NDP Pre Budget Letter
http://www.ndp.ca/xfer/pdf/2007-03-09-flahertyprebudget_e.pdf A good letter outlining what the federal NDP would like to see in the upcoming federal Budget.
Read moreCan traffic congestion be cured?
I went to a lecture last night be Anthony Downs of the Brookings Institution. His main insight that I am still dwelling on is that traffic congestion is an inevitable outcome of the way we have organized our urban societies. And as long as we have successful and vibrant cities, there will always be congestion – at least, as long […]
Read moreGeorgetti Responds to Coon Come on Anti-Scab Legislation
Opponents of Bill C-257 need to identify a purpose served by replacement workers other than strengthening the bargaining position of employers in relation to their employees. Hence the misleading claim that replacement workers are needed to provide essential services during labour disputes. Matthew Coon Come, a former aboriginal political leader who became a corporate CEO, has lent his support to […]
Read moreStiglitz: patents and drug monopolies
We have been picking on copyright a lot recently, but we should not neglect patents, that other arm of “intellectual property”. Like copyright, patents confer monopoly power. They have little to do with a “free market” but everything to do with real-world capitalism. In his monthly column, Joseph Stiglitz makes the case against patents with a focus on pharmaceutical drugs. […]
Read moreKrugman: America’s Disappearing Middle Class
From the keynote speech delivered by Paul Krugman at the Economic Policy Institute’s recent conference on The Agenda for Shared Prosperity: A History of America’s Disappearing Middle Class By Paul Krugman …One thing I’ve been noticing on multiple debates in public policies — climate change is another one — is there seems to be an almost seamless transition from denial […]
Read more35,000 Manufacturing Jobs Gone in One Month
This morning, Statistics Canada released its Labour Force Survey figures for February. My analysis, which was included in the CLC’s press release, follows: Manufacturing Crisis Deepens Canada lost 35,000 manufacturing jobs between January and February. This staggering one-month decline pushes the cumulative loss to 250,000 since Canadian manufacturing peaked in November 2002. Most of February’s devastating decline took place in […]
Read moreThe Trial of Lord Vader, I mean, Black
Eric Reguly sizes up the trial of Conrad Black. Added to the news that the British House of Commons voted to change the House of Lords to a 100% elected body, things are not going well for Lady Slatternly’s lover: If he’s afraid, it doesn’t show If Conrad Black fears for his freedom, his reputation, his wealth (what little […]
Read moreDion on the Economy
http://www.liberal.ca/news_e.aspx?type=speech&id=12324 No big surprises in today’s big speech to a business audience – the usual mainstream Finance/OECD stuff on enhancing competitiveness by building a knowledge based economy. Surprisingly little in the way of an attempt to link industrial and environmental policy, for all of that green rhetoric during the leadership campaign. Ditto re any linkage between social justice and economic […]
Read moreThe Economist gets high on TILMA
The Economist so fetishizes “free trade” that it eagerly swallows TILMA without bothering to do any fact-checking. The way this is framed below, you would think people in BC are cheering that they will finally be able to buy Alberta oil. As for evidence, the article points to the Fraser Institute, who has not done any research on the topic […]
Read moreAgenda for Shared Prosperity
http://www.epi.org/ A project of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, this involves some 50 economists and policy specialists in the task of developing a new, progressive US economic policy agenda. The link from the EPI web site leads to some good papers by Jeff Faux on trade, and Richard Freeman and others on unions, as well as a recent presentation […]
Read moreStop cutting taxes and start solving problems
Our politicians are obsessed with tax cuts. The next election will now feature the battle of the tax cuts, with the Canada’s New Harperment pushing for more GST cuts (and who knows what other plans to reduce the size of the federal government) versus Dion’s plan for more personal and corporate income tax cuts. Meanwhile, poverty and homelessness will continue […]
Read moreMore progressive economics
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 moreCorporate Tax Cuts
The Globe Report and Business has a story today (can’t find it online) to the effect that the federal Budget will improve depreciation rates for new capital equipment investment, but not lower the general corporate income tax rate beyond already planned levels. As noted by Erin in an earlier post, this reflects Finance thinking as reflected in the recent report […]
Read moreMore truthiness from John Ibbitson
John 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 moreVancouver’s housing challenge
The story below was the banner headline piece on page one of today’s Vancouver Sun, and is a perfect choice for the “we told you so” file. Three years ago, after being awarded the 2010 Olympics, our BC Solutions Budget (and in subsequent editions) made many of the same points as the Olympics Housing Roundtable’s soon-to-be-released report. This report, and […]
Read moreGalbraith’s legacy
