Watching Rob Ford in the recent weeks reminds me of what John Ralston Saul once wrote of Benito Mussolini and his contemporary reincarnation in Silvio Berlusconi: “He was the nascent modern Heroic leader. Mussolini combined the interests of corporatism with public relations and sport, while replacing public debate and citizen
Continue readingTag: Budgets
The Progressive Economics Forum: Canada’s (not so incredible) shrinking federal government
Buried in the federal government’s recent Update of Economic and Fiscal Projections are figures showing the Harper government is set to squeeze federal government’s role to the smallest it has been in seventy years. (Bill Curry at the Globe also just wrote about this, but without figures further back than 1958). Total federal
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Saskatchewan Budget Saved by Falling Loonie
Following last week’s troubling news about potash, the Saskatchewan government released its first-quarter financial report today. The headline seems to be “Oil Keeps Budget in Black”, with a forecast increase in oil revenue more than offsetting a forecast decline in potash and other revenues. But the forecast West Texas Intermediate
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Funding Cuts to Alberta’s PSE Sector: There Are Alternatives
It has recently been reported that the University of Alberta wants to “reopen two-year collective agreements” with faculty and staff “to help the university balance its budget…” This appears to be in direct response to Alberta’s provincial government announcing in its March budget that there would be a “7% cut
Continue reading350 or bust: Sell Your Crap. Pay Your Debts. Do What You Love.
This week’s TED Talk features Adam Baker, founder of ManVsDebt, a blog which focuses on a simple message: The first step to living a life of passion and purpose is to remove the barriers that hold you back. It sounds like good advice to me! * ManVsDebt.com
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ontario Budget: All Quiet on the Revenue Front
As others have noted, last week’s Ontario budget combined modest social investments in areas requested by the NDP with austerity for overall expenditures. Ontario program spending, already the lowest per capita of any province, will be subject to ongoing cuts relative to inflation. This paradox on the expenditure side of
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Absolving our Carbon Sins: the Case of the Pacific Carbon Trust
Last week’s report from BC’s Auditor General dealt a huge blow to the credibility of carbon offsets and claims that BC had achieved a state of “carbon neutral government.” Coverage of the AG’s report was coloured by accusations from the Pacific Carbon Trust, the Crown corporation created to buy and sell BC offsets,
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Austerity through infrastructure Cuts: Budget 2013
One the most amazing things about this budget is that one of its three focuses will actually be the opposite of what it’s touting. You’ll likely hear that $14 billion will be spent on infrastructure over the next 10 years (actually you may hear much bigger numbers but they just
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Budget 2013: Time for a real action plan, not another ad campaign
It’s hard to get excited about Thursday’s federal budget. All signs point to an “austerity” budget, even though that approach has failed so spectacularly wherever it has been tried. Austerity is one of those zombie ideas that cannot be killed, roaming rampantly across the pages and screens of the mainstream
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Alternative Federal Budget 2013 – Doing Better, Together
These are the remarks by David MacDonald and I prepared for the press conference marking the release of the AFB 2013 in Ottawa, March 12, 2013. Time flies and our Alternative Federal Budget is now in its 19th year. Year after year it has shown that we can have a Canada where
Continue readingShorter Waldmann on Yglesias and monteraism
The long version is here. Apparently Mr.. Waldmann was tricked into reading Matt Yglesias on monetary policy. Waldmann’s observation goes something like this in short from: Hey Matt you have been consistently wrong in your predictions on the power of monetary policy, if fact your predictions have been so wrong
Continue readingCalgary Grit: You Be The Finance Minister
If Doug Horner can’t get Alberta’s finances under control, he can always look forward to a long career as a Ricky Gervais impersonator. Alberta is facing a bit of a budget crisis, with a deficit which, on a per capita basis, could be as big as Ontario’s. This has forced
Continue readingPutting lipstick on the PIIGS: the health of modern macroeconomics
Ok, so some of the best economists, trained at elite institutions, working for the pinnacle of the of the financial world got it wrong, very wrong. How wrong? Just go ask a Greek citizen. But, of course, we all knew that just by reading the headlines coming out of Greece
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The PQ budget
On Tuesday, November 20th, the Parti Québécois released its first budget since taking office. This budget was widely anticipated in view of the many fiscal promises the PQ had made during the campaign, most of which where fairly progressive in nature. In the end, the exercise was (aptly) described by Marc Van Audenrode, who followed […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Fiscal Cliff Notes
The US federal budget is back in the spotlight now that the election is over. In one sense, not much has changed in that the Republicans continue to hold the House, the Democrats the Senate and White House. But what we are now witnessing is the culmination of budget deals going back to the first […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Austerity Trap
Below is a recent editorial from the New York Times that does an excellent job of summarizing the failures of austerity policies. The NYTimes also published a very good analysis of how austerity measures have actually increased debt loads in many countries, instead of reducing them: “Despite Push for Austerity, European
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?
Ontario careens towards an election nobody wants… Ontario Liberals threaten election after NDP ‘breaks its word’ on budget Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty threatened to take Ontario to a general election Thursday if the opposition parties couldn’t agree on a deal to pass the budget. “This is about Ontario’s economic livelihood
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Budget Bill and the Federal Contractors Program
So many big changes are happening in Bill C-38 that some significant issues like the changes to the Federal Contractors Program (FCP) have escaped attention. Part 4 Division 42 of C-38 is very short. It merely says that subsection 42(2) of the Employment Equity Act is replaced by the following:
Continue readingCHAPTER 8: The Miserable Metrics of Neoliberalism
Conclusion to Chapter 8 Consistent with the main line of argument in this thesis then, is the proposition that labour market flexibilisation is the other side of the neoliberal policy coin; namely, price stability and conservative fiscal policy all locked in via the globalisation of production and finance. In this
Continue readingDutch Diseased Labour Markets
If one reads the G&M and NatPo business sections one is treated to a steady stream of largely rosy and pompous pronouncements on the structural shift in the Canadian economy towards resource extraction on the one hand, and on the other hand, to the non- tradeable service sectors. The tell
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