As Andrew, Marc, Toby and I pointed-out at the time, despite the low up-front cost of Tax-Free Savings Accounts, they will become exponentially more expensive over time. To obnoxiously quote myself, “this measure could burn a significant hole in future government revenues.” It is worth noting that Jack Mintz, a huge fan of Tax-Free Savings Accounts, suggests essentially the same […]
Read moreToday, Statistics Canada released an excellent paper concluding that the rate of return on investment in Canadian public capital is around 17%. This paper builds on another Statistics Canada paper from a few years ago that Marc cited a few days ago on this blog. If anything, the paper’s text somewhat understates its mathematical findings. The author’s hypothesis was that […]
Read moreIn a commentary last fall in the NY Times, Robert Frank makes the case for consumption taxes to replace the income tax in the US. Yet, while this sounds revolutionary on first reading, what Frank is describing is essentially the Canadian tax system: Under such a tax, people would report not only their income but also their annual savings, as […]
Read moreJim Prentice appears to have done what no previous Liberal or Conservative government had been prepared to for more than two decades under the Investment Canada Act. As the NDP has noted, preventing the takeover of MDA is a small victory for progressives.
Read moreHow about this latest gem from our let-the-market-rule Finance Minister: Les Whittington Ottawa Bureau, TORONTO STAR (APRIL 10) OTTAWA–Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says the Conservatives will cut government spending if need be to avoid a budget deficit caused by the economic slowdown. “No deficit – balanced budget,” he said outside the Commons. “We’re not raising taxes,” Flaherty added when asked […]
Read moreOver the years, federal budget legislation has acquired the feel of U.S. omnibus bills (the Farm Bill is probably the quintessential example). To some extent, this is to be expected. Ever since the “disastrous” Trudeau era, the imperial Department of Finance has not-so-quietly re-asserted its domain over the federal bureaucracy. One manifestation of Finance’s power has been the increasing tendency […]
Read moreThe asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) debacle: who is to blame? According to the National Post , it’s everybody and nobody. I find myself in unusual agreement. While I don’t wish to see likely criminals let off the hook, a better approach out of this mess is to change the rules of the game. Last August, the Canadian market for non-bank ABCP was […]
Read moreWell, it does take one’s breath away that the IMF now estimates that the financial crisis will result in $1 trillion in losses, about four times the total booked as losses to date by large financial institutions. I’m not entirely assure of the appropriate denominator to judge the percentage impact of this crisis on total financial system assets, but global […]
Read moreIn a new report released today for Sustainable Prosperity (a new research institute), Jack Mintz and Nancy Olewiler pitch a federal carbon tax constructed by broadening the base of the federal excise tax (which currently raises over $5 billion per year based on a tax of 10 cents per litre of gas and 4 cents per liter of diesel) to […]
Read moreCLC Statement on the Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board The 2008 Budget Implementation Bill (C-50) creates – through Part 7, the Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board Act – a new, independent crown corporation, the Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board (CEIFB). The key functions of the new corporation and Board are to manage a separate Employment Insurance (EI) reserve fund, and […]
Read moreThere is a very specific set of issues for displaced workers arising from the treatment of severance pay, which represents compensation for involuntary job loss in recognition of the very real costs incurred by the worker. Under the current Employment Insurance system, a worker who is laid-off does not normally receive a regular EI benefit cheque until such time as […]
Read moreWhen the United Steelworkers ended the recent drive to organize Dofasco, Steve Arnold of The Hamilton Spectator posted the following: Today’s decision by the United Steelworkers to back off from the Dofasco organizing effort closes, at least for now, a bitter and divisive debate in the company. It’s clear before the USW comes back to Dofasco it has to mount […]
Read moreI have just ordered what sounds like an excellent new book from an old friend and former colleague, Gerry Caplan. Review from AfricaFiles follows: AfricaFiles Title: The betrayal of Africa Author: Gerald Caplan Category: Africa General Date: 4/5/2008 Source: Groundwood Books Source Website: http://www.groundwoodbooks.com Summary & Comment: “There is a widespread assumption among rich countries that Africa is the problem […]
Read moreHere’s a nice piece by John Stapleton published by the CCPA – pointing out that most past downturns have seen improvements to social programs, rather than the cuts imposed last time around in the late 80s early 90s. Â http://www.policyalternatives.ca/documents/Ontario_Office_Pubs/2008/Last_Recession_Spook.pdf
Read moreWhile driving down the 401 recently, I listened to some upstate New York radio and heard a great ad from New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness. This organization resembles the CCPA’s alternative budget initiatives, although its Better Choice campaign is reminiscent of the CLC.