Richard Parker of Harvard probes the legacy of John Kenneth Galbraith, perhaps in anticipation of the Progressive Economics Forum’s soon-to-be-inaugurated John Kenneth Galbraith Prize in Economics (at the Canadian Economics Association meetings in Halifax this June). From the Post-Autistic Economics Review: Does John Kenneth Galbraith Have a Legacy? … I think it would behoove all of us today to attend, […]
Read moreReview of “Dimensions of Inequality in Canada”
Published in The Tyee, as Divided, We’re Falling: Book Review of Dimensions of Inequality in Canada Edited by David A. Green and Jonathan R. Kesselman UBC Press ISBN 0-7748-1208-7 August 2006 http://www.ubcpress.ca/search/title_book.asp?BookID=4518 Review by Marc Lee A poll last Fall by Environics for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found that three-quarters of Canadians felt that the gap between rich […]
Read moreCompass U.K. Progressive Economic Program
I shared the podium recently in Sydney with Neal Lawson, who is the chairperson for a very interesting U.K. initiative called Compass.  As far as I can tell, Compass is kind of a cross between a think-tank and an activist network. Its explicit goal has been to challenge the right-wing policies of the New Labour leadership. It functions largely, but […]
Read moreHow TILMA’s economic benefits were manufactured
BC’s Economic Development Minister Colin Hansen has been waving around at every opportunity a study by the Conference Board of Canada that allegedly demonstrate the benefits the deal will bring. When the report was finally released to the public this past January, Erin Weir and I were so shocked at how shabby the research was that we wrote a paper […]
Read moreGalbraith on US inequality
Another 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 moreAnarchy in the DK
Something rotten in the state of Denmark? Here’s an interesting take on Copenhagen’s recent youth riots. Anarchy in the DK Jakob Illeborg Copenhagen is burning. For four days the downtown area of the Danish capital has looked like a war zone. At least 690 people have been arrested, many of them younger than 18. As I write, Copenhagen is still […]
Read moreAdvantage Canada and Trade Deals
Advantage Canada is the “economic plan” released with November’s Economic and Fiscal Update. In reading through it yesterday, I was struck by its statements about a couple of “free trade” agreements. Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) Marc and I demonstrate that there are few tangible examples of trade barriers between provinces and no evidence that such barriers entail significant […]
Read moreRed Ken’s Green Plan
The Guardian on Livingstone’s latest for the city of London: Cleaning up the Big Smoke: Livingstone plans to cut carbon emissions by 60% · Londoners given 20-year target to go green · Flights could drastically affect success of campaign David Adam and Hugh Muir Tuesday February 27, 2007 The Guardian A detailed plan to slash London’s carbon emissions by 60% […]
Read moreTax Expenditures and Evaluations
Yesterday, Finance Canada released “Tax Expenditures and Evaluations 2006.” The tax-expenditure figures confirm Andrew’s suggestion that the partial inclusion of capital gains now costs the federal government about $3 billion per year of forgone personal taxes: the 2006 projection is $3.1 billion. This partial inclusion cost an additional $3.4 billion of forgone corporate taxes that year. By comparison, the research-and-development […]
Read moreMore “truthiness” from the John Ibbitson
Yesterday, the CCPA released a study on inequality filled with statistics about how life has changed for families with children. John Ibbitson shrugs his shoulders and responds with a polemic. He provides some “balance” by trashing right-wing think tanks, too, but in typical Ibbitson fashion provides not a shred of evidence for anything he says. Here’s the column and some […]
Read moreAnti-Scab Legislation
I hope that enough Liberals and Conservatives will vote for Bill C-257 to pass it on March 21. However, Stephan Dion and his labour critic have announced that they will not support it because the Speaker ruled their essential-service amendments inadmissable. The Canada Labour Code already protects essential services during labour disputes. Workers in federally regulated industries are permitted to […]
Read moreThe Anti-RIAA Manifesto
Adam 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 moreThree-quarters of a million homeless in USA
There 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 moreLabour and Climate Change
http://www.canadianlabour.ca/index.php/briefs_to_parliament/1096 The Canadian Labour Congress today submitted to the Parliamentary Committee looking at Bill C-30, the Clean Air Act which deals with greenhouse gas emissions. Our brief sets out a broad labour perspective on climate change issues – focusing on the need for a planned transition to a more environmentally sustainable economy. Labour supports sticking with Kyoto, deeper emissions reduction […]
Read moreA tax benefit for the working poor?
This story in the Star points at (another) re-announcement of the Working Income Tax Benefit (WITB), a Canadian version of the US Earned Income Tax Credit first announced by then-finance minister Ralph Goodale in his economic and fiscal update prior to the last election. In the 2006 federal budget, the Tories announced they were continuing with the WITB, due to […]
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