US – Page 4 – The Progressive Economics Forum

State of the US Economy

September 30, 2008 Andrew Jackson Leave a comment

An excellent piece by Mark Weisbrot of CEPR, whose colleague Dean Baker called the collapse of the housign bubble ahead of everyone else. http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/the-united-states-and-the-world:-where-are-we-headed/ The United States and the World: Where Are We Headed? By Mark Weisbrot This paper was presented at the Alexandre de GusmÃ£o Foundation and the International Relations Research Institute’s (IPRI) “Seminar on the United States” hosted […]

Bail-out to where?

September 29, 2008 Toby Sanger 2 comments

The 110 page U.S. Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 is certainly better than Paulson’s original 3 pageÂ proposal, but it falls so far short of what is needed that I wonder whether it will do more harm than good. Â Despite its growth in size, it is still little more than a bail-out-come-swapÂ financing deal for the Â financial sector.Â The question […]

Time for a New Deal

September 16, 2008 Andrew Jackson 2 comments

I’m afrtaid you are going to have to pay for it, but this is an excellent review – from the current issue of the New York Review of Books – of what loooks to be an excellent book on the state of the American working class. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=21798 Time for a New Deal By Jeff Madrick The Big Squeeze: Tough Times […]

Wal-Mart and US Politics

August 16, 2008 Erin Weir Leave a comment

Several American labour groups have filed a complaint against Wal-Mart for instructing its employees to vote against Obama and other Democrats. I first got wind of this electoral controversy a couple of weeks ago through The Hamilton Spectator, which printed an Associated Press story that succinctly outlines Wal-Martâ€™s actions and the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) against which these actions […]

Galbraith’s Predator State

August 8, 2008 Marc Lee One comment

James Galbraith bats this one out of the park: Years ago, I realized that the free-market, supply-side crowd, true conservatives who’d ridden high with Reagan, dislike Bush as much as I do. I speak of the hard money, low-tax, Wall Street Journal, deregulate-and-privatize team, the nemeses of my youth, people like Bruce Bartlett, Paul Craig Roberts, the late Jude Wanniski. […]

How Low Can Canadian Business Taxes Go?

July 29, 2008 Erin Weir 4 comments

Canada has the third-lowest business taxes of ten countries examined in a study released as part of KPMGâ€™s 2008 Competitive Alternatives report. The spin from KPMG has been that “If the provinces follow the federal lead and reduce their rates as well, Canadaâ€™s advantage will be enhanced.” Canadians shouldÂ be asking a different question. If we already have a substantial “tax […]

WSJ Editor Checks Out of the Hotel California

July 20, 2008 Erin Weir Leave a comment

The Wall Street Journal ran an op-ed this weekend entitled, “California Getaway: High taxes continue to drive businesses out of state,” about how the California State Automobile Association (CSAA) is relocating three call centres to other states. However, the CSAA, an affiliate of the American Automobile Association, is not really a “business”. I assume that, as a non-profit organization, it […]

Workers Uniting – The Global Union

July 8, 2008 Erin Weir Leave a comment

I was a delegate to the United Steelworkersâ€™ triennial Constitutional Convention in Las Vegas last week. Video of Obamaâ€™s speech and other highlights is available through the unionâ€™s revamped website. The 2008 convention will likely be remembered for three historic decisions. First, a new position was added to the unionâ€™s International Executive Board. (Semi-regular news stories about western Canadaâ€™s rising […]

Neumann vs. McCain on NAFTA

June 22, 2008 Erin Weir Leave a comment

John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, appeared in Ottawa on Friday to praise NAFTA. The Canadian media has almost uniformly assumed that Democratic proposals to renegotiate this deal threaten Canada. In yesterdayâ€™s Ottawa Citizen, Ken Neumann, Canadian Director of the United Steelworkers, points out that most Canadians are rightly open to changing NAFTA. Â Let’s renegotiate NAFTA The Ottawa Citizen […]

Obama. Galbraith. Hope.

June 11, 2008 Arun DuBois 2 comments

It’s not often that I get my hopes up about a potential volte-face in the way we talk and think about economics at the policy and political level but this is by far the best news I’ve heard in a long long time. It seems that our very own Jamie Galbraith, scion of John Kenneth Galbraith and keynote speaker for […]

Steelworkers for Obama

May 16, 2008 Erin Weir One comment

Along with John Edwards, the United Steelwokers union has endorsed Barack Obama for the US Presidency. Those paying attention may recall that, a month ago, the Steelworker President indicated that it would be inappropriate for super (ex-officio) delegates to vote against pledged (elected) delegates in selecting the Democratic nominee. This position rejected Hillary Clintonâ€™s strategy of asking super delegates to […]

Sources of Rising Inequality in the US

May 15, 2008 Andrew Jackson Leave a comment

An interesting paper: Controversies about the Rise of American Inequality: A SurveyÂ by Robert J. Gordon and Ian Dew-Becker. http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~idew/papers/BPEA_final_ineq.pdf Abstract This paper provides a comprehensive survey on six aspects of rising inequality: changes in laborÂfs share, inequality at the bottom, inequality at the top, labor mobility, inequality in consumption as contrasted to inequality of income, and international differences in […]

