Supporters of various American wars have sometimes proclaimed, “Freedom isn’t free.” This idiom could also be applied to Tax-Free Savings Accounts, which entail a cost in terms of lost federal and provincial revenues. When Budget 2008 unveiled TFSAs, several writers on this blog pointed out that their initially low fiscal cost would grow exponentially over time. At least one high-profile TFSA […]
Read moreHere is a note to Relentlessly Progressive Economics readers from Dr. Luis T. Gutierrez: The January 2009 issue of the E-Journal of “Solidarity, Sustainability, and Nonviolence” has been posted: The Sustainable Development Paradox As part of a series of articles on “dimensions of sustainable development,” the January 2009 issue shows the impossibility of integrating the social, economic, and political dimensions of sustainable development unless […]
Read moreDeclan picks up on Stephen’s suggestion that economists were too diffident to raise concerns about the real estate bubble: How to square the group of economists in the front pages of the paper offering a series of right wing prescriptions supported by neither fact nor theory with the economist unwilling to point out a housing bubble because it doesn’t fit […]
Read moreAnother dismal jobs report for December, with 34,000 more jobs gone (71,000Â full-time losses) and the unemployment rate jumping a third of a point in a single month, has got everyone now wondering:Â How high will the unemployment rate go in this recession? The “consensus” view of the mainstream economics world is something like this: unemployment will climb to perhaps 8% […]
Read moreI have generally been underwhelmed by media coverage of AbitibiBowater’s prospective NAFTA challenge of Newfoundland and Labrador’s decision to reclaim natural resources that the company previously used to operate paper mills in the province. I watched a panel discussion on Mike Duffy Live (before his Senate appointment) that focussed entirely on NAFTA’s nondiscrimination provisions. But there is no suggestion that […]
Read moreEzra Klein at American Prospect has already commented on some footage that I just saw on CNN. Paul Krugman marshalled his critique of Obama’s stimulus plan from his blog onto the op-ed page of today’s New York Times. A front-page story in the same newspaper suggests that Democratic legislators have been reading Krugman. Obama responded by throwing down the gauntlet for […]
Read moreGenerally in recent months and particularly in November, there were pronounced job losses in the province of Ontario and the manufacturing sector. In December, the Ontario and manufacturing numbers did not change much. But job losses spread to other provinces and the construction sector. In effect, the only remaining bright spots in Canada’s labour market have been extinguished. Even adjusting […]
Read moreYesterday, the chief economists of the chartered banks called on the federal government to permanently cut taxes now and balance the budget after the economic crisis by cutting spending. An obvious but unstated implication is a smaller government when the economy recovers. While this outcome would undoubtedly suit the ideological preferences of bank economists, it would hardly be a sensible response […]
Read moreObama’s selection of pro-NAFTA politicians as his Chief of Staff, Commerce Secretary, and US Trade Representative worried those of us who hope that he is serious about renegotiating NAFTA. This afternoon’s news that Bill Richardson has withdrawn reopens the possibility of appointing a NAFTA critic to the Commerce portfolio. Anyway, hope springs eternal.
Read moreI always enjoy Gwynne Dyer’s commentary on world affairs, but do not read nearly enough of it. Very few Canadian newspapers print columns by this Canadian-born journalist. Exceptions include Dyer’s hometown newspaper, the St. John’s Telegram, as well as The Hamilton Spectator and Guelph Mercury. Dyer’s lengthy year-end column combines a review of events in most corners of the world with […]
Read moreWilliam Robson, President of the C. D. Howe Institute, mounted a rear-guard defence of the conventional wisdom against Keynesian fiscal policy in yesterday’s Globe and Mail. He argues that we should leave the economy to central bankers and monetary policy instead of calling on governments to use fiscal policy. There are at least four problems with his op-ed: 1.) Far […]
Read moreBriarpatch printed my article, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap: Saskatchewan’s Multi-billion Dollar Resource Giveaway,†in its December 2008 edition. The magazine’s editor has a knack for excellent rock-themed titles: my previous contribution on Saskatchewan’s business tax cuts was entitled “Money for Nothing, and the Sultans of Spin Get Their Tax Cuts for Free.†When I submitted the article and spoke […]
Read moreThis blog has often criticized columns by Neil Reynolds. But he had quite an interesting one in yesterday’s Globe and Mail. In a nutshell, the column argues that used clothing donated from western countries has limited the emergence of garment manufacturing in Africa, thereby stunting that continent’s industrial development. Reynolds emphasizes this research as an example of the unintended consequences […]
Read moreThe best prof I ever had doing my undergrad at Western was David Laidler. I took a fourth year economic policy course with him, and learned a lot, especially a certain horror known as inflation (John Crow soon embarked on a disastrous war on inflation in the early 1990s that still sends shivers up many of our spines). Interestingly, Laidler […]
Read moreWe are on the edge of disaster without being able to situate it in the future: it is rather always already past. Maurice Blanchot.  Over the last month, I admittedly got so caught up in the rhetorical swirl of the coming disaster that I woke up December 1st expecting statistical confirmation that Canada slipped into recession in 2008 only to […]
