Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Paul Krugman discusses two theories behind the ever-growing divergence between soaring profits and stagnant wages. But it’s particularly important to note that neither of them calls for “free money for rich people” as a rational response: Why is this happening? As best as
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Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading.- Louise Story reports on tax goodies and direct giveaways to businesses at the local level (which of course seldom deliver the promised economic return). That said, it’s worth noting that we’re desperately lacking…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- There’s always been reason for skepticism about the pundit-class theory that the 2011 federal election should simply be deleted from the history books as an aberration. But Abacus provides a compelling example …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Paul Boothe discusses the dangers of giving in to resource-boom hype rather than planning for sustainable development:The resource roller coaster and the crazy things it causes us to do are not new. Remember the…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On editorial decisions
By all means, I agree with the commentators pointing out that this is rather less than surprising treatment of (and by) a Con cabinet minister. But as always, there’s another rather important followup question: why would Don Martin or anybody else stil…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Andrew Potter highlights the difficulties in practicing and encouraging truth-based politics at a time when entire parties make a deliberate strategy of lying – as well as the one technique that seems to be wor…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Frances Russell discusses how the Cons have corporatized Canadian politics: In fact, elevating corporate rights over the rights of citizens and their democractic institutions seems to be the Harper government’s core agenda. Its aggressive “free trade” stance has led to agreements with
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Richard Thaler criticizes Mitt Romney’s obsession with upper-end tax cuts by pointing out the factors which actually serve to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship: Romney wants to cut top rates by 20 percent, maintain the favorable treatment given to capital gains and dividends,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Jim Coyle wonders whether or democracy is in decline, and cites as evidence the utter disconnect between the primary functions of elected representatives and the way politics are covered in the media: (R)eal influence and authority has left the precincts — drifting
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Tim Harper slams the Cons for yet another omnibus abuse of parliamentary democracy: Stephen Harper didn’t invent prorogation and omnibus legislation, but he has made two arcane polysyllabic political terms part of our everyday lexicon, improving our vocabulary but diminishing our democracy. His
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Annie Lowrey reports on the evidence showing that the perpetually-increasing inequality pitched by the right as an economic plan actually serves to damage economic development: The yawning gap between the haves and the have-nots — and the political questions that gap has
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On honest appraisals
For all the concerns about the Cons paying absolutely no political price for their constant dishonesty, the NDP working to change that assumption: So how effective does the new ad look to be, particularly compared to past efforts to develop the theme that the Cons can’t be trusted? Well, the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – No, the aftershocks of an e. coli outbreak which has unfortunately given both Canadians and export markets reason for concern about the safety of some of our major food sources aren’t about to end simply because the Cons are again pretending everything’s fine.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – The CCPA’s Christopher Schenk offers up a detailed response to the Sask Party’s attacks on workers, featuring this conclusion: In a period of widening inequality restrictive labour laws are blatantly unnecessary and regressive. Indeed, their consideration is shocking when one considers that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Chris Hayes notes that Mitt Romney’s $50,000-a-plate dinner caught on video represents a rare glimpse inside the U.S.’ plutocracy – as well as a strong argument as to why we shouldn’t allow that group to decide policy affecting the public at large:
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Peter Kent’s Doomed Lemonade Stand
Aaron Wherry generously debunks Peter Kent’s latest farcical spin only within the climate change debate, rather than fitting it into a general governance framework. But while I’ll stick with my previous take on what the Cons really hope to accomplish in spinning about climate change, it’s worth noting just what
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Business Insider reports on a new study from the U.S.’ Congressional Research Service showing that in addition to exacerbating inequality, top-heavy tax cuts rank somewhere between useless and downright harmful when it comes to overall economic growth: According to a new study by
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – The Cons’ latest line of talking-point addiction isn’t passing without some substantial comment from Canada’s political press. Today, Jeffrey Simpson lambastes Stephen Harper and his party for trying to wipe out their own history and promises, while Dan Gardner considers the Cons to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Tim Harper weighs in on the Cons’ latest campaign of coordinated lies, and notes that the NDP looks to have learned one important lesson in how to respond: The NDP may be here at the federal level for the first time, but they
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – The Ottawa Citizen asks whether Stephen Harper’s Conservatives think Canadians are stupid enough to fall for their asinine carbon tax spin. Aaron Wherry confirms that the answer is an emphatic “yes”. – But then, we shouldn’t be surprised to see the Cons
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