Or, The Big Picture: Economic Strength vs Economic Insolvency: US, Canada and Uruguay compared Uruguayan national debt in 2023:$40 billion USD(52% of GDP) Canadian national debt in 2023:$1.4 trillion USDOr$1,400 billion USD US national debt in 2023:Roughly $30 trillionOr$30,000 billion(Not including corporate and household debt, which brings the total to
Continue readingTag: development
Writings of J. Todd Ring: The Collapse Of The West: Chapter One: The Global Tectonic Shift
By J. Todd Ring Preface: I wrote this essay in January of 2020, then the covid crisis hit, and it was shelved for over a year. The macro-scale patterns have not changed fundamentally since then, although the slow-motion collapse of the US, and the West more broadly, has accelerated. I
Continue readingScripturient: Can Collingwood Pass the Strong Towns’ Test?
Back in 2014, the USA-based Strong Towns group posted a test to “measure a successful Strong Town.” The ten questions or conditions posed include: Take a photo of your main street at midday. Does the picture show more people than cars? If there were a revolution in your town, would
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Population Growth & The Environment
There has been a debate going on for over 50 years as to whether the primary cause of the growing environmental crisis is over-population or over-consumption. The debate still continues, even though the facts have been known conclusively for decades. Consider what we know to be the established facts. 60%
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Land Reform and The Birth of A Revolution
Half of the world’s people live in the countryside. Three quarters of the people living in poverty live in the countryside. Two-thirds of the income of the rural poor comes from small-scale farms and peasant agriculture. Meanwhile, peasant farmers and the rural poor produce two-thirds of the world’s food. Something
Continue readingScripturient: Ignoring the Potential Conflicts of Interest
A story in CollingwoodToday notes that council will hold a meeting on May 31 to consider exceptions to their job-and-revenue-killing interim control bylaw (ICBL). That bylaw abruptly ended all growth, building, and development because our inept council had failed to pay attention ever since they were elected to the water
Continue readingScripturient: Saunderson’s Job-Killing ICBL Continued
James Madison, one of the US’s Founding Fathers said that a government “…without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a tragedy or a farce, or perhaps both.” Sure reads like someone describing our own council and their refusal to listen to the public
Continue readingScripturient: Saunderson’s Epic Blunder
A blunder of epic proportions? A sobering display of supreme incompetence and ineptitude? A total failure of communications, direction, and leadership? An underhanded excuse to hand our municipal water services over to a private corporation without public consultation? A rudderless municipal government fumbling from one crisis to the next with
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Behind Chile’s political crisis
More than one million people marched in Santiago on October 26 to protest the Government’s security response to Chile’s current political crisis and to demand structural economic reforms to reduce inequality and increase social services. In this post I analyze these grievances from a quantitative perspective and explore what it
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Income Inequality and Redistribution in Venezuela
I had been waiting for last month’s publication of the book “Confronting Inequality” before preparing my annual update on income inequality and redistribution in Canada. I am glad I did because the book presents new and exciting empirical findings that shed light on the age-old equity/growth debate (more on that
Continue readingScripturient: Madigan’s motion jeopardizes town
On January 15, Councillor Bob Madigan made a motion (seconded, of course, by his puppetmaster, Deputy Mayor Saunderson) to limit the progress of the Indigo/Eden-Oak/McNabb development at the south end of town. Madigan’s motion demanded that, …council provide no further approvals to the Eden Oak/McNabb development until such time as
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: A tale book-ended by 2 Trudeaus: Canada’s foreign aid since 1970
Soon after the 2015 federal election, Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau affirmed that Canada was “back” as a “compassionate and constructive voice in the world” after a decade of Conservative governments. One of the most important means by which any industrialized country interacts with the developing world is via the amount,
Continue readingThe Political Road Map: When Trudeau Met Trump
The saying goes…men and woman cannot be friends, they are bound to become lovers or fall apart. While it may seem like this has nothing directly to do with today’s meeting between Prime Minister Trudeau and President Donald Trump, the relationship between the countries they represent does relate to it
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Alternatives to Corporate Globalization: Cooperatives
In this guest post Tom Webb gives a summary of the pitch in his new book, that co-operatives are the answer to the problems of the global capitalist agenda. At the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University, at the beginning of the new millennium, I was part of
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Space Race Approach to Fighting Climate Change
Here’s a neat idea: save the planet using the research and development practices used during the space race. The state-lead push for advanced science led to really fun things like cellphones and laser eye surgery. Imagine what we as a species could create if we had the same push into sustainability like we did during […]
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Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Gated Communities
I’m not a big fan of gated communities, but even if I don’t personally want to live in one myself, I understand the reason for them, and sympathize with homeowners in those zones. Apartments are basically gated towers that restrict access to residents or keyholders and no one complains that they
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Vacationing City of Duncan Councillor Tom Duncan Denies Public Input Over The Controversial Dakova Building Proposal
Never In Living Memory Richard Hughes-Political Blogger Veteran councillor Sharon Jackson appears to have been on the warpath lately regarding the proposed development on the empty lot at Canada Avenue and Government Street. She is not anti-development; that lot has needed a building on it for over 20 years. But
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Will Nova Scotia Implement a Carbon Tax?
There is some discussion in Nova Scotia about the possibility of the government introducing a carbon tax in the next budget. In this blog post I will introduce the context within which these discussions are taking place, and make reference to other blog posts in this forum that provide insights
Continue readingPostArctica: Old Bowling Alley – View Blown
The old bowling alley on De l’Eglise was turned into condos a few years ago and these people appear to have really nice big galdrys (balconies) and while the view is only of a small dull part of Galt avenue, they do have tons of space in front of them
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Political Eh-conomy Radio: BC teachers and First Nations on the frontlines
My guests today help take a fresh look at two issues where British Columbia is on the front lines of bigger social conflicts: that over the future of public education and that over resource development on First Nations lands. https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/podcast-140905-bc-frontlines1.mp3 My first guest is Helesia Luke, life-long public education advocate and member of the board
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