Read moreI’m struck by the extent to which the media stuck to the story of a dismal US economy/resilient Canadian economy in reporting on Friday’s labour force numbers. See eg the Saturday Globe and Mail report. In fact, Quebec and Ontario combined lost 47,000 full-time jobs in March, and the Maritime provinces also showed signs of growing weakness. Almost all of […]
Read moreAndrew will undoubtedly post a more comprehensive analysis of today’s Labour Force Survey. What strikes me is that, despite all of the gloomy news about an impending recession, Canadians continue flooding into the labour market in search of paid work. In March, the creation of only 14,600 new jobs drew 57,100 more people into the labour force. As a result, […]
Read moreI’ve pasted in below my contribution to the latest issue of Canada Watch, edited by my old friend Danny Drache of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at the University of Toronto. It’s part of a special issue on what Deep Integration of North America could look like with George W. Bush out of the way. Here’s the link to […]
Read moreMost environmentalists would probably say no. But I’m going to make the opposite case here. The thing we need to remember about economic growth is that over long periods of time the products we consume and the processes by which we produce them change dramatically. As my old prof Dick Lipsey pointed out repeatedly, we have a higher standard of […]
Read moreIt is my great pleasure to announce the winners of the first John Kenneth Galbraith Prize in Economics: Mel Watkins and Kari Polanyi Levitt will share the Prize. The award was largely on the basis of their pioneering work around foreign (US) investment and ownership and multinational corporations back in the 1960s and 1970s. Both Kari and Mel will be […]
Read moreOn the anniversary of TILMA coming into force, nine national business associations and the professional association representing non-chartered accountants have demanded “bold action” on inter-provincial trade. The press release alleges that “the emergence of new trade barriers threatens to further balkanize the Canadian economy” without naming a single “new trade barrier”. It repeats the unfounded claim that “it is often […]
Read moreLast week I attended a very useful workshop on climate change and green jobs bringing together about 25 people from labour and environmental ngos, in a generally successful attempt to find common ground around climate change policies. I think there was real momentum around the centrality of “green job” creation to moving the climate change agenda forward. There was less […]
Read moreAs Joe Kuchta points out, Saskatoon’s StarPhoenix (SP) newspaper has essentially reversed its position on TILMA without any acknowledgement that its previous position was mistaken. The other SP, the province’s governing Saskatchewan Party, did the same thing. At least the StarPhoenix printed the following op-ed from Joe: SP’s TILMA stance hypocritical Joe Kuchta Special to The StarPhoenix Thursday, March 27, […]
Read more A good one from Eric Beauchesne on the Canwest wire. Some highlights: Canada’s wealthy benefit most from tax cuts, OECD finds The tax burden on wages has eased in most of the world’s industrial countries this decade, including here, but Canada is among a minority where most of the relief has gone to high-income earners and the least to lower-income […]
Read moreIn my experience, flights are often delayed in Pearson airport. I always wonder whether there is some particular problem with the management of Pearson or whether delays just tend to happen there because air travel is somehow prone to delay and so many flights go through Pearson. A recent Canadian Press story seems to support the first possibility.
Read moreI was in Washington last week for meetings of economists from central trade union bodies, mainly from the OECD countries. While the main purpose of the meetings was to draft the annual union statement to the upcoming G-8 summit in Japan, we had a full day of meetings with researchers and senior officials from the International Monetary Fund, and also […]
Read moreThe United Steelworkers are currently trying to organize Dofasco. I encourage progressives to vote “yes” in The Hamilton Spectator’s online poll. UPDATE (March 24): The Dofasco poll no longer seems to be on The Spectator’s website.
Read moreAh, the confluence of the events! The tabling of a “prudent†federal budget for uncertain times, followed a week later by news of slowing economic growth. Of course, rumors of the economy’s imminent decline may be greatly exaggerated, given January’s jobs report and trade data. But let’s carry forth with the economic accounts data. Earlier, Erin and Toby drew […]
Read moreNo this isn’t the Economics National Enquirer. I mean shocking. Really shocking. Hasn’t anyone else out there noticed what’s happened to Canada’s net FDI position, in the wake of the mega-massive takeovers of Canadian resource companies that have occurred as a result of the global commodity price boom? Resource companies with more money than they know what to do with […]
Read moreEven Jim Flaherty’s “We Don’t Pick Winners†Conservatives were under pressure in this budget to do something for the auto industry. The fact that at least a dozen swing ridings in southwestern Ontario could determine the outcome of the next election might have something to do with their sensitivity to the continuing industrial destruction being wrought in what is still […]
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