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Recycling is supposed to be a good thing, so when the federal Liberals quietly announced that “asset recycling” would be part of their strategy for meeting their much-ballyhooed …
Continue readingAuthor: Michal Rozworski
Michal Rozworski: Podcast: When the left takes the city
This week, the focus is on experience of left parties and organizations at the municipal level. Although the left has still exercised only limited political power in many places since the financial crisis, some cities have seen left projects come to power or build new institutions in interesting ways. My two guests shed light on […]
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Building a Corbyn majority: interview with Richard Seymour
My podcast interview with Richard Seymour on the roots and prospects of Corbynism appeared in Jacobin last week. While the United Kingdom has been reeling from political crisis to political crisis in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, Jeremy Corbyn has never looked stronger. He showed his principles in apologizing for a war he opposed from […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: How not to fund infrastructure
Recycling is supposed to be a good thing, so when the federal Liberals quietly announced that “asset recycling” would be part of their strategy for meeting their much-ballyhooed infrastructure promises, not many eyebrows were raised. They should have been. Asset recycling is an obscure code word for selling our public goods for private profit. It’s […]
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: How not to fund infrastructure
Recycling is supposed to be a good thing, so when the federal Liberals quietly announced that “asset recycling” would be part of their strategy for meeting their much-ballyhooed infrastructure promises, not many eyebrows were raised. They should have been. Asset recycling is an obscure code word for selling our public goods for private profit. It’s […]
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Podcast: The improbable rise of Jeremy Corbyn
So far this week, Jeremy Corbyn has caused over 100,000 new members to join the UK Labour Party he leads, has apologized for a war he opposed from the beginning and appears to have survived a coup attempt on his leadership. And despite his backstabbing MPs, he’s one of the few party leaders left […]
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: What is done: quick thoughts on Brexit
What is done is done regardless of where you were on the referendum—or like most of us, outside the UK. The two questions that grab me now are what lessons can be learned and how to salvage the moment for an anti-racist, anti-austerity coalition. Instead I’ve seen too many tears shed for the EU, which […]
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: “Investment” versus investment
Surprise! A new investigation by the Toronto Star and the CBC found that recent treaties with tax havens like the Bahamas and Panama aimed at more “transparency” have just made it easier for corporations to evade ever more taxes. And Canadian corporations have obliged this golden opportunity. “Investment” abroad has ballooned all the while the […]
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Podcast: Canada’s spring of occupations
Welcome back to the first podcast episode after a two-month hiatus! This week, three guests talk about two significant occupations of public space that have happened in Canada in the interim: the Black Lives Matter occupation of police headquarters plaza in Toronto and the occupations of Indigenous and Northern Affairs offices across the country. In this […]
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: r > g in Vancouver
I’m finally coming back to full functioning from a concussion so there will be less silence here (I’m still writing a book though, a strong counter-tendency). Today, I just wanted to post a revealing duo of headlines about Vancouver, the city my partner and I left (fled?) just over half a year ago. Exhibit 1: Exhibit 2: In […]
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Beware of basic income
Wouldn’t it be great to get a cheque every month just for being you? This is the sweet, fuzzy vision the Ontario and federal Liberals, are counting on to sell their latest idea, a basic income. Just this year, the Ontario government laid the groundwork for a pilot project to test the idea. Any actual large-scale program […]
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Podcast returns soon
I’ve been very busy with writing and other things the past couple months, which has meant the podcast has unfortunately taken a back seat. There haven’t been new episodes for a couple months. Apologies to regular listeners, but it will ris…
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Why Alberta shouldn’t look to Norway, and why that’s a reason to Leap
One of the clearest memories I have from my only trip to Norway is the repeated failures at hitching a ride. What appeared to be an unbroken string of brand new Audi’s and BMW’s whizzed by my friend and I, dirty and sweaty after a few days hiking and camping in the mountains. “Where am I […]
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Beltway Bullshit, my interview with JW Mason on Bernie’s economics
My interview with JW Mason on how wonk critics of Sanders’ economic ideas reinforce low expectations was transcribed for Jacobin under the great title, “Beltway Bullshit.” Michal Rozworski: There’s been a big debate recently around Bernie Sanders’s economic ideas. It was precipitated by Gerald Friedman’s claim that Sanders’s plans would lead to 5 percent nominal economic growth over a […]
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Jonathan Kay advises the left
Jonathan Kay knows what’s hurting the poor. Is it absurdly low welfare rates and social supports? Perhaps it is lack of access to affordable housing? Poverty wages? Food insecurity? Over-policing? No, says Kay, the honest broker of politics, the inconvenient truth-speaker, it’s the left’s political correctness that’s really keeping the poor down. Kay supports this claim with a […]
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Growing the middle class or adapting the elite consensus?
Today’s federal government budget is a litmus test for the new Liberal government. They campaigned on promises of “real change” from the last regime, including a willingness to increase social spending even if it meant running deficit budgets. And, in keeping with this pledge, spending is up, and the deficit is forecast at $29.4 billion. […]
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Fiscal policy for the left, or Corbyn vs Mulcair on deficits
The question of deficits dominated a lot of the economic debate in Canada during the 2015 federal election and even today. Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party introduced a new fiscal policy last week that, on surface, appears to mirror the NDP’s anti-deficit stance from the 2015 campaign. Looking closer, however, Labour’s policy diverges quite substantially and […]
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Podcast: Defending Bernie-nomics and debunking the housing market
This week, I interview two guests on fairly different topics linked by the fact that they both give very effective debunkings of some mainstream economic thinking. First, I speak with JW Mason, economics professor at John Jay College in New York City, about the debate that has erupted around Bernie Sanders’ economic program. JW argues […]
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Will Sanders’ rise be felt in Canada?
Co-written with Derrick O’Keefe and originally published at Ricochet. Even if he’s really only offering a pragmatic form of social democracy, Sanders has created a political space in the mainstream left that’s sorely missing in Canada. His insurgent campaign for the Democratic Party nomination has put inequality and systemic injustice front and centre in the […]
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Podcast: Where is Quebec going after the strikes, where is Canada’s economy going after the oil crash?
I have two Canadian updates this week. The first is from Nora Loreto on what’s happening in Quebec after the fall’s anti-austerity strikes. Nora is a Quebec City-based journalist and labour activist. She gives an account not only of what happened during the strikes in Quebec, but also what to expect in their wake (see the […]
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