I have enjoyed being one of the three economists appearing on the occasional “Bottom Line” panel which CBC TV has been running on its National News. My fellow panelists (Patricia Croft from RBC Securities and Mark Mullins of the Fraser Institute) are personable, informed, and for the most part non-dogmatic about things. (I know it will surprise many PEF readers […]
Read moreI was out of the country but have the impression that the extremely gloomy OECD forecast and critical recommendations for Canada released just before the G20 London summit were not given the attention they deserved. http://www.oecd.org/document/59/0,3343,en_2649_33733_42234619_1_1_1_1,00.html The OECD released its intermim outlook largely to push the case for more stimulus by G20 countries, particularly those, like Canada, with strong fiscal […]
Read moreRather than blog furiously on this, here is an excellent substantive assesment from the international labour movement. http://www.tuac.org/en/public/e-docs/00/00/04/82/document_doc.phtml Having been on or about the fringes of the event, I’d see the main substantive outcome as the further institutionalization of global economic governance. The IMF gets increased resources and clout.. with some very modest strings of reform in terms of who […]
Read moreThe Council of Canadians organized a set of news conferences across Canada on March 31, the day before TILMA came into force for local governments in Alberta and BC. I was one of four speakers at the Toronto event. There are obviously larger and more important economic issues facing Canada today than interprovincial “free trade” deals. However, the free-market approach […]
Read moreI’ve been thinking a lot about energy efficiency in buildings lately (in the BC context, anyway). About 11% of BC’s greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to residential and commercial buildings, so obviously efficiency has to come under the microscope as part of any GHG mitigation plan. Part of my reticence to look at this topic before is that there are […]
Read moreIt makes my blood boil when I see headlines like this one from the Globe online: “Economic optimism boosts markets”. They are, of course, not talking about the markets that matter for most families’ day-to-day lives – those markets are still tanking. No, the Globe is talking about the stock market, as if an uptick of optimism among our financial […]
Read moreI cannot believe we are seeing such nonsense in this day and age. The right is now reaching deep into the 19th century for inspiration. Solving the Economic Crisis through a Free Market in Labor (Chicago) Labor will not be entirely free until it can be bought and sold, says a cutting edge new report from the Freedom Institute, a […]
Read moreLast week’s Ontario budget was quite momentous and challenging to digest. Budget analysis was initially overtaken by the Premier’s minimum-wage musings. The budget featured a combination of large expenditure increases and large revenue reductions. Overall, I think that it embodies the proposal from bank economists for temporary spending and permanent tax cuts. While it provides proportionally more short-term stimulus than the […]
Read moreA missive from CCPA Executive Director Bruce Campbell: The G-20 the leaders’ meeting in London on April 2 will be a important test of whether the major nations are up to the challenge of confronting this recession and preventing it from becoming a depression. Will their collective response of monetary, fiscal and financial reform measures be bold enough and sufficiently […]
Read moreFrom Lynne Fernandez and Errol Black, of CCPA’s Manitoba office: Budget day always presents an opportunity to contemplate the state of society, and this year in particular has most of us pondering the current economic mess we are in. How did this crisis happen? How and when will we move back to more stable times? This year’s provincial budget takes […]
Read moreWhile BC has not formally abandoned the P3 model, there is a notable absence of new P3 announcements at a time when billions of dollars are being channeled to infrastructure spending. If P3s really provided value for money and brought the benefits of private sector efficiency and innovation to the delivery of public-sector infrastructure, then why aren’t we seeing more […]
Read moreYesterday’s Ontario budget lauded the announced minimum wage increase to $10.25 per hour on March 31, 2010. Today, media reports indicate that, “following a meeting with business leaders in Ottawa,” Ontario’s Premier is reconsidering this increase. The argument seems to be that, given hard economic times, we may not be able to afford a higher minimum wage. However, if the […]
Read moreThe global economy is in free fall, gripped by what the International Monetary Fund calls the“Great Recession.†In a crisis that is unfolding everywhere at once, global trade and production are slumping, unemployment is soaring, pension funds are evaporating, big global banks are still teetering on the edge of insolvency (if they are not already insolvent), stock markets are cratering, […]
Read moreThe IMF’s reputation took a real beating during the Asian financial crisis more than a decade ago. During a financial panic, it decided to impose contractionary monetary and fiscal policies on countries that came to it needing funds in the short-term. I won’t get into the details but Stiglitz’s Globalization and its Discontents and Krugman’s Return of Depression Economics are […]
Read moreMost regular folks and media pundits seem to assume that the public sector is recession-proof – hence all those nasty calls for wage freezes, cuts and pension rollbacks on the part of supposedly cosseted government workers from the CFIB and other right-wingers. In point of fact, it’s a myth. Since October, 2008 – when employment began to fall – through […]