Inequality and health

May 6, 2008 Iglika Ivanova Leave a comment

There is an interesting opinion piece in The Tyee this morning, aptly named Dying for the Rich, which points out the links between inequality and life expectancy. The article’s author, Crawford Kilian, should be praised for bringing up an angle that was virtually ignored by media commentators in their coverage of the recent Census findings of growing inequality, even by […]

The Left and Working-Class Whites

May 4, 2008 Erin Weir 5 comments

A great tragedy for the political left has been that, although we represent most of the populationâ€™s economic interests, we have only occasionally garnered majority support in the electoral arena. The US Democratic primaries have recently become focussed on the main segment of the American population that has often voted Republican even though its economic interests would be better served […]

Bank of Canada Cuts to 3%

April 22, 2008 Erin Weir 5 comments

This morning, the Bank of Canada lowered its key target interest rate from 3.5% to 3%. This welcome move was widely predicted. Perhaps more interestingly, the Bank stated that “some further monetary stimulus will likely be required to achieve the inflation target over the medium term.” Since December, the Bank has begun following the advice that the labour movement provided […]

Income versus consumption taxes

April 11, 2008 Marc Lee 16 comments

In a commentary last fall in the NY Times, Robert Frank makes the case for consumption taxes to replace the income tax in the US. Yet, while this sounds revolutionary on first reading, what Frank is describing is essentially the Canadian tax system: Under such a tax, people would report not only their income but also their annual savings, as […]

New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness

April 6, 2008 Erin Weir One comment

While driving down the 401 recently, I listened to some upstate New York radio and heard a great ad from New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness. This organization resembles the CCPAâ€™s alternative budget initiatives, although its Better Choice campaign is reminiscent of the CLC.

Confronting Inequality North and South, Post Bush

April 3, 2008 Andrew Jackson Leave a comment

I’ve pasted in below my contribution to the latest issue of Canada Watch, edited by my old friend Danny Drache of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at the University of Toronto. It’s part of a special issue on what Deep Integration of North America could look like with George W. Bush out of the way. Here’s the link to […]

Report From an Unfolding Crisis, or What I Learned in Washington.

March 24, 2008 Andrew Jackson 4 comments

I was in Washington last week for meetings of economists from central trade union bodies, mainly from the OECD countries. While the main purpose of the meetings was to draft the annual union statement to the upcoming G-8 summit in Japan, we had a full day of meetings with researchers and senior officials from the International Monetary Fund, and also […]

Thinking About Stimulus in the US

February 7, 2008 Andrew Jackson 3 comments

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, these packages tilt to income […]

The Edwards Legacy

February 6, 2008 Erin Weir One comment

A week ago, John Edwards ended his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. Although itâ€™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 out of Iraq, and re-evaluating […]

A Primer on Pump-Priming

January 9, 2008 Marc Lee One comment

With a weakening US economy that may well spill over into Canada, it is time to start thinking about fiscal policy responses should recession rear its ugly head. To date much of the focus has been on monetary policy, with calls for central banks to lower interest rates. This is providing some relief, but as many economists have pointed out, […]

Michael Moore on the Democratic Primaries

January 2, 2008 Erin Weir One comment

Moore makes several accurate and entertaining points in today’s open letter. Although he stops short of officially endorsing Edwards, his final paragraph comes pretty close. Who Do We Vote For This Time Around? A Letter from Michael Moore Friends, A new year has begun. And before weâ€™ve had a chance to break our New Yearâ€™s resolutions, we find ourselves with […]

John Edwards: The Great Left Hope for 2008

December 30, 2007 Erin Weir 2 comments

Edwards is the most left-wing, pro-labour candidate among the Democratic front-runners. He has been speaking truth to power in a way that is rare in Canadian politics, let alone American politics. Can he win the nomination? Since Clinton is still well ahead in nationwide polls, much will depend on whether Edwards can gain momentum by winning Iowa on Thursday. Although […]

Krugman on the Democratic Primaries

December 20, 2007 Erin Weir Leave a comment

The following Paul Krugman column confirms my general thoughts about American politics: At one extreme, Barack Obama insists that the problem with America is that our politics are so “bitter and partisan,” and insists that he can get things done by ushering in a “different kind of politics.” At the opposite extreme, John Edwards blames the power of the wealthy […]

US Income Inequality Just Got Even Worse

December 20, 2007 Andrew Jackson Leave a comment

Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute on just released US data which show a rather starting further increase in US income inequality – apparently the top 1% of families there now get 19% of all after tax income and average over $1 Million apiece. Looks like a blog to monitor, for those who want to follow dismal and other […]

Is the US in a Recession?

December 18, 2007 Andrew Jackson One comment

Six leading US economists take on this question in the NYT, and it doesn’t sound good: Â http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/opinion/16recession.html

Whither the US Trade Balance?

November 29, 2007 Andrew Jackson Leave a comment

TD Economics have released an interesting study on changes in US trade flows as a source of continung strength and offset to their considerbale domestic difficulties. Exports are up, fuelled by the US dollar depreciation and strong global demand. However, exporters to the US, mainly Asian, are holding onto their share of the US market by eating the change in […]

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