Assorted content to end your week. – Noah Smith offers a reminder that market principles don’t work for everything. And Amelie Quesnel-Vallee and Miles Taylor note that in the health sector in particular, the use of private providers to supplement an underfunded public system is leading to inequitable disparities in
Continue readingTag: austerity
Parchment in the Fire: “Syriza has failed.”
For the Greek economist, the single currency has simply allowed Berlin to dominate the European market and to become a global exporter country: “The Euro was a disaster”. And on Greece he adds: “Syriza shows us what we should not do and how we should not organize ourselves. Those who
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Guardian’s editorial board weighs in on the undue gains going to the 1% while everybody else faces stagnation or worse: While the rest of society have shared in an equality of misery following the crash, the top 1% – households with incomes of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Ben Tarnoff discusses the growing number of basic public services which are being converted into private rents as profit motives are given precedence over democracy: A profit-driven system doesn’t mean we get more for our money – it means someone gets to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Guest Post: Whither Alberta’s NDP in the face of extreme, desperate, chaotic right and resurgent ‘centre’?
PHOTOS: Contingents from the Centre Right, the Far Right and the Further Right mix it up in the Alberta Legislature’s commissary. Actual Alberta conservatives may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Guest post author Barret Weber, Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Wildrose Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Lana Payne writes that austerity bears much of the blame for the Grenfell Tower inferno – as well as for the increased dangers facing all but the wealthiest of people: Grenfell Tower was not an accident. It is what happens when austerity
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Ryan Meili writes about the fundamental importance of trust in both politics and medicine – and the corrosive effects of corporate donations in both: When we talk about the problems with political donations, we’re not really talking about campaign financing. We’re talking about
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Aditya Chakrabortty describes the Grenfell Tower fire as nothing less than social murder of the UK’s poor: Austerity is at the heart of the Grenfell story. Think of the firefighters, who have seen stations closed and colleagues laid off by May, when
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Phillip Inman discusses how austerity has proven to be an all-pain, no-gain proposition for the general public which is facing stagnant wages and higher consumer debt. – Pedro Nicolaci da Costa is duly skeptical of employer complaints about “skills gaps” which in fact
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Wanda Wyporska writes about the scandal of growing inequality and the separation of the ultra-rich from the rest of society. And Richard Reeves calls for the people with the most wealth and privilege to stop denying the advantages they enjoy compared to the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Martin Lukacs contrasts Justin Trudeau’s hype machine against the genuine hope offered by Jeremy Corbyn, while Paul Mason sees the election result as just a first battle against the UK’s ruling elite. And Thomas Walkom discusses how left populism is the real
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On selective sacrifice
Brad Wall’s definition of shared sacrifice: Public service workers are expected to do their jobs plus more to cover for a hiring freeze, while also getting hit with a 3.5% pay cut. At the same time, specially-selected Saskatchewan Party MLAs get handed new titles without any accompanying work, plus $3,000
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Gary Younge examines how Jeremy Corbyn and an unabashedly progressive campaign platform are making massive gains in a UK general election cynically called to exploit Labour’s perceived weakness: Seeing the response to Labour’s election manifesto last week was a clear illustration of just
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Dalia Marin argues that in order to avoid corporate dominance over citizens and workers around the globe, we should be developing international competition policies and systems to combat the concentration of wealth: Two forces in today’s digital economy are driving the global decline
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ten things to know about social assistance in Canada
I’ve just written a blog post about social assistance in Canada. Points raised in the blog post include the following: -Social assistance has two contradictory objectives: 1) to give people enough money to live on; and 2) to not give people enough money to live on. -Very few immigrants receive
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Dean Baker notes that a reduction in required work time could go a long way toward ensuring that workers share in productivity gains. – Meanwhile, Max Ehrenfreund writes about new research on the state of the U.S.’ middle class – showing that lifetime
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Tim Bousquet writes that the push toward “social entrepreneurship” ultimately serves to undermine the importance of the public good: My real worry here is that the phrase “social enterprise” is the softer, feel-good end of the push for increased entrepreneurship, which is
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The introduction and evolution of child benefits in Canada
Allan Moscovitch and I have co-authored a blog post that looks at the history of child benefits in Canada. Points made in the blog post include the following: -Child benefits can reduce both poverty and homelessness. -When child benefits began in Canada after World War II, one major motivating factor
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Christian Cooper discusses how poverty is like a disease in its effect on a person’s mental and physical well-being. And Andre Picard highlights the reality that in order to address the damage done by centuries of systematic discrimination against Canada’s indigenous people, we
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: A Response to the 2017 Saskatchewan Budget
I have an opinion piece on Saskatchewan’s recent budget in the Regina Leader-Post. Points raised in the opinion piece include the following: -Reductions in personal and corporate income taxes help the rich more than the poor (and this budget cut both personal and corporate income taxes). -Increases in sales tax
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