Announcing the Center for the Applied Study of Economics & the Environment, a new US grouping of progressive economists. Here is their manifesto: Real People, Real Environments, and Realistic Economics The wealth and power of humanity in the 21st century could be used to create a far better world. We write as economists who are troubled by environmental degradation and […]
Read moreJohn Ibbitson leaps to the defence of the US entertainment industry and their bid to hold back the tide of history. It is not clear at all what harms are being caused by the existing Copyright Act and why it should be fixed to make rich US entertainment corporations even richer. To channel Dean Baker, copyright laws are an interference […]
Read moreAnother teaser from James Galbraith, who will be joining us at the Canadian Economics Association meetings to inaugurate the John Kenneth Galbraith Prize in Economics, and will also be presenting on a panel on inequality. His presentation might go something like this: Bush’s beltway boom By James K. Galbraith The rise of the Democrats brings some much-needed attention to […]
Read moreAdam Frucci at Gizmodo has it out for the Recording Industry Association of America, the good folks who like to sue teenagers and students in order to protect their lucrative oligopoly. This nonsense may soon be coming to Canada if changes to the Copyright under contemplation in Ottawa win the day (introduced initially by the Liberals but also supported by […]
Read moreThere is an astonishingly large underclass in the world’s richest nation: Gov’t estimates 754,000 homeless people By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press The nation has three-quarters of a million homeless people, filling emergency shelters through the year and spilling into special seasonal shelters in the coldest months, the government said Wednesday. The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated there were […]
Read moreJoseph Stiglitz points to some solutions to global warming, and some politics that stands in the way, excerpted from his latest column: What is required, first and foremost, are market-based incentives to induce Americans to use less energy and to produce more energy in ways that emit less carbon. But Bush has neither eliminated massive subsidies to the oil industry […]
Read moreI recently had occasion to re-read Jim Stanford’s contribution to an excellent CCPA book on Paul Martin’s Record (Hell and High Water), in which Jim pointed out that fiscal retrenchment in Canada under the Chretien government had been far, far more severe than the OECD norm. Few Canadians seem to perceive just how exceptional Canada has been compared to the […]
Read moreWhere I live in BC, the provincial government is doing its best to subtlely undermine public health care, rather than make the reforms countless commissions have recommended to make the system better. A full frontal assault is not possible due to the continuing popularity of a public model, but perhaps they think that if they mismanage the system enough and […]
Read moreOne wonders how much the Government of Canada could recover by offering an amnesty to tax evaders who come forward and pay up, followed by a serious effort to identify and prosecute those who do not. The Times December 30, 2006 Mystery billionaire pays $200m in back tax – and keeps a state afloat Chris Ayres in Los Angeles $200m […]
Read morePaul Krugman is in the bears’ camp for 2007 (thanks to Economist’s View for posting NYT Select content): Economic Storm Signals … Before I explain what the bond market is telling us, let’s talk about why the economy may be at a turning point. Between mid-2003 and mid-2006, economic growth in the United States was fueled mainly by a huge […]
Read moreJoseph Stiglitz takes on the matter of global imbalances with some thoughts on how they might be resolved. I confess to be perplexed by the persistence of these imbalances, as someone who was concerned about their potentially destabilizing impact a few year ago. But then again I called the stock market bubble back in 1997. Events have a way of […]
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