This and that for your Thursday reading. – Noah Smith writes that far too many Americans (like people around the globe) face needless barriers to thinking, and suggests that the key public project of this century may be to remedy those problems: The biggest threat to clear-headedness comes from drugs.
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Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Mike Konczal responds to a pathetic attempt to drain the word “neoliberal” of all meaning (which seems to have won favour with Canadian Libs desperately trying to disassociate themselves from their own governing ideology) by discussing its application in both the political and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Guardian’s editorial board weighs in on the undue gains going to the 1% while everybody else faces stagnation or worse: While the rest of society have shared in an equality of misery following the crash, the top 1% – households with incomes of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Larry Elliott reports on a Resolution Foundation study showing that while the UK’s 1% has fully recovered from the 2008 financial crash, the rest of the population hasn’t been so lucky and has faced extended stagnation at best: Families on low and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – The Economist observes that the effects of climate change fall disproportionately on poorer people, rather than the wealthier ones who have caused more of the damage: The costs of global climate change will again be unevenly (and uncertainly) distributed, but harm will often
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Josh Bivens notes that international trade deals have been structured to maximize the cost of globalization for the workers excluded from the bargaining table. And Jon Queally points out that a massive majority of Americans see power disproportionately hoarded by the rich at
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Courage Coalition discusses why economic justice is necessary for social equality. But Ed Finn writes that instead, Canada is pushing people into serfdom: Today’s big business executives are not so outspoken, at least not in public, but privately they could make the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Michael Rozworski discusses the importance of workers exercising power over how our economy functions. Robert Booth reports on a forthcoming UK study showing the desperate need for improved quality of work and life among low-income individuals. And Lana Payne writes that a strong
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Second Annual Canadian Homelessness Data Sharing Initiative
I’ve just blogged about the Second Annual Canadian Homelessness Data Sharing Initiative. This is now an annual event that takes place in Calgary. It’s co-sponsored by the Calgary Homeless Foundation and the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy. A summary of the inaugural event (which took place in May
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Danny Dorling writes about the connection between high inequality and disregard for the environment: In a 2016 report, Oxfam found that the greatest polluters of all were the most affluent 10% of US households: each emitted, on average, 50 tonnes of CO2 per
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Abi Wilkinson writes that we’ll be far better served fighting inequality generally rather than limiting our focus to issues of social mobility: When we talk about social mobility, we’re talking about movement between the strata of our social class system. (Generally upwards
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Des Cohen discusses how economic inequality has developed – and how it’s now rewarding people for doing nothing more than worsening its effects. And Chase Burghgrave interviews Elizabeth Anderson about the employer-based power which is used to keep American workers in line:
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Colin Gordon discusses how contempt for democracy is one of the uniting principles of the right around the globe while reviewing Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains: At the intersection of Buchanan’s market fundamentalism and his embrace of Jim Crow lies a fundamental reservation
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Evening Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Katie Allen reports on Kathleen O’Grady’s look at precarious work – and how a generation of young workers is being taught to expect nothing more. Gareth Hutchens discusses Sally McManus’ call for the labour movement to seek opportunities to disrupt an economic
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Greg Leiseron discusses why the abject failure of Kansas’ anti-social experiment with trickle-down economics shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anybody: Claims of supply-side growth from labor income tax cuts rely on the idea that people will be more willing to work
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Patrick Gossage discusses the desperate need for Canadian governments at all levels to take meaningful action to eliminate poverty: The reality is that low-income Canadians are invisible and lack political clout. In Toronto, they are concentrated in downtown areas close to the gleaming
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Aditya Chakrabortty describes the Grenfell Tower fire as nothing less than social murder of the UK’s poor: Austerity is at the heart of the Grenfell story. Think of the firefighters, who have seen stations closed and colleagues laid off by May, when
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Wage Structure, Rents and Urban Inequality in Canada
Richard Florida’s new book, The New Urban Crisis (Basic Books, 2017) takes a careful look at rising inequality in big cities in the United States. He details the fact that many of the winners of today’s economy, the top 1% and top 10%, are located in a small number of
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Fiscal situation of Canada’s ‘oil rich’ provinces
I’ve just written a blog post about the fiscal situation of Canada’s ‘oil rich’ provinces (i.e., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador). It consists of a summary of key points raised at a PEF-sponsored panel at this year’s Annual Conference of the Canadian Economics Association. Points raised in the blog
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Danny Dorling sets out how a more equal society leads to benefits for everybody. And Annie Lowrey discusses Richard Reeves’ take on the separation between the top 20% of the income spectrum and the rest of the U.S. – particularly in preventing social
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