The Progressive Economics Forum

Economy Lab at the Globe and Mail

October 16, 2010 Armine Yalnizyan 2 comments

Here’s my take on Canada’s jobs recovery, written for the Economy Lab. The Economy Lab is a new on-line feature of the on-line business section of the Globe and Mail, part the newspaper’s extensive print and electronic make-over launched on October 1. Editor Rob Gilroy has made it a lively spot. The Daily Mix is full of links to interesting […]

Jack Vicq Rides Again

October 15, 2010 Erin Weir 2 comments

Jack Vicq is Saskatchewanâ€™s answer to Jack Mintz, a relentless advocate of lower taxes for high-income individuals and profitable corporations. His first report for the provincial government presaged massive personal income tax cuts in 2000 (which soon pushed the province into deficit). His second report for the provincial government presaged massive corporate tax cuts. Saskatchewan business organizations just released a […]

Why incentive pay won’t fix education or health care

October 14, 2010 Iglika Ivanova 5 comments

It turns out — surprise! — that it’s really hard to measure quality in complex social systems and that employing simplistic quantitative measures can backfire. That’s the take-home message from a recent talk by UC Berkley economist and public policy professor Jesse Rothstein who came to SFU to present his latest research on using standardized test scores to measure teacher […]

The Entrails of the Update

October 13, 2010 Andrew Jackson Leave a comment

There are some interesting if rather subtle differences between the fiscal situation of the federal government as forecast in the last Budget, and that given to us yesterday in the Update. Not much change to the revenue picture, with 09-10 being a bit better than forecast, and next year being a bit weaker than forecast. Debt charges are a bit […]

The Conference Board on Potash Royalties

October 12, 2010 Erin Weir 6 comments

A week ago, the Government of Saskatchewan released the Conference Board of Canadaâ€™s report on the possible Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (PCS) takeover. It provides 77 pages of useful information, but is disappointingly thin on policy recommendations. The Conference Board downplays concerns about BHP leaving Canpotex after acquiring PCS. It argues that, with or without Canpotex, profit maximization would motivate […]

Jobs Recovery?

October 12, 2010 Andrew Jackson One comment

The Update of Economic and Fiscal Projections released today is fairly upbeat on the recovery in the job market, noting that “all of the jobs lost during the recession have now been recouped.” Well yes, butÂ that still leaves us downÂ 211,000Â permanent full-time employee positions, with all of the net job creation over teh past year or so having […]

A hip hop version of the Keynes vs Hayek debate

October 12, 2010 Iglika Ivanova 3 comments

Here’s a new take on bringing economic theory to the masses — a rap battle between Keynes and Hayek. What’s amazing about it is the amount of solid (if not plain nerdy) content this video packs into such a short time. It’s fun to watch for sure (very high production values), but you get that much more out of it […]

StatCan Cuts and Flaming Snowballs

October 12, 2010 Armine Yalnizyan Leave a comment

It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. In the news today: Statistics Canada has been trying to find $7 million in cuts. Five surveys have been axed so far. But those five don’t add up to enough savings, so more cuts to come. That’s on top of the surveys cut, throttled or mothballed mentioned in this post, and […]

The Long and the Short of It – Census and NHS Questions

October 12, 2010 Armine Yalnizyan Leave a comment

The following will appear in the Hill Times’ October 18th edition. The Harper Conservatives repeatedly banged Canadians over the head this summer with their minority viewpoint on Canadaâ€™s long-form census questionnaire. The questions, they said, were intrusive, and the government coercive for expecting answers. Mandatory suddenly became an ugly word for the law-and-order brigade. Interestingly, their actions on the census […]

Finance Capital Turns Parasitic

October 10, 2010 Bruce Livesey 4 comments

In an announcement that largely went unnoticed last week, U.S. Steel said it plans to close down the blast furnace at Stelco’s Hilton Works in Hamilton, Ontario. Hilton Works was once the main steelmaking operation of what was once Canada’s largest integrated steelmaker. Its demise exposes how Stelco has been reduced to a mere shell of its former glorious self. […]

Ottawa Lends Vale a Billion

October 7, 2010 Erin Weir 3 comments

So, Export Development Canada (EDC) has agreed to lend Vale up to $1 billion US. This announcement comes on the heels of a bitter labour dispute at Valeâ€™s Sudbury mines and in the midst of an ongoing strike at its Voiseyâ€™s Bay operations. The financial rationale is unclear. Although $1 billion is very large for an EDC loan, it is […]

Economic Forecasts and Fiscal Policy

October 6, 2010 Andrew Jackson One comment

It would have been interesting to listen in on the discussion ofÂ Bay Street economists with Finance Minister Flaherty earlier this week. Not all of the banks have current forecasts on line, and they differ somewhat in terms of detail and relative degree ofÂ optimism or pessimism. Nonetheless, it seems clear that growth in 2011 will likely be significantly lower […]

Mark Carney on the “Natural Rate” of Unemployment.

