This and that for your Tuesday reading. – David MacDonald, Lindsay McLaren, Katherine Scott and Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood each examine the Libs’ fiscal update and find that headlines about progressive priorities mask the lack of much that’s specific or new. – Shamshad Ahktar, Kevin Gallagher and Ulrich Volz discuss the G20’s
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politics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: A Biblical Story of the Concentration of Wealth During a Disaster
Today I find myself thinking about a story in Genesis 47:13 – 26. It is the story of a famine in Egypt. I’ll share the text from the Bible, and then I’ll write my commentary underneath it. 13There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was
Continue readingThings Are Good: It’s Good to Understand the First 5000 Years of Debt
How can we make sense of governments around the world taking on more debt during the COVID-19 pandemic when beforehand they were repulsed by the concept of going into debt? Step one is to look at our assumptions of debt. About a decade ago David Graeber wrote a book called
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – John Metta discusses how low-income workers have been barely treading water for decades even before the coronavirus collapse. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives points out how we can take the failure of EI during the pandemic as a signal that we need
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – David Macdonald notes that the federal government’s investments in the wake of COVID-19 have been necessary to keep intolerable burdens off of people who haven’t been able to bear them. Scotiabank weighs in (PDF) on the reality that the costs of inaction would
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Laird Cronk and Sussanne Skidmore offer their take as to how to ensure everybody benefits from British Columbia’s recovery plan. And Trish Hennessy discusses the need to build a more empathetic and inclusive society: COVID-19 has exposed what many of us already
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Bryan Borzykowski recognizes that many Canadian families are weathering the COVID-19 crisis only by taking on more debt – though it’s worth questioning whether the burden should fall on individuals to dig their way out from under it, rather than receiving systemic relief.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Andrew Nikiforuk highlights where we stand in responding to the coronavirus – including the dangers of declaring victory at a point where there’s still every risk of waves of death. – Janice Braden writes that the Saskatchewan Party’s idea of reopening the province
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Amadeus Narbutt discusses the uncertain effect of the coronavirus on the global balance of power. And Adam Tooze notes that the U.S.’ damaging response to COVID-19 included vetoing IMF support for governments around the globe. – Andrew Langille examines how workers with low
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Adam Tooze writes that the coronavirus pandemic has offered a reminder that the economy (particularly defined in terms of shareholders’ interests) can’t be given priority over human survival and well-being. – John Daley discusses three possible options in responding to the coronavirus –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan write about the U.S.’ choice between health care for all, or the spread of disease as people can’t afford to seek medical treatment. – David Dayen highlights how the coronavirus is likely to expose the weaknesses of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the problems with the Saskatchewan Party’s mismanagement which deserve far more attention than Scott Moe’s attempts to pick fights with the federal government for show – including the need to plan for a future in which fossil fuel extraction won’t be the basis for a viable economy. For
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Mitchell Anderson writes that personal debt may be the most important hidden issue in Canada’s federal election: The reason Canada cannot act in a more moral manner might lie in ballooning amounts of household debt. Canadians now owe an eye-watering $2.2 trillion or
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins interviews Eugene McCarraher about the cultivation of capitalist greed as a new religion. And Annie Lowrey writes about the value of cancelling the concept of billionaires: (T)here are far more urgent reasons than poverty to get rid of billionaires and reverse
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – David Leonhardt discusses how the U.S.’ tax system has become definitively regressive, featuring this chart as to how the wealthiest few now pay a smaller share of their income than anybody else. – Ann Pettifor highlights how society suffers when rentier capitalism is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – The New York Times’ editorial board highlights how many of the people looking to defend a habitable planet from environmental destruction are being met with state-assisted violence in response. And Oxfam examines how Australian mining companies are exploiting west Africa to the tune
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – CBC News highlights how cost-of-living issues look to play a key role in Canada’s federal election. And Jerry-Lynn Scofield points out that current asset valuations and economic assumptions are based on an entirely unsustainable combination of public, private and corporate debt loads.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Alberta must find alternatives to cutting social spending
I have an opinion piece in today’s Edmonton Journal about Alberta’s current fiscal situation. Points raised in the blog post include the following: -The Jason Kenney government will almost certainly announce cuts to social spending in the near future. -Yet, more than 80% of Alberta’s kindergarten through Grade 3 classes
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Tony Burman writes about the seismic change we can expect as the importance of our climate crisis – as well as the need to act on a global basis – starts to permeate our political decision-making. And KC Golden warns that the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Andrew Phung highlights how important it is for younger voters to be heard in Alberta’s election. Travis Benson offers plenty of suggestions as to why even people who aren’t always NDP supporters should be happy to re-elect Rachel Notley. And PressProgress rounds
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