Harper government’s third budget – and managed to deliver even less.     There is nothing in this budget for public health care, childcare, poverty or homelessness, very little for the environment or for Aboriginal Canadians, nothing for working Canadians, nothing for women, nothing to improve public pensions, no long-term solutions for […]
Read moreThe federal finance department just released its Tax Expenditures and Evaluations report for 2007. This annual report includes the estimates and projections of revenues that the federal government loses from different tax credits, deductions, exemptions and other tax expenditures. The number of these loopholes has proliferated in recent years as the Conservatives have used boutiquey tax cuts for a wide […]
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