“recognize its own climate change efforts, such as carbon capture and storage. ” Effort, not “efforts”. There’s only been one effort made, and arguably the CCS project increases emissions since it’s an Enhanced Oil Recovery project that enables Cenovus to extract more oil which will be burned. Whether the net
Continue readingTag: Economics
Things Are Good: Walkable Towns are Economically More Productive
Any visitor to a North American city knows that a lot of the geography is designed for single occupant car-based transportation. Anybody who’s spent months in any of these places knows that this car-focused design has been an unmitigated disaster. People are dying, the planet is being killed, and so
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Seth Klein finds cracks in Site C Dam economics
Seth Klein, B.C. Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Check out this January 17, 2018 opinion piece from Seth Klein in The Georgia Straight, debunking the economic argument in favour of building Site C Dam. There is no question that the new B.C. government’s decision to proceed with the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Tim Hortons brew-haha shows how the fast-food industry doesn’t get PR, Economics 101, or what Canadians think
PHOTOS: Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne in a very old picture that has the dual advantages of showing her wearing a smile appropriate to the occasion being discussed and of having been taken by your blogger. Below: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives analyst Michal Rozworski (Photo: Twitter), the late but actual
Continue readingAlberta Politics: New Year’s bitter Twitter attacks on fact-checking economists suggest UCP will try to make 2018 the Year of the Big Chill
PHOTOS: University of Alberta economist and professor Andrew Leach. Below: Calgary-Fish Creek United Conservative Party MLA Richard Gotfried (Photo: Mr. Gotfried’s Facebook page), UCP Leader Jason Kenney, and University of Calgary economist and professor Trevor Tombe (Photo: U of C). New Year’s in Alberta blew in on a bitter winter
Continue readingIn-Sights: From Erik Andersen
In private emails, a number of people with expert economic knowledge exchange ideas about energy in BC. I get copies of some. This example, written by respected and retired economist Erik Andersen, refers to electricity markets in BC: This is a presentation of what’s called a “coffin corner”, running out
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Swain: Building Site C would harm BC’s credit rating; cancelling it would not
The head of the Joint Review Panel on the controversial Site C Dam, Harry Swain, is dispelling the notion that cancelling Site C would somehow harm BC’s credit rating. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, he warns: Terminating Site C means paying back the money that’s already spent in order
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Why approving Site C could sink NDP
Illustration by Jonathan Ramos It’s getting down to the wire for the NDP-led government to announce its decision on Site C Dam. The corporate media and Big Labour’s big guns have been making a sales push to keep the beleaguered project alive, and many fear they could succeed. That would
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Is ‘compassionate belt tightening’ in Alberta just another sign of our worldwide neoliberal derangement?
PHOTOS: The hopeful, celebratory crowd in front of the Alberta Legislature on May 24, 2015, as Premier Rachel Notley and her NDP Government were sworn in. Below: UBC geographer Dr. Jamie Peck and Ms. Notley. On Friday, Alberta’s New Democratic Party premier warned a meeting of rural municipal officials to
Continue readingIn-Sights: Economic challenges ahead
This week, I’ve focused on the BCUC reports and will write more about Site C later. I also looked at Statistics Canada employment reports. I don’t put a lot of weight on month to month changes because the chance of statistical error is high but a little softness in job creation seems
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: A gripping tale of lost Bitcoins
I’m just glad this wasn’t me. You probably won’t be disappointed reading this tale of a man losing his Bitcoin recovery information, and the low-tech, and high-tech means he tries to recover them from the ether.
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: “Flabbergasting”
“Flabbergasting” If you need to hear every Conservative talking point repeated without a thought in the world, try the Regina Chamber CEO’s take on CTV: “Nation building” “tidewater” “energy independence” “What’s in the best interest of the country” “a lot of money that comes from the United States that fuels
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: More Vague First World Problems
I made a large purchase last week Tuesday, and have had problems paying for it. Oh, I’ve got the money, I mean I’ve had some difficulty sending it to the seller. I put a deposit down instantly over the phone by credit card, that was easy enough, but sending the
Continue readingThings Are Good: Learn Economics for Free in the Most Effective Way
Economics is a large field filled with nuance – and assumptions. One of those assumptions is that environmental concerns and inequality are secondary to that of economic concerns. These assumptions are questioned in a new course prepared by an international team of economists called the core team. Their work is
Continue readingThings Are Good: Capitalism Will End, Celebrate What Comes Next
The damage that wealthy bankers did to the economy back in 2007/08 is still with us, and that has led to a whole generation questioning the validity of modern hyper-capitalism. That same germination witness ongoing environmental destruction and the erosion of labour rights (amongst a litany of other ills) all
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: How Truth Dies
The UCP leadership race just began and already we’re being asked to choose between two conflicting versions of the truth. Jason Kenney says Brian Jean is a poor financial manager because Jean created a $337,000 deficit in the UCP caucus budget–apparently Jean embarked on a “massive hiring spree” to run
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Focus Group – What I learned about my fellow Canadians
The first rule of focus groups or research groups is quite simply this. If you say yes to one, then you shall forever be on the call list of every research company that has ever existed. And they do call quite often. Extrapolating from the frequency that I
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Fascist Movements and Free Speech
Some people are upset because Ryerson cancelled a panel discussion featuring Faith Goldy, of Rebel Media, who openly expresses the belief that Muslims are a problem in our country. A Ryerson spokesperson said, “After a thorough security review, the University has concluded that Ryerson is not equipped to provide the
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Inconceivable! His Dinner with Chomsky
Wallace Shawn sat down for a chat with Noam Chomsky, and here’s what they talked about – slightly abridged and loosely quoted (for clarification purposes) with links. It’s a great recharge for activists! Shawn – Many people are shocked to see the president is now a cruel, brutal, greedy type
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Plight of the Millennials
Further explanation here. First, a bit about statistical norms and the normal distribution. In social sciences, for something to be considered a statistically significant characteristic of a group, it just needs to be present in about 68% of the population, or one standard deviation from the norm. There’s tons of
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