economy ← Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes

Dead Wild Roses: The Solar Energy Duck Curve Challenge

May

19

2018

Now is it just me, or did we forget that solar power isn’t available at night? :>

Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links

May

17

2018

This and that for your Thursday reading. – Alex Boutilier discusses the glaring gap between hype and reality when it comes to tech sector jobs. And Virgina Eubanks writes about the futility of expecting miracles from algorithms in allocating grossly insufficient funding for social programs. – Meanwhile, Dean Baker argues that if anybody should face ...

Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links

May

16

2018

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – The CCPA offers some questions and answers on the problems with “social impact bonds” designed to turn the delivery of needed programming into a source of corporate profits. And Andy Blatchford reports on the Trudeau Libs’ secretive attempt to undermine any prospect of prosecutions for corporate crimes. – ...

Things Are Good: Big Boxes Have Failed us; Supporting Downtowns will Save us

May

3

2018

We’ve all heard about how downtowns have failed in smaller cities while big box stores like Walmart succeed; what we don’t really talk about is why and what’s the solution. First we need to establish that suburban big box stores are horrible for people and the economy (which is easy); then we need to address ...

Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links

May

2

2018

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Yanis Varoufakis discusses the loss of freedom when one’s whole life needs to be planned around corporate wishes and sensitivities: A capacity to fence off a part of one’s life, and to remain sovereign and self-driven within those boundaries, was paramount to the liberal conception of the free ...

Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links

Apr

27

2018

Assorted content to end your week. – Vanessa Williamson rebuts the myth that fair tax policy will drive away wealthy residents. And Mike Maciag notes that tax giveaways to the corporate sector and the wealthy serve only to exacerbate inequality within the population as a whole. – Malika Sharma, Andrew Pinto and Arno Kumagai write ...

Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links

Apr

26

2018

This and that for your Thursday reading. – Sunil Johal and Armine Yalnizyan discuss the importance of building an economy based on a race to the top in labour and environmental standards, rather than the pursuit of the lowest common denominator. – Kevin Corinth and Claire Rossi-de Vries examine the importance of social ties as ...

Dead Wild Roses: Peace Just Isn’t Profitable – America Arms Dealer to the World – William D. Hartung

Apr

25

2018

Why do we act surprised when areas of the world erupt into bloody vicious conflict. We are shocked at the intensity and absolute disregard for human life. Yet how do the ‘bad guys’ get access to all these calamitous weapons? We sell them. We sell a whole bunch of weapons in nearly every corner ...

Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links

Apr

18

2018

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Ann Pettifor discusses the trend toward financialization which has led to regular economic disasters – and suggests the public is well aware it’s getting left behind in the policy choices which have created it. – ScienceDaily takes note of the strong connection between education levels and longevity. – ...

Mind Bending Politics: Austerity Looms As Parties Refuse To Come Clean on Autism Services in Ontario

Apr

18

2018

(Current Platforms in Ontario’s 2018 Election Puts Province At Risk of a Credit Downgrade) Late Tuesday afternoon Moody’s downgraded the economic outlook for Ontario from stable to negative. In its press release Moody’s cited the recently tabled Liberal budget, and growing spending pressure from all parties that need to be addressed as the economy is ...

Susan on the Soapbox: The UCP Runs Away from the Bubble Zone

Apr

15

2018

Last week the NDP government introduced Bill 9 which will create a 50-metre bubble zone of safety and privacy for women accessing healthcare, including abortions and other reproductive health services,* in Calgary and Edmonton. Jason Kenney and the UCP caucus bailed on the debate, sending their colleague MLA Angela Pitt to deliver a message on ...

Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links

Apr

9

2018

Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Suresh Naidu, Eric Posner and Glen Weyl highlight how the economy as a whole suffers when employers exercise too much control over wages and working conditions: In a competitive labor market, employers must vie for workers; they try to lure workers from other firms by offering them more ...

Accidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links

Mar

30

2018

Assorted content to end your week. – Benjamin Austin, Edward Glaeser and Lawrence Summers make the case for economic policy focused on reducing regional disparities. And Chad Shearer and Isha Shah highlight how inclusion is a necessary element of sustainable economic development: (B)etter performance on one measure [out of growth, prosperity and inclusion] is associated ...

Dead Wild Roses: Could We Get Back to Just “Screwing the Poor”?

Mar

19

2018

I sincerely hope the MAGA’s down south are enjoying the bountiful economic gifts the cheeto-in-cheif and his republican bag men are bestowing upon them. I mean the establishment of an military oligarchy in the US was well under way under Obama, but at least he made the obligatory nods to democracy and caring for the ...

Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links

Mar

14

2018

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Amir Sufi and Atif Mian discuss how household debt tends to drive both the booms and busts of the business cycle. Which means there’s plenty of reason for concern about a Canadian economy reliant on household debt to paper over income insecurity and inequality – and Michal Rozworski ...

Dead Wild Roses: What is Marxism?

Mar

7

2018

In case you were unfamiliar. 🙂

Dead Wild Roses: Why Was Greece So Brutalized By Their ‘Bailout’?

Mar

1

2018

The tortures that the Grecian people are being subjected to by the neo-liberal institutions of Europe (European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF) are unnecessarily brutal and threaten to unravel the fabric of their society. We can learn what is in store for other nations that dare to act against the ‘good prudence’ of the ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Don’t Make It Sound Like There’s More Than One Thing

Feb

26

2018

“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 CO2 from CCS is a ...

Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links

Feb

23

2018

Assorted content to end your week. – Livia Gershon discusses why relative equality plays a far greater role in people’s well-being than absolute income in developed countries. And Stefanie Stantcheva writes about the cultural roots of the U.S.’ relative acceptance of extreme inequality (though it’s worth noting that even in the U.S. public preferences are ...

Dead Wild Roses: When The Earth is an Easy Bake Oven – A Few Words to Fry By…

Feb

20

2018

Our actions are causing the earth to warm. This is easy slam dunk science. Yet somehow the leader of the free world didn’t get the memo. Michael Klare writes: “In energy terms, what does dominant mean in practice? For President Trump and his cohorts, it means above all the “unleashing” of the country’s energy ...

Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links

Feb

18

2018

This and that for your Sunday reading. – Zoe Williams highlights how misleading framing has caused far too many people to accept destructive austerity and inequality: Not unreasonably, given the financial crash and its worldwide consequences, the economy was seen as intensely volatile, susceptible to grand forces whose actual nature fell into a cognitive black ...

Dead Wild Roses: Poverty is An Acceptable Outcome – Political Realities in the US.

Feb

18

2018

An excerpt from Kennith Surin’s Essay, “Poverty American Style”. There are not many aspects and norms that are left to chance in society. The norms we accept, the ‘common knowledge’ we are all expected to understand, and “the way things are” are all socially constructed choices. The decision whether to have society work for the ...

Dead Wild Roses: The Current Gilded Age – Nasty Ending Forthcoming

Feb

6

2018

A regulated economy may not perform at peak performance, but rather to its credit has built in stability and resilience in order to mute and calm the wider variances of the business cycle. The rules and regulations that govern Banking and Finance are there for a reason – to protect American citizens from the predatory ...

Susan on the Soapbox: Huffing and Puffing “Leadership”

Feb

5

2018

Last week BC Premier John Horgan said BC would ban any increase in shipments of diluted bitumen (dilbit) to BC until a scientific advisory panel determined whether shippers can adequately prevent and clean up dilbit spills. If the panel decides this isn’t possible, the ban on increased dilbit shipments will become permanent. This announcement gave ...

Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links

Feb

5

2018

Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Joe Romm discusses new research showing that man-made greenhouse gas emissions have ended an 11,000-year era of climate stability. – Thomas Walkom points out the contradictions in Justin Trudeau’s declaration that there will be no federal climate policy without new pipelines. And David Climenhaga writes about the complete ...