The C. D. Howe Institute is out this morning with a press release entitled, “Raising Oil and Gas Royalties Does Not Benefit Provincial Coffers.” A complete analysis of the accompanying 30-page paper – featuring many graphs, tables and regressions – will take time. But here is my initial take. Background The Institute correctly notes that […]
Continue readingTag: Budgets
The Progressive Economics Forum: The Macro-Economics of Financing Employment Insurance
The federal government has launched consultations on EI premium setting. This provides the opportunity to shift from a very ad hoc system to one that is more fair to workers, and more economically rational. The current worker premium is $1.78 per $100 of insured earnings and the employer premium is $2.49 per $100, adding to […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: On Balancing the Budget
Andrew Watt has written an especially cogent piece on why the balanced budget rule proposed for the Euro area by Merkel and Sarkozy is a very, very bad idea. It also makes relevant reading for Canadians. Andrew points out (1) that fiscal rules have to take into account overall balances and that the public sector […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: MYTHOLOGIES: MONEY AND HYPERINFLATION
In an earlier post, Marc Lee mentioned in passing the German hyperinflation episode of the 1920s. It’s remarkable that this event still holds such sway over the popular imagination despite other more recent instances of hyperinflation. Certainly, the imagery is powerful: German citizens pushing wheelbarrows full of worthless paper money around for everyday purchases, banknotes […]
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 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 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 Progressive Economics Forum: How much does poverty cost BC?
We’ve known for a long time that we all pay for poverty. We just didn’t know how much. This is the question I investigate in my latest CCPA report The Cost of Poverty in BC. If you’re not in the mood for reading the report, you can watch a short video that summarizes the findings […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Deconstructing BC’s carbon neutral government
Besides the carbon tax, one of the most important BC government climate action initiatives has been the adoption of Carbon Neutral Government. That is, count emissions from public buildings and travel, reduce them as much as possible and pay for carbon offsets to negate the rest. As of the 2010 calendar year, the BC government […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Navigating challenging economic waters
Down south, the Obama administration is in a dangerous game of chicken with Republican congressional leaders, who are cynically holding the US economy hostage in order to impose a radical agenda of spending cuts. Obama has seemingly bought into the rhetoric of cutting debt, rather than focusing on the real US problem of unemployment. Yet, […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The $0.3 Billion Question
Machiavelli has nothing on these guys. Let’s deconstruct for a moment the central message of today’s 2011 Federal Budget, Take 2: “Storm clouds are gathering in the world economy. We must rush to get our fiscal house in order, lest we be struck by another tempest. We will advance our own ambitious timetable for balancing […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Federal Budget Refried
Was it worth the wait? Hardly. Today’s federal budget is about as appetizing as two month-old pizza warmed up in the microwave. I guess they deserve high marks for consistency, though not for economic policy or a long list of other things. The Harper government’s June Budget is almost entirely a reprinted version of the […]
Continue readingRight of Center Ice: 10 headlines capturing the "work" of the Harper Regime
The Globe and Mail has released a photo slide show titled “A look back at the biggest headlines from Canada’s 40th parliament” with 8 of the 10 headlines either critiquing or outright slamming the Harper Regime’s path of governance. The two exceptions? The first was the state of Jack Layton’s
Continue readingRight of Center Ice: How convenient…
Foreign hackers attack Canadian government websites. I seriously question the timing of this piece and the ReformaTory spokespeople who are at the forefront of this breaking news. A cyber attack on the very department that is “hard at work” on the up coming budget. If we go into a spring
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