Today’s Statscan release “Incomes of Canadians” provides data for 2009 and a partial reading on the impacts of the recession. (I say partial because the 2008 annual average data were impacted by the onset of the recession in the last quarter of the year, and since these impacts continued well into 2010.) The data give […]
Continue readingAuthor: Andrew Jackson
The Progressive Economics Forum: Municipalities, Procurement and Canada-EU Trade
There is an excellent post by Scott Sinclair at the CCPA blog.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Case Against Wage Insurance
At the CEA meetings I participated on a panel organized by IRPP to discuss a recent paper – by Finnie and Gray – on older laid-off workers and the policy option of “wage insurance.” The paper shows that older laid off workers leaving stable jobs and finding new employment typically experience significant declines in earnings […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Canada Doesn’t Deserve the Silver
It has been widely reported in the Globe and elsewhere that Canada ranks #2 in the just-released OECD Better Life Index, outstripped only by Australia. I am all for measures of objective and subjective social well-being that go beyond GDP as a measure of progress, and this OECD report offers up some useful information. But […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Exiting from the Crisis
“Exiting from the Crisis: Towards a Model of More Equitable and Sustainable Growth” is a new book (over 270 pages) now available on line. This volume of essays from global trade union leaders and economists is the product of the Global Unions Taskforce on a New Growth Model, a joint project of the Trade Union […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Reflection on the Election
Poring over the entrails leads me to a couple of observations. First, as is usually the case, the change in the distribution of seats which commands headlines is an imperfect reflection of the change in the distribution of votes. The NDP breakthrough in Quebec was remarkable and historically important and unprecedented, but so was the […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: How to Help the Long Term Unemployed
The OECD have weighed in on what policy measures are needed to limit the damage of long term unemployment in the aftermath of the Great Recession. I would judge the NDP platform – which includes a significant job creation tax credit and increased EI benefits – to be closest to the OECD prescription. The OECD […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Good Jobs For All
The policy paper to be presented to the CLC Convention next month is now posted on our web site and is well worth reading.
http://www.canadianlabour.ca/sites/default/files/pdfs/policypapergoodjosen.pdf