This and that for your weekend reading. – Thomas Walkom notes that the CETA isn’t particularly about trade, but instead serves to enshrine yet again the principle that investors come before citizens. – Lana Payne highlights the contradiction between the promise that giveaways to the corporate sector will lead to
Continue readingTag: economy
Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Pat Atkinson writes that governments at all levels should be setting up realistic fiscal plans to deal with a large group of retiring boomers – not artificially slashing revenues and increasing costs. And Rick Smith laments the fact that the Harper Cons are
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – thwap highlights the cycle of austerity, stagnation and decline that’s marked the past few decades across much of the developed world. And Thomas Walkom recognizes that the economy is actually one of the Cons’ most glaring weaknesses – at least, if one thinks
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Joseph Stiglitz reminds us that inequality isn’t an inevitability, but a choice favoured (and lobbied for) by the few who want to remove themselves from the general public: (W)idening income and wealth inequality in America is part of a trend seen across
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Consumer Friendly Throne Speech?
So, the Harper Government is promising a “consumer friendly” Throne Speech this week. Among the “goodies” being discussed are “a la carte cable” and a “passenger bill of rights”, all as part of a “grow the economy” strategy. More or less, the Conservatives are going to put forward a combination
Continue readingCanadian Soapbox: Garth Turner finally admits he was wrong about real estate….
There are a couple of old bromides that circle around the investment community. One is ‘even a broken watch is right twice a day‘, the other is ‘even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut‘. The meaning is obvious, keep saying the same thing, over and over and over….and eventually
Continue readingCanadian Soapbox: Garth Turner finally admits he was wrong about real estate….
There are a couple of old bromides that circle around the investment community. One is ‘even a broken watch is right twice a day’, the other is ‘even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut’. The meaning is obvious, keep saying the same t…
Continue readingCanadian Soapbox: Garth Turner finally admits he was wrong about real estate….
There are a couple of old bromides that circle around the investment community. One is ‘even a broken watch is right twice a day‘, the other is ‘even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut‘. The meaning is obvious, keep saying the same thing, over and over and over….and eventually
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, following up on Alex Himelfarb and Jordan Himelfarb’s observations about the need to talk about the good we can do with tax revenue by noting the importance of making sure public money and authority aren’t diverted to private or corporate purposes. For further reading…– CBC reports on Alberta’s exclusion
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Homeless Outreach
Carmichael Outreach sent me a press release. I like to pass those along for interesting events, so here it is. {I was also tickled that a little ol’ blogger like me got this release along with the city’s print, radio, and TV media.} Please find attached a Media Advisory for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Alex Himelfarb and Jordan Himelfarb comment on Canada’s dangerously distorted conversation about public revenue and the purposes it can serve: As we argue in our new book, Tax Is Not a Four-Letter Word, the Canadian tax conversation has become dangerously distorted. Any reasonable
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Glen Hodgson and Brenda Lafleur explain how Canada’s lower and middle classes alike have been left out of any economic growth as a result of increased inequality: We believe the more accurate interpretation is that after worsening in the 1980s and 1990s, income
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: US government shutdown, and other fairy tales and political theatre
I’m not sure what to make of the hoopla going on in the US right now. I’m inclined to think it’s all just political theatre, as Gerald Celente calls it, designed to distract the people from the real issues – the central one being, who controls the government and the
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The deeper reasons for the “war on drugs”
There is a deeper reason for the war on drugs, which is the central reason for the policy, even outweighing profits from private prisons and seizure of property by law enforcement officers, both of which no doubt are also significant and strong motivations for keeping the “war on drugs” going.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Benjamin Radcliff discusses the proven connection between progressive policies and a higher quality of life across all levels of income: Happier people live in countries with a generous social safety net, or, more generally, countries whose governments “tax and spend” at higher rates,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Matt Taibbi discusses how public pension funds are being looted for the benefit of a few well-connected banksters: Hedge funds have good reason to want to keep their fees hidden: They’re insanely expensive. The typical fee structure for private hedge-fund management is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Today is of course voting day in Regina’s wastewater treatment plant referendum – and you can get voting information here. And Paul Dechene explains his personal Yes vote by pointing to the need for public control over our infrastructure, while Brian Webb highlights
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Paul Krugman writes about the right-wing belief that “freedom’s just another word for not enough to eat”: (Y)ou might think that ensuring adequate nutrition for children, which is a large part of what SNAP does, actually makes it less, not more likely that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Armine Yalnizyan points out that Canada has followed the global pattern in which income growth has disproportionately been directed toward the few people with the most to begin with: Canada’s story pales in comparison – and so does our access to comprehensive and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Carol Goar points out why Canada’s EI system is running surpluses (contrary to all parties’ intentions) – and notes that the result has nothing to do with the best interests of the workers who pay into the system: Flaherty’s explanation was true
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