Economic History – The Progressive Economics Forum

Homelessness among racialized persons

January 8, 2024 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

Chapter 7 of my open access textbook has just been released. This chapter focuses on homelessness experienced by racialized persons. A ‘top 10’ summary of the chapter can be found here (in English):https://nickfalvo.ca/homelessness-among-racialized-persons/ A ‘top 10’ summary of the chapter in French can be found here:https://nickfalvo.ca/litinerance-chez-les-personnes-racialisees/ The full chapter can be found here (English only):https://nickfalvo.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Falvo-Chapter-7-Racialized-Persons-2jan2024.pdf All material related to the […]

Electrification and Climate I: Scale of the Challenge

July 1, 2019 Edgardo Sepulveda 3 comments

Many elements have to come together if Canada is to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions. There is now a technical consensus that “electrification” – the replacement of fossil fuels with electricity as an energy source – is a necessary condition for decarbonization, and that electrification will require that zero/low-emission electricity generation double or triple by 2050. In this […]

The Anthropocene and the New World

December 1, 2018 Mel Watkins 2 comments

In recent decades all but the wilfully ignorant have had to face two facts: that climate change is taking place and that it is the result of what we humans are doing. The term Anthropocene was coined in 2000 in recognition of that latter hugely important fact. When had this new era began – and with it the end of […]

Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World

November 2, 2018 Andrew Jackson 3 comments

Book Review Adam Tooze. Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World. Viking. New York. 2018 The global economic crisis is now more than a decade old, and is far from definitively behind us. Indeed, many fear, with good reason, that the recent, uneven and lethargic global recovery may soon come to an end, and that the next […]

An Analysis of Financial Flows in the Canadian Economy

July 5, 2018 Marc Lee One comment

An essential but perhaps overlooked way of looking at the economy is a sector financial balance approach. Pioneered by the late UK economist Wynne Godley, this approach starts with National Accounts data (called Financial Flow Accounts) for four broad sectors of the economy: households, corporations, government and non-residents. Here’s how it works: in any given quarter or year each sector […]

Rethinking the economics of extreme events

May 15, 2018 Marc Lee Leave a comment

Review of Worst-Case Economics: Extreme Events in Climate and Finance by Frank Ackerman *** Long ago economics was termed “the dismal science,” but in recent years that title has arguably been passed on to climate science, with its regular and dire warnings that humanity needs to rapidly transition off of its use of fossil fuels for energy. In the face […]

New book on Indigenous homelessness

October 7, 2017 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

I’ve recently reviewed a new book on homelessness among Indigenous peoples. The book, published by the University of Manitoba Press, was edited by Evelyn Peters and Julia Christensen. My review can be accessed at this link.

Ten things to know about social assistance in Canada

May 9, 2017 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

I’ve just written a blog post about social assistance in Canada. Points raised in the blog post include the following: -Social assistance has two contradictory objectives: 1) to give people enough money to live on; and 2) to not give people enough money to live on. -Very few immigrants receive social assistance (relative to the general population). -Several Canadian provinces […]

The introduction and evolution of child benefits in Canada

April 30, 2017 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

Allan Moscovitch and I have co-authored a blog post that looks at the history of child benefits in Canada. Points made in the blog post include the following: -Child benefits can reduce both poverty and homelessness. -When child benefits began in Canada after World War II, one major motivating factor for the federal government was to avoid recession. Another was […]

New book on the history of Canadian social housing policy

April 2, 2017 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

One of Canada’s foremost authorities on Canadian social housing, Dr. Greg Suttor, has just authored a book on the history of Canadian social housing policy. Titled Still renovating: A history of Canadian social housing policy, it’s published by McGill-Queen’s University Press and covers the period from the end of World War II to 2013. I’ve recently reviewed the book. Points […]

The Alternative Federal Budget 2017

March 20, 2017 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

This year’s Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) was released on March 9. I was proud to be the primary author of its housing chapter (that chapter is available in English here and in French here). The first AFB exercise began in 1994, with the first AFB being published in 1995. That involved a joint effort between the Canadian Centre for Policy […]

Public Policy and Homelessness: The Case of Calgary

February 22, 2017 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

Over at the web site of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, I’ve written a blog post titled “Public Policy and Homelessness: The Case of Calgary.” Points raised in the blog post include the following: -Calgary experienced explosive growth in the size of its homeless population from the mid-1990s until 2008. -Though causation is hard to establish, the following factors likely had […]

Social Housing in BC, AB and QC (1975-2015)

February 1, 2017 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

Over at the web site of the Calgary Homeless Foundation is a transcript of a recent discussion I had with Dr. Maroine Bendaoud. His recently-defended PhD thesis looks at social housing in BC, Alberta and Quebec from 1975 until 2015. Points raised in his thesis include he following: -After Canada’s federal government stopped funding new social housing units in the […]

How Housing Policy Benefits from a Socioeconomic Perspective

December 14, 2016 Nick Falvo One comment

Over at the web site of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, I’ve written a blog post titled “How Housing Policy Benefits from a Socioeconomic Perspective.” Points raised in the blog post include the following: -Leaders in Canada’s non-profit housing sector should think beyond just housing, and think hard about the importance of economic and social factors that have an impact on […]

Do Calgary and Edmonton need more power and resources?