October 3, 2010 Andrew Jackson 12 comments

I was disturbed to read this comment on the current state of the US economy in Mark Carney’s speech last week. “The natural rate of (US) unemployment may be increasing sharply. The scale of industry restructuring means that some unemployed workers do not have the skills suitable for the expanding sectors. Other job seekers are tied to their local area, […]

Iggyâ€™s EI Reversal

October 2, 2010 Erin Weir 6 comments

In case progressives needed another reason to distrust Michael Ignatieff, he just pulled the rug out from under Employment Insurance improvements: Michael Ignatieff is reversing his support for a wide range of enhancements to Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, saying they are too expensive and are no longer required. The Liberal Leader attempted to provoke a federal election around this time […]

Reynolds on a “Shameful Spending Spree”

October 2, 2010 Andrew Jackson 4 comments

Neil Reynolds has issued yet another diatribe in the Globe, “A Shameful Spending Spree”Â He argues thatÂ inflation adjusted government spending per person hasÂ grown by about 50% over the past 30 years. He uses 1982 as the base year. Was all this inflation-plus spending really necessary? Yes, it includes health costs and education costs but does every man, every […]

We told you so: HST introduction a factor behind GDP drop in July

October 1, 2010 Iglika Ivanova 2 comments

Among the concerns about the HST that we at the CCPA have raised was the poor timing of the tax change. From my pre-budget piece last September: If British Columbians respond to the HST by reducing their consumer spending, the timing of the HST introduction may actually slow down the economic recovery, which should be getting under way next summer. […]

So what’s a green job, anyway?

September 30, 2010 Marc Lee 19 comments

Today CCPA released a new report by myself and Ken Carlaw, an economist at UBC-Okanagan, called Climate Justice, Green Jobs and Sustainable Production in BC. I doubt you’ll see any headlines about it in the major news dailies, but I think it will have a longer-lasting impact as a key economic framing piece for our Climate Justice Project. In the […]

Ontario, Quebec call census decision a “mistake”

September 29, 2010 Armine Yalnizyan One comment

Cabinet ministers from the governments of Ontario and Quebec have sent a letter to Minister Tony Clement, calling the census decision a “mistake” and asking that the federal government “reverse this course of action as soon as possible”. The provinces, together, represent 62% of the labour market and spend billions of dollars every year on training and education. The Ministers […]

Stockwellâ€™s Deficit â€œSolutionâ€: Tax Cuts

September 24, 2010 Erin Weir 10 comments

This morning, the Canadian Foundation for Economic Education hosted a Bay Street breakfast meeting with Stockwell Day, President of the Treasury Board of Canada. Jim serves on the Foundationâ€™s Board of Directors, but could not make todayâ€™s session. So, Armine and I ended up having breakfast with Tories at Torys. (Some other participants may not have been Tories, but I […]

It’s Not too Late to Fix the Census

September 24, 2010 Armine Yalnizyan 3 comments

The following will appear in the Hill Times on Monday, September 27, 2010 Everyone knows that the Harper governmentâ€™s decision on the census is destructive madness, including the Harper government. But there is a growing sense that itâ€™s too late to reverse the decision. Itâ€™s not. The Harper government has been saying itâ€™s too late to change things since early […]

Beggar-thy-Neighbour Trade Strategies Still Rule

September 23, 2010 Jim Stanford 10 comments

My Globe and Mail column today looks at the issue of trade imbalances in global trade.Â Countries like Germany have stimulated their own recoveires (for now) by deliberately targeting large trade surpluses; this strategy has also been followed for years by China, Japan, Korea, and others enamoured with export-led growth (which is a totally different animal, keep in mind, from […]

EI Running Out

September 23, 2010 Erin Weir Leave a comment

The fact that 31,400 fewer Canadians received regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits in July would be good news if it reflected an improved job market. But the Labour Force Survey indicates that, in July, employment decreased by 9,300 and unemployment increased by 17,900. These figures suggest that thousands of unemployed workers are running out of EI benefits without finding jobs. […]

Saving Statistics Canada

September 22, 2010 Armine Yalnizyan One comment

On September 9th, Canada’s Prime Minister received a letter from Mel Cappe, David Dodge, Alex Himelfarb and Ivan Fellegi. It opened with a stern warning that government actions with regard to the census over the summer “put the well earned credibility and respected international standing of Statistics Canada at risk”. Then they told him how to fix the problem. [The […]

BC’s revenue negative carbon tax

September 22, 2010 Marc Lee 2 comments

BC’s carbon tax was supposed to be “revenue neutral”, meaning all carbon tax revenue would be “recycled” to British Columbians through personal income tax cuts, corporate income tax cuts and a low-income credit. When the 2008 budget launched the carbon tax, we were provided with a forecast that had revenues precisely match recycling through tax cuts and credits, with about […]

What Would Bubbles Do?

September 21, 2010 Nick Falvo 5 comments

Many blog readers are no doubt aware that, late last month, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released a paper by David Macdonald entitled “Canada’s Housing Bubble:Â An Accident Waiting to Happen.” As the title suggests, Macdonald argues: Canada is experiencing, for the first time in the last 30 years, a synchronized housing bubble across the six largest residential real […]

A Tale of Two Inflations: Canada vs. Ontario

September 21, 2010 Erin Weir 5 comments

Todayâ€™s Consumer Price Index release told a tale of two inflations. The national rate decreased from 1.8% to 1.7% while Ontarioâ€™s inflation rate remained at 2.9%, the highest in Canada. Monetary Policy Of course, monetary policy should reflect the whole country. The national inflation rate decreasing to 1.7% in August begs the question of why the Bank of Canada has […]

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