Read moreLast week, The Toronto Star ran a front-page story, “Cut tax or risk jobs, banks say,” on the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) pre-budget submission to Queen’s Park. While acknowledging the elimination of Ontario’s corporate capital tax and the slashing of federal corporate income taxes, the bankers argue that it is also imperative for Ontario to cut its provincial corporate income […]
Read moreIn November, prices fell for a second consecutive month and annual inflation fell for a third consecutive month. The Consumer Price Index declined from 3.5% in August to 3.4% in September, 2.6% in October, and 2.0% in November. A few more months of decline could turn this annual rate negative. While steadily falling prices would be a boon to individual […]
Read moreThe transit strike in Ottawa is now in its second week, and life is horrible. Commuting has turned from frustation to nightmare, especially when snowfall makes things even worse. All of which leads me to the perhaps hugely obvious point that decent transit is self-evidently a very good thing for drivers like me and not just transit users, literally shaving […]
Read morehttp://www.tuac.org/en/public/e-docs/00/00/03/91/document_doc.phtml This is a very useful discussion/policy paper from Pierre Habbard of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD. Executive summary 1. The latest phase of the financial crisis that broke out in the summer 2007 was marked by a dramatic turn in mid-September with the collapse of Wall Street, US insurance group AIG, and the subsequent asset destruction […]
Read moreThe transcript of my pre-budget presentation is now available on the Ontario Legislative Assembly website. The content overlaps significantly with two recent posts. My budget-related testimony on the Ontario Health Premium is also online. Again, it reflects material already posted on this blog.
Read moreLabour’s Plan was developed by the CLC in consultation with economists from our affiliates. It has been submitted to all of the party leaders and economic critics. The Summary is followed by elaboration of each of the five main points. (This document does not deal with financial regulation and international economic issues.) http://canadianlabour.ca/sites/clc/files/laboursplanfullEn.pdf
Read moreMy colleague Sylvain Schetagne prepared this Update on Economic Stimulus packages announced as of December 10. Quite a few governments do seem prepared to act on the IMF recommendation to provide significant stimulus, but there’s a wide range of approaches. Introduction Last November, leaders of the world’s 20th largest economies, know as the G20, met in Washington to discuss the […]
Read moreSaturday’s Toronto Star featured the following op-ed from the United Steelworkers’ Ontario-Atlantic Director: Fix EI system to help those who didn’t cause the crisis TheStar.com – Opinion – Fix EI system to help those who didn’t cause the crisis Federal government, coalition or minority, should bolster benefits for the unemployed December 13, 2008 Wayne Fraser As all Canadians familiar with […]
Read moreThe front page of today’s New York Times notes that the United Food and Commercial Workers have organized “the world’s largest hog slaughterhouse” (some 5,000 employees in North Carolina). The front page also features an article on the United Auto Workers’ battle with Southern Republicans over the auto bailout. The second page reports the success of a Chicago plant occupation […]
Read moreLast night, Andrew Coyne prematurely began celebrating the demise of the US auto bailout and proclaimed the death of “any last lingering justification for†a parallel bailout in Canada. Now that American and Canadian governments have committed auto industry support, he pans Canada’s pledge as being “disproportionately large.†(Disproportionate to what, he does not specify.) Coyne links to a CTV […]
Read moreGlobal factors – exchange rates, international trade, and now the credit crisis – have undermined Canadian manufacturing. Since Ontario is Canada’s manufacturing heartland, it suffered a great deal of collateral damage. The conventional view is that the province is caught up in a pan-Canadian crisis rather than in something particular to Ontario. Initially, Quebec suffered proportionally greater losses than Ontario. The most recent […]
Read moreI highly recommend “The Credit Crunch: Housing Bubbles, Globalisation and the Worldwide Economic Crisis” by Graham Turner. “Graham Turner is one of only a handful of economists to understand the roots of the current financial crisis, its implications for all of us and crucially what should be done now. I strongly recommend you read this book.” —Larry Elliott, Guardian “A […]
Read moreThe Bank of Canada got it right this morning in cutting the key interest rate by 0.75%. This bold action makes up for the timidity of cutting by only 0.25% last time. The central bank should be applauded for (finally) recognizing the severity of the economic crisis and going further than recommended by the C. D. Howe Institute’s conservative Monetary Policy […]
Read moreThe Ontario economy fell off a cliff last month as the US meltdown intensfied the already virulent manufacturing and forest jobs crisis. An almost unprecedented 42,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in November in Ontario alone – that’s one in twenty of the total, and more than the total of manufacturing employment in either Oshawa or Windsor. And 20,000 jobs were […]
Read moreThe ever deepening global and national economic crisis has produced highly divergent views among mainstream economists on how radical a change is needed to orthodox fiscal and monetary policies with their focus on balanced budgets and low inflation. At one extreme, the recent Economic and Fiscal Statement indicates that the prevailing Department of Finance view is still that only very […]
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