November 3, 2016 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

Over at the web site of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, I’ve written a blog post titled “Do Calgary and Edmonton need more power and resources?” The blog post comes as the Government of Alberta considers the possibility of, well, giving more power and sources to both Calgary and Edmonton. Points raised in the blog post include the following: -While most […]

Federal Income Support for Low-Income Seniors

August 29, 2016 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

Over at the Behind the Numbers web site, Allan Moscovitch, David Macdonald and I have a blog post titled “Ten Things to Know About Federal Income Support for Low-Income Seniors in Canada.” The blog post argues—among other things—that if the age of eligibility for Old Age Security were to move from 65 to 67, the percentage of Canadians aged 65 […]

Litinerance au Canada: Sa croissance, les reponses politiques, et le plaidoyer

February 11, 2016 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

Le 1er fÃ©vrier, jâ€™ai fait une confÃ©rence sur l’itinÃ©rance adressÃ©e aux Ã©tudiants du sÃ©minaire d’Ã©tudes supÃ©rieures de monsieur Steve Pomeroy Ã la School of Public Policy and Administration Ã l’UniversitÃ© Carleton. Le thÃ¨me de ma prÃ©sentation a Ã©tÃ© l’Ã©mergence de l’itinÃ©rance au Canada en tant que domaine politique publique pressant dans les annÃ©es 1980. Jâ€™ai parlÃ© la croissance de l’itinÃ©rance, […]

Homelessness in Canada: Its Growth, Policy Responses, and Advocacy

February 4, 2016 Nick Falvo One comment

On February 1, I gave a guest presentation on homelessness to a graduate seminar class on housing policy taught by Steve Pomeroy at Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration. The focus of my presentation was the emergence of homelessness in Canada as a pressing public policy area in the 1980s. I discussed the growth of homelessness, policy responses […]

Missing in (debate) action: macroeconomic lessons from the Great Depression

September 21, 2015 David Pringle 8 comments

This is a guest blog post from Mario Seccareccia, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa. ——- Since the October 2008 federal election, Canadian politicians have been struggling to come to terms with what to all accounts has turned out to be a “lite” version of the 1930s, whose major difference is that today we have a much larger government sector […]

Canada After Harper

August 11, 2015 Andrew Jackson Leave a comment

Here is the link to buy a new book, Canada After Harper,Â edited by Ed Finn and with an introduction by Ralph Nader, just published by Lorimer. Most Canadians know that Stephen Harper has had a tremendous impact on the country since becoming prime minister in 2006. But few have the in-depth knowledge of how far his transformation has gone […]

Seccareccia on Greece, Austerity and the Eurozone

February 5, 2015 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

Over at the blog of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, Ottawa U professor Mario Seccareccia has given an interview titled “Greece Shows the Limits of Austerity in the Eurozone.Â What Now?” The interview can be read here.

(Macro) Econ 101

December 16, 2014 David Pringle 3 comments

On December 2, Chris Ragan wrote a column for the Globe and Mail titled â€œAnother (Macro) Defense of Econ 101.â€Â The link to his column is available hereÂ . Â My brief replyÂ wasÂ published in the Globe and Mail on December 13. Â The full version is below: Professor Ragan defends conventional (macro) Econ 101 as a pedagogical tool for training studentsâ€™ minds to […]

Economics 101

October 26, 2014 Nick Falvo 6 comments

On October 21, Chris Ragan wrote a column for the Globe and Mail titled “In defence of Economics 101.”Â The link to his column is available here. On October 24, Marc Lavoie, Louis-Philippe Rochon and Mario Seccareccia replied to him.Â The link to their response is available here.

Impact of Fur Trade in U.S.

July 7, 2014 Mel Watkins Leave a comment

The fur trade in Canada is often said to have been less malign than in the US, and it was, but that doesn’t say much given the extraordinary disruption it is said to have createn in colonial America by the American historian Bernard Bailyn in his recent (2012) book, appropriately titled The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: […]

Call for Research

July 7, 2014 Mel Watkins One comment

“The interpretation of the history of North America in terms of rum and brandy has not been written, but in the fur trade, rum represented the contribution of the West Indies to trade of the Old Empire, and brandy the emphasis on French vineyards and self-sufficienty.” Innis, 1933 So far as I know, still not written Must be willing to […]

Review of Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty

April 29, 2014 Andrew Jackson 11 comments

Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty (Belknap Press, 2014) is the economics publishing sensation of our times, especially in the United States. Currently the number one seller on the US Amazon web site and widely debated in the â€œblogosphereâ€, this long book is being favourably compared to the seminal works of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Karl Marx […]

Pikkety on Capital in the 21st Century (Tom Palley)

April 24, 2014 Andrew Jackson 2 comments

I have just finished Piketty’s magnum opus which is clearly one of the most important economic books of our time. I am still trying to digest the theoretical argument. Below I provide a link and intro to an important commentary by Tom Palley who argues that Pikkety is too close to the neo classical paradigm re rewards to capital. This […]

Fur trade and tar sands

April 19, 2014 Mel Watkins 7 comments

Here is Joseph Boyden talking with the Globe and Mail last fall about his novel Orenda: “You look at this novel and you think immigration, who you allow in and who you don’t. The Hurons allow in the ones who ulimately destroy them, because the Huron aren’t perfect either. They need the trade, and how much greed was involved in […]

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