Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – John Guyton, Patrick Langetieg, Daniel Reck, Max Risch and Gabriel Zucman examine (PDF) the massive amounts of money which people at the very top of the income distribution hide from revenue authorities. And Nancy Cook reports on Joe Biden’s plan to at least somewhat
Continue readingTag: inequality
Views from the Beltline: Make America fair again?
The United States is the most unequal of the advanced countries. By far. And it’s getting worse. The ratio of the average income of the richest 10 percent to the poorest 10 percent in the U.S. is 18.5 whereas for most Western countries it’s closer to ten. (Canada’s is 9.4.)
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Steven Lewis writes that the Saskatchewan Party’s mealy-mouthed messaging around the coronavirus looks to be a calculated political choice which is having devastating public health consequences: There has been a pattern in Saskatchewan’s communication about COVID-19 throughout the pandemic. The language is
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Joe Biden—union man
During Joe Biden’s election campaign, he promised he would be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.” This may be the most important promise he made, at least on the economic front. Income inequality has steadily increased in the U.S. in the last 30 years and is considerably greater than
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Rita Trichur writes that an attempt to boost the economy solely through monetary policy will predictably lead to even worse inequality – meaning it’s necessary for governments to instead intervene through fiscal policy to ensure that growth is shaped to be fair and
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The 2021 alberta budget
On 25 February 2021, Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party government tabled its third budget, announcing very few major changes to either spending or taxation, while also projecting a deficit of $18.2 billion for the 2021-22 fiscal year. I’ve written an 900-word overview of the budget here.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Mark Tenforde, Kiva Fisher and Manish Patel study the activities most likely to spread COVID-19 – with restaurants, gyms, bars and churches ranking as the obvious sources of community transmission. And Bruce Arthur warns not to count on an increasing number of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On breaking solidarity
After nearly a year of a declared pandemic (and several months of inaction before that), far too little has changed in Saskatchewan’s political discussion of our response to COVID-19. In particular, the Moe government has regularly insisted on pushing to reopen as much as it can get away with –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Evening Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – The results of Stockton, CA’s experiment with a guaranteed income show a predictable improvement in both well-being and economic success for people with income security. Lorne Calvert makes the case to introduce a guaranteed liveable income in Canada. And Will Wilkinson writes about
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Rob Gillezeau discusses how public health measures offer better results even in sheer economic terms than allowing an excess of activity which causes community spread. Joan Greve reports on the CDC’s warning of another COVID wave if the U.S. gets careless while
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Alex Himelfarb writes about the need to get past obsessing over deficits and taxes when they’re necessary to fund a the society we want. – Olivia Stefanovich, Karina Roman and Ryan Patrick Jones report on the Auditor General’s report placing responsibility for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Jason Hickel writes that on a global scale, poverty is the result of inequality and the misallocation of resources rather than underdevelopment. And Brittany Andrew-Amofah makes the case for a wealth tax to both reduce the existing concentration of wealth and power, and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Kamran Abbasi makes the case to treat the avoidable deaths resulting from the mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic as a form of social murder. And Jonathan Goodman writes that inequality has spread in tandem with COVID-19 and its variants. – Gary Mason
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – As we lay the groundwork for a COVID recovery and energy transition, Heather Scoffield comments on the importance of making sure resources go where they’re needed (rather than serving only to further distance the richest from the rest of us). And Yves Engler
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Duncan Cameron writes about the fundamental choice between austerity and full employment in developing the 2021 federal budget. And Noah Smith points out that while pipeline cancellations signal the imminent end of fossil fuels, they don’t need to have any impact on job
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Joe Vipond, Malgorzata Gasperowicz and Christine Gibson discuss how it’s entirely feasible for Alberta (or any other province) to be COVID-free if its leadership bothers to pursue that goal. And Alex Ballingall and Tonda MacCharles look into the history behind our inability to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Caroline Chen discusses why opening restaurants and other indoor venues which involve prolonged contact is the worst possible choice if one wants to contain the spread of COVID-19. – Michal Rozworski argues that we shouldn’t see the relief efforts needed in the wake
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Bill Blaikie discusses how our growing inequality and precarity is the direct result of harmful policy choices: By 1985 we were five years into the neo-liberal era brought on by the election of Margaret Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Andrew Nikiforuk takes a look at two proposals to get to COVID Zero – including one from Canada and one from Germany. – Mickey Djuric reports on Saskatchewan’s deceptive COVID-19 reporting – which results in a public announcement that people have “recovered” no
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Linda Geddes discusses the problem with people approaching COVID-19 restrictions based on the question of what’s permitted (or worse yet what they can get away with), rather than what choices are most likely to limit the spread of the virus. – Richard
Continue reading