Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Asher Schecter interviews Emmanuel Saez about the realities of growing inequality – and the denialists looking to exacerbate it. And Chris Hayes talks to Gabriel Zucman about the benefits of a wealth tax. – Laurie Monsebraaten reports on a new study showing how
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Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Joseph Stiglitz, Todd Tucker and Gabriel Zucman write about the need for governments to bring in sufficient revenue to act in the public interest. And Sophie Alexander points out some of the millionaires who want their class to contribute their fair share. –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Joseph Stiglitz points out that a few gross numbers based on top-end wealth can’t change the reality that Donald Trump’s economy has only squeezed the working class. Jim Stanford highlights Australia’s “retail apocalypse” resulting in massive job losses and disruption, while Josh
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Dion Rabouin offers a reminder that corporate tax giveaways don’t do anything to help the economy beyond the interests of wealthy shareholders. And Nicole Aschoff discusses the importance of building a model for progressive globalism to counter the reach of international capital. –
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Promise of a Collective Voice for the Precariat
Along with much else, the workplace has seen a transformation. Fifty years ago, workers looked forward to full-time, secure jobs with good wages and benefits. Often, the quality of their work was protected by their collective voice, i.e. a union. Today, an increasing number of workers face part-time, temporary jobs
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Ben Jenkins rightly calls out Australia’s right-wing government and media for caring not a whit for the people seeing their country go up in flames: If you were holding out hope that the cynical and partisan way we currently talk about climate change
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Simon Holmes a Court challenges the argument that any country or industry can opt out of being part of the response to our climate crisis. And Emily Holden comments on the oil industry’s control over public discussions about climate change, while Christopher Knaus
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Rick Smith offers some reasons for hope in 2020 even in the face of a grim start to a new year. And Cory Doctorow writes about the need to start dreaming up, and giving effect to, alternatives to a corporate-driven economy and society
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Damian Carrington reports on the large amount of microplastics raining down on residents of the world’s cities. Geoffrey Morgan notes that Alberta’s farmers are starting to realize that they’re going to be left with the mess left behind – including orphaned wells –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Paul Thacker discusses the importance of addressing the climate crisis as a health issue. CBC takes a look at a few of the ways a deteriorating climate is affecting Canada. And Taylor Noakes points out the central role a national public transit
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Assessing progress on St. John’s Plan to End Homelessness
I’ve written an assessment of the 2014-2019 St. John’s Community Plan to End Homelessness. The full assessment can be found here. Points raised in the assessment include the following: -Newfoundland and Labrador has the highest unemployment rate of any Canadian province. This pulls people into homelessness, while also making it
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: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Bernie Sanders and Rashida Tlaib discuss Donald Trump’s holiday menu of serving the rich and feasting on the poor, while Paul Krugman comments on the cruelty of a Trump Christmas. And Nick Purdon and Leonardo Palleja tell the stories of people facing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Kevin Drum writes about the need to address the climate crisis as a war for the future of humanity. And Will Wade reports on new research showing that we’ll earn back more than the price of a rapid transition from fossil fuels
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Linsey McGoey discusses the historical case for abolishing billionaires rooted in Adam Smith’s critique of plutocracy: Smith was scathingly critical of the wealthy’s disproportionate power over government policymaking. He complained about the tendency of the rich to shirk tax obligations, unfairly passing tax
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – David Ritter writes that a gross failure to act against a climate breakdown causing out-of-control wildfires and unprecedented temperatures is creating a crisis of legitimacy for Australia’s government. Chris Hatch and Barry Saxifrage discuss the failure of the world’s governments to turn dozens of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Paul Krugman writes that the most frightening aspect of the U.S. Republicans is the party’s commitment to climate destruction for political gain: My sense is that right-wingers believe, probably correctly, that there’s a sort of halo effect surrounding any form of public action.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Linda McQuaig writes about the fallout from the ideology of constant privatization – and a precedent from Canada’s past as to how public institutions can meet essential social purposes: C. D. Howe was a towering figure during the war, and he has
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Crawford Kilian highlights how ongoing inequality is among the many factors leading to stagnant life expectancies in Canada. Jim Stanford points out that tax cuts don’t do anything to help workers facing stagnant wages due to policies designed to leave them under the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Joseph Stiglitz discusses how the failure of neoliberalism to provide gains for any but the wealthiest few has led to risks to the democratic systems which have been treated as tied to laissez-faire economics. And Armine Yalnizyan challenges the false assumption that increased
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