Read moreHere’s a perhaps rather obvious thought prompted by reading an outline of the next OECD Employment Outlook. In a period of high and likely prolonged unemployment, governments should increase their investment in training of the unemployed by an amount at least in line with the increase in unemployment. Budget 2009 fails that test. Spending on training under Part II of […]
Read moreSince October, 2008, the national unemployment rate has jumped sharply from 6.3% to 7.7% – driven entirely by job losses. The participation rate has fallen over the same period, from 67.8% to 67.4%. If this had not happened, the rise in the unemployment rate would have been even greater. As well, we have seen a shift to part-time jobs. The […]
Read moreA thought-provoking piece from the Asia Times – apparently China is drawing on hidden forex reserves to purchase real assets such as stakes in resource companies – diversifying away from the US Treasury bubble in a non trivial way and perhaps setting the stage for a collapse of the US dollar. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/KC18Cb01.html
Read moreTrade Unions to G20: Â Half Measures Will Not Fix Broken Global Economy Brussels, 23 March 2009 (ITUC OnLine): In a worldwide push for action by G20 governments to pull the global economy out of recession and chart a new course for job creation, financial regulation and global governance, trade unions across the world are today delivering a common set of […]
Read moreEric Pineault is the designated hitter on the topic of financialization but I thought I might make a small contribution to get the discussion rolling. I’ve been reading Galbraith’s The Predator State — see a review here — and it got me to thinking just how little our federal government — and governments elsewhere — has done to radically change […]
Read moreAh plastic. What’s not to love? Convenient? Check. Light in the pocket? Check. Monthly bill summaries? Check. Free short-term credit? Check (provided you pay your bills in full, on time). Benefits (free car rental insurance, points, cash back etc): Check AND… Take from the poor and give to the rich? err… wait a minute. Unfortunately, credit cards — especially those […]
Read moreI happened to listen to the end of week media pundits on CBC Newsworld and CBC Radio late Friday afternoon. Most – especially Don Martin and Joan Bryden on Newsworld – seemed perplexed as to why former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge might have chosen to be distinctly more gloomy abour our economic prospects than Steven Harper or Mark […]
Read moreI came across an interesting piece in YES! Magazine about a city in Brazil that took an innovative approach to poverty reduction and practically ended hunger by adopting a food-as-a-right policy. Here is their story in a nutshell (although I recommend checking out the actual article). Belo Horizonte is the fourth largest city in Brazil with a population of 2.5 […]
Read moreHere is the upbeat take on retail sales from Statistics Canada’s Daily: Retail sales rose 1.9% in January after decreasing 5.2% in December. Sales rose in five of the eight retail sectors, led by a 3.8% increase in the automotive sector. In volume terms, retail sales were up 1.8%. It goes on to report that sales are up in nine […]
Read moreThe increase in consumer prices between January and February suggests that the threat of deflation may be less imminent than it appeared during the previous five months of falling prices. Whereas three provinces actually posted negative inflation rates in January, all posted positive inflation rates in February. Today’s Bloomberg report begins by noting that this data “may ease pressure on […]
Read moreNo, the West is not Alberta as everyone in Ontario seems to think (I’m from Toronto so I can say that). I mean BC, where an election is on in two months. You would not really know it walking around Vancouver, probably because the writ has not yet dropped, so we are in the calm before the storm. I’ve been […]
Read moreOnce in a while, I come across a blog post that is so on-point I cannot add much more than a link to it. With CBC broadcasting this year’s edition of Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister tonight, I highly recommend this post on the contest’s boneheaded entry requirement. The rule is as follows: “It is a condition of entry and […]
Read moreLiberals are proposing to slash Nova Scotia’s corporate income tax rate for small business from 5% to 1%. We have seen this movie before. New Brunswick announced a 1% small business rate by 2007 only to instead restore a 5% rate that year. Nova Scotians might reasonably ask why their provincial neighbour abandoned the 1% plan. Part of the story […]
Read moreSome weekend reading: Amartya Sen, that other voice of sanity among recent Nobel laureates in economics, draws lines between the current economic crisis and the history of economic thought (with an emphasis on Smith, Keynes and Pigou), and what that all means for a “new capitalism”. Then, over at the Financial Times, a whole series looks at the future of […]
Read moreA couple of weeks back, I posted on the topic of “quantitative easing,” the policy of having the central bank aggressively purchase government (and possibly corporate) debt in the open market ostensibly to increase the money supply. I argued that at best, quantitative easing was a pricing operation that worked at the margin by increasing demand for a given asset […]
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