This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Christopher Ragan writes about the lessons we should be drawing from the 2008 financial meltdown – as well as so many similar bubbles before it: Contrary to what many people seem to believe, financial crises like the one that began five years
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Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: An Irrational Mixup at SaskPower
Ten years ago, SaskPower was spending money to promote education about Climate Change. The poster contest is an important component of our efforts to educate the public about the climate change issue. There are increasing concerns that human activity – such as the burning of coal and other fossil fuels
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
This and that for your weekend reading. – Toby Sanger asks who really bears the risk when governments agree to hand over billions to the private sector through P3 arrangements: While Canada may be one of the leaders in the market for P3s, we’re far from a leader when it
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the U.S.’ movement for fair fast food wages might be explained in part by greater recognition that many workers will be in the service sector for the long haul – while any Canadian equivalent may be suppressed by the use of temporary foreign workers. For further reading…–
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Reflecting on our successes this term
With just over a year left to go in this term, I’d like to take a few minutes to consider all the accomplishments of this council over the past three years. They are not inconsiderable, and worth celebrating, I think you’ll agree. Most recent are the two new state-of-the-art recreational
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne discusses Unifor’s goals in the wake of its founding convention: The hope is that, collectively, working people can push back in new and profound ways against what has been a decades-long, anti-worker agenda perpetuated by both governments and corporations. But just
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Richard Seymour rightly calls out right-wing lobby groups in the UK for distorting the facts in order to attack social programs: The report calls for benefits to fall in real terms, and refers to “the regrettable 5.2% blanket benefit increase put through in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how “we must increase stock prices!” – or worse yet, “we must increase company X’s stock prices!” – makes for a thoroughly regressive public policy goal. For further reading…– The examples referenced in the column include Carol Goar’s column threatening a revolt over telecom share prices, and Andrew
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Mariana Mazzucato points out that important inventions tend to come from public financing aimed at the greater good – while noting that we should also look to ensure greater public returns on our collective investments: Images of tech entrepreneurs such as Mark
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
This and that for your Labour Day reading. – Jared Bernstein writes about the fight for fair wages in the U.S. fast food and retail industries. And Karen McVeigh notes that political decision-makers are starting to try to get in front of the parade of workers seeking a reasonable standard
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Emily Badger discusses how poverty affects people who are forced to use their physical and mental resources on bare survival: Human mental bandwidth is finite. You’ve probably experienced this before (though maybe not in those terms): When you’re lost in concentration trying to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading. – Katie McDonough reports on new research showing the devastating effects of poverty on an individual’s ability to plan and function: According to researchers at Harvard University and the University of British Columbia, people living in poverty experience reduced cognitive functioning as a result
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Tim Harper writes that Stephen Harper’s “lone gunman” argument – already implausible in light of the number of Senators and staffers required to cover up the Clusterduff – is falling apart at the seams. But Gloria Galloway notes that the Senators can bail
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Alan Pyke observes that instead of reflecting any particular merit, massive payouts to CEOs are all too often made despite (or because of) executive incompetence and illegality: The best-paid CEOs in American business have overseen companies that were bailed out, been fired,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Paul Kershaw highlights what’s most needed to support Canada’s younger generations: Even with all this personal adaptation, most in Gen X and Y can’t work their way out of the time and income squeeze when they start families. Since two earners bring
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Simon Enoch nicely challenges the City of Regina’s blind faith in “risk transfer” by pointing out how that concept has typically been applied elsewhere: So what price should we put on such a risk transfer? This is where things can get dicey. How
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: Ontario inflation goes up
Ontario inflation is beginning to heat up. As recently as May, the year over year increase in the Consumer Price Index was a mere 0.49%. Today’s data for July indicates that Ontario prices have gone up 1.65% since last year. While this is partly due to a dip in prices in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jenny Carson asks what governments are doing to lift poor workers out of poverty. (Spoiler alert: the Cons’ answer is “why would we want to do that?”). – Meanwhile, Kemal Dervis and Uri Dadush discuss the desperate need to rein in inequality
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Glenn Greenwald, David Atkins and Simon Jenkins all discuss the U.K.’s detention of David Miranda – with heavy emphasis on the Cameron government’s apparent belief journalism and terrorism are synonymous. And Ian Welsh points out the need to fight back against a pervasive
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Wake Up America
From a study that reveals increased risk of death for young coffee drinkers who have 4 cups a day or more, to a man who woke up America to the deadly automobile industry’s greed, we’ve got a full morning of reading for you, here at Abandoned Stuff. Or that’s what
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