Apparently the policy brief I wrote for the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour has been picked up by the Occupy Wall Street movement. The brief can be found here. The money shot from that brief would be the graph … Continue readin…
Continue readingAuthor: Travis Fast
Wall Street Occupation
Back in 2008 when I wrote this post I had this prediction to make: This is very much where we are today. Everyone from the EU to GWB Jr., has been doing neoliberal damage control. The problem is that it … Continue reading →
Continue readingHow to read economic language for bias: “wage inflation” in Newfoundland and Labrador
Sometimes we read things and we get that gut feeling that we are being subtly manipulated. Economics is of course full of this subtle manipulation. Words like “choice”, and “efficiency” and even phrases like “free trad…
Continue readingThe poverty trap for real
Poverty is of course about a lack of money, but it is also about a lack of resources both in the cultural and social sense. I live in a small village of 1800 citizens. Outside of myself, the retired doctor … Continue reading →
Continue readingDelicious and dangerous irony: China to buy Italisn bonds
How much of a disaster is the EMU? Look no further than the spectacle of the Italians going cap in hand to the Chinese for a bail out. The fact that the Italians are tapping the Chinese is not the … Continue reading →
Continue readingPromises and the Liberal Long Game: Tuition in Ontario
Guest post by Eric Newstadt There has been a lot of interest in the Liberal plan to offer full-time students an up-front grant so as to reduce their tuition-fees, not least from yours truly. Indeed, the promise is a rather … Continue reading &#…
Continue readingThe irony of greed: The end game for Neoliberalism?
The global economy is in the toilet and the Boomers’ representatives are chanting: “flush, flush, flush.” Me? I am eating cigarettes and wine while admiring the remarkable consistency in the myopia of all of it. In the name of fisca…
Continue readingJack Layton dies
My condolences to his family and friends. Filed under: Canadian Politics
Continue readingDebt Refinancing, the Federal Government and the Provinces
Ok this post is in the form of a naive question. And it goes like this: If the Federal Government can borrow (OK MMTers don’t vide your back-end here, I know they do not have to go to the bond … Continue reading →
Continue readingReswitching, relative prices and linearity
Ok so only 1000 people in the world understand this and only 10 care about it: economics for the most part has long since given up its empirical pretensions when it comes to its ontological assumptions. Still I suspect the … Continue reading &#…
Continue readingThe Circus of Greed: the Political Economy of Ratings Agencies
Would be hard not know that the S&P downgraded the US today. What is less well known is why it is further evidence of the circus of greed that is the American financial and political system. First, read this post … Continue reading →
Continue readingRelentlessly Progressive Political Economy 2011-08-04 21:19:02
The left would do well to dwell on the fact we have seen this film before. At some point we need an adult conversation about capitalism and not just when it is stuck in a putative liquidity trap: It may … Continue reading →
Continue readingThe Right Wing Commentariat is getting Desperate
JuysTerence Corcoran Just go read Terence Corcoran’s latest in the National Post. Never mind that the world was plunged into economic crisis by unregulated financial institutions; and near fully captured regulators never mind that by most accou…
Continue readingThe Sensitivity Problem and the Social Sciences: Warn your students
This is a problem I am sure almost anyone who works with data runs into form time to time. It is also something we need to teach our students. Which I am sure we all do. This post is simply … Continue reading →
Continue readingA rotting fruit that does not give vent to its own demand?
Given we seem to be stuck in fairly heady economic times it seems worthwhile to me to put out another post on the subject of employment, labour force growth and unemployment. In this post I am going to revisit the … Continue reading →
Continue readingTowards an adult conversation about Canadian labour markets
Have you ever heard the urban legend about how such and such generation of Canadians are lazier than the past generation? Or the One about how this generation just does not want to work and why we need to make … Continue reading →
Continue readingThe Jackass de-Generation
What a disgusting generation. It would be one thing if they could get out of bed and hit the barricades to defend their fellows but sadly no. What brings this generation of Canadians to the streets of fire is not … Continue reading →
Continue readingCanada: persistently 2nd worst in class
During the last election much was made about Canada’s relatively good performance during the last recession. What was conveniently left out of the discussion by all political parties is just how dismal Canada’s macroeconomic performance h…
Continue readingA little perspective on GDP growth or does policy matter?
These are odd times. Not one policy seems to get floated these days which does not include in the tag line that it will be good for economic growth. And it is not just tax cuts for the rich or … Continue reading →
Continue readingUBC economist Milligan throws cake at educated, unemployed youth
I tuned into a rebroadcast of this morning’s the CBC’s the Current while cleaning the kitchen this evening which had an unusually good documentary on the problem of youth unemployment; specifically, the problem of university undergrads in f…
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