Assorted content for your weekend reading. – David Macdonald notes that the federal government’s investments in the wake of COVID-19 have been necessary to keep intolerable burdens off of people who haven’t been able to bear them. Scotiabank weighs in (PDF) on the reality that the costs of inaction would
Continue readingTag: financialization
The Progressive Economics Forum: David Hulchanski class discussion
I recently participated in a panel discussion in David Hulchanski’s graduate-level social housing and homelessness course at the University of Toronto. Points raised in the blog post include the fact that all English-speaking countries of the OECD have relatively low levels of public social spending, relatively low levels of taxation,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Robert Reich argues that U.S. corporations need to prioritize the health of their workers over immediate profits. But James Galbraith writes about the wider need to move past disaster capitalism, including through government action to take core economic decisions out of the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Bruce Campbell highlights how corporate greed isn’t limited by a public health emergency. And indeed, the Canadian Press reports on a record amount of federal lobbying in February and March as entrenched interests seek to increase their wealth and power as a result
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Dan Gardner writes that the COVID-19 pandemic is exactly the type of rare but severe event which should be the subject of thorough public preparation. And Eric Neudorf explains why so many governments failed to appreciate and act on the severity of the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Tobias Jones discusses how COVID-19 has emphasized the importance of social interaction to human well-being: It seems callous to suggest that this tenebrous pandemic is letting the light in, and daft to offer immediate consolations amid so much grief. But there is a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – David Bush reminds us that the hoarders worth being concerned about are the ones accumulating obscene amounts of wealth at the expense of our society’s ability to provide everybody with the necessities of life. – Matthew Green makes the case that Canada’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Joseph Stiglitz writes about the need to cultivate solidarity as an alternative to neoliberal selfishness. And Chuck Collins reminds us how the very existence of billionaires represents both a profound failure of public policy, and a cause of distortions at the whims of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Ezra Klein discusses the socialist ethic behind Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. And Umair Haque writes that the antidote to Donald Trump’s authoritarianism is a far stronger recognition of the need for collective action. – Meanwhile, Shree Paradkar notes that the vilification of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Andray Domise highlights the importance of fighting back against the excesses and harms of capitalism, rather than accepting it as being necessary or inescapable: There’s no way around a simple reality for people who consider themselves to be on the left side of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Rupert Neate writes about the twelve-figure tax avoidance by the U.S.’ largest tech firms, while noting that Amazon stands out as the worst offender. And Meagan Day interviews Ramesh Srninivasan about the need to democratize the administration of the Internet. – Meanwhile,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week. – Dennis Gruending discusses the significance of the climate crisis in Canada’s federal election. And Sarah Jones interviews Ann Pettifor about the importance of a Green New Deal – and the barriers corporatists have placed in the way of every previous effort to develop
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Grace Blakeley discusses how the financialization of the economy has enriched a few at the expense of everybody else. And Blakeley and Harry Quilter-Pinner point out how social care in particular is suffering for having been turned into a profit centre. – David
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Paul Wells weighs in on the far-too-long-delayed exposure of Justin Trudeau’s fundamental phoniness – particularly when it came to his promise that Canada had seen its last first-past-the-post election: The operating assumption seems to be that we’re simply supposed to read between
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Chantal Hebert, Andrew Coyne and Paul Wells all weigh in on yesterday’s revelations by Jody Wilson-Raybould about the Trudeau PMO’s protection racket on behalf of SNC-Lavalin. And Andrew Nikiforuk examines the track record of corruption both from SNC-Lavalin in particular, and within
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Say No to Bubble Boy
There are already more than enough galling stories circulating in Alberta’s political scene to emphasize why Jason Kenney and his party are grossly unfit to exercise any power. But it’s worth pointing out one more problem which matches the combination of deeply-rooted corruption and austerian disregard for the public good
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Colin McAuliffe charts the increasing share of U.S. income going to profits and the already-wealthy. And Dani Rodrik writes about the importance of a progressive movement which seeks to shift the balance of power in how our economy functions, rather than settling
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Alex Morris writes about the barriers between the U.S.’ working class and any hope of financial stability and security: In 1960, the annual average health care costs in America were just $146 per person; in 2016, that figure had risen to $10,348.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – David Wallace-Wells writes that even “genocide” may be too gentle a word for the consequences of a climate breakdown. Josh Gabbatiss discusses the insanity of approving – and even subsidizing – fracking and other means of exacerbating the climate crisis. And the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Matt Taibbi interviews Bernie Sanders about the concentration of wealth in a few large financial institutions – and the importance of regulating them in the public interest before they once again crash the economy as a whole. – John Stapleton argues that
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