Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Rick Salutin writes that Ontario’s provincial election shows that nobody is prepared to defend neoliberal ideas on their merits – which should provide an opening to start challenging them in practice. And Alice Ollstein examines how Donald Trump’s corporate giveaway looks like an
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Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Joseph Stiglitz writes about the need to learn from past mistakes in order to build a sustainable economy for the future: To someone like me, who has watched trade negotiations closely for more than a quarter-century, it is clear that US trade
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Murray Dobbin writes that corporate power is the greatest threat to our health and well-being – and reminds us that government focused on the public interest is a necessary counterweight: The revelations of the Paradise Papers, the earlier Panama Papers and numerous articles
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Toby Sanger discusses how the Trudeau Libs’ obsession with privatized infrastructure only stands to put control over public services in the hands of corporate predators: Corporations are sitting on hundreds of billions of excess cash in Canada and trillions worldwide — money they
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the spin behind the Trump administration’s push for a massive tax giveaway to the rich has no basis in economic reality – and how Canada shouldn’t be suckered into following suit. For further reading…– Michael Linden examines the overall effects of the Senate’s version of tax reform
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Doug Henwood interviews Brooke Harrington about the role of offshoring in hiding and concentrating wealth: (W)hat does it say about the state of capitalism that these immense fortunes are sequestered; not so much engaged with expansion of the system but are being kept
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Uberrific!
Cover-ups!Scandals! Sexual harassment!Tax evasion! Employment standards violations! Deliberate dishonesty!And all in the service of a business model built on becoming too big to ban while operating as a regulatory-evasion company! Yep, that sounds like the Saskatchewan Party’s kind of business. Which means the only question left is: how much public
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Linda McQuaig discusses how Justin Trudeau, Bill Morneau and the federal Libs are focused mostly on further privileging the rich: There’s lots of lamenting about the way the rich keep getting richer while ordinary folk struggle to keep their heads above water. Along
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – David Climenhaga writes that Canada needs a lot more of Jeremy Corbyn’s critical analysis of an unfair economic system, and a lot less Justin Trudeau-style cheerleading for it. And Bill Curry reports on a new push to cut down on poverty at
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Chris Hedges Looks at The True North.
The first two words give it away, “Pity Canada.”Chris Hedges looks at Canada and sees us succumbing to the U.S. contagion only behind the mask of moderation. On reading this you may think he goes too far, is too harsh. Perhaps, but not entirely. And, yes, it is harsh in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – George Monbiot writes that the erosion of government for the public good stands to lead to an authoritarian state: All that remain as widely shared, commonly accepted sources of national pride are our public services: the NHS, the BBC, the education system, social
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Peter Goodman examines how a basic income could relieve against some of the most harmful effects of capitalist economics. And Sarah O’Connor discusses the plight of towns which have been left behind by economic change. – Meanwhile, Matt Bruenig offers a reminder that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Canadians for Tax Fairness discusses the appallingly small tax contributions made by Canada’s largest companies, the vast majority of whom have foreign subsidiaries to avoid paying their fair share. – Meanwhile, Robert de Vries and Aaron Reeves point out the unfortunate reality
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Dani Rodrik writes that politicians looking to provide an alternative to toxic populism will need to offer some other challenge to a system biased in favour of the wealthy and powerful: (P)oliticians who want to steal the demagogues’ thunder have to tread a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Thomas Frank asks how we’ve allowed billionaires to escape any responsibility for the maintenance of civilization by moving their wealth offshore: I know that what the billionaires and the celebrities have done is legal. They merely took advantage of the system. It’s the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how beyond the scandals and failures we’ve seen to date, the Global Transportation Hub was always built on a dangerous desire to allow businesses to escape rules and democratic oversight. For further reading…– Geoff Leo reports here on Brightenview’s use of benefits for “rural” investors to try to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Andrew Jackson writes that widespread precarity in work is keeping wages down even as unemployment stays relatively low: (W)age pressures and inflation might remain persistently low even with a low unemployment rate due to the seemingly inexorable rise of precarious work. Marx’s reserve
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Wanda Wyporska writes that increasing inequality is the main factor behind public distrust and discontent with our politics: Rising inequality is not inevitable, it is largely a result of the political and economic decisions taken by governments. This is clear from the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy studies the large-scale use of offshore tax avoidance in the corporate sector, just in time for the Paradise Papers to reveal another set of tax avoidance loopholes being kept open for the benefit of Justin Trudeau’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Michal Rozworski writes that the bidding war surrounding Amazon’s second headquarters is just a symptom of a grossly dysfunctional relationship between governments and businesses: We shouldn’t be surprised that Amazon can get away with using a few billion dollars of private investment as
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