This and that for your Tuesday reading. – The CCPA looks at Statistics Canada’s latest income data and finds that inequality has been growing steadily across the country over the past few decades. The Canadian Labour Congress notes that corporate tax cuts have led to cash hoarding rather than increased
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Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – James Galbraith compares the mindless drones carrying an increasing share of the U.S.’ military load, and those serving to try to attack social programs in the name of illusory deficit reduction. But sadly, Galbraith misses one of the most important similarities: in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Susan Delacourt comments on the role of robocalls in turning citizens away from politics – though it’s worth pointing out that the Cons may well see that as a desirable result to capitalize on a modest base of support: What may need more
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: In 2012, richest 100 billionaires earned enough to end global poverty 4 times over: Oxfam
by Oxfam International | Jan 19, 2013 Leaders must aim to bring down global inequality at least to 1990 levels An explosion in extreme wealth and income is exacerbating inequality and hindering the world’s ability to tackle poverty, Oxfam warned today in a briefing published ahead of the World Economic Forum
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Wealth Inequality and Neo Liberalism
I have a commentary posted on the Broadbent Institute web site, arguing that inequality of wealth fundamentally undermines the argument that market rewards are “fair.” http://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/en/blog/andrew-jackson-distribution-wealth-implications-neo-liberal-justification-economic-inequality
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Erika Shaker rightly tears into the special brand of FAIPOF demanding that First Nations protesters focus solely on their own community leaders rather than recognizing broader and more systematic inequality: Much is being made of Chief Spence’s Escalade (although I’m unsure if she
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Jacob Chamberlain discusses the all-too-familiar pattern of corporate insiders using their wealth and influence to try to attack basic social supports for less-privileged citizens: CEOs from America’s largest corporations—including its biggest banks, retailers, and insurance companies who helped drive the country into
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Norway’s experience with Big Oil offers lessons for Idle No More
by Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive, Jan 21, 2013: Norway’s experience with Big Oil offers lessons for Idle No More and other progressive movements determined to stop Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives from turning Canada into a petro-state. Earlier, I blogged about a new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Joseph Stiglitz discusses how the U.S.’ extreme inequality is limiting its prospects for economic recovery: There are all kinds of excuses for inequality. Some say it’s beyond our control, pointing to market forces like globalization, trade liberalization, the technological revolution, the “rise of
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canada can learn from Norway’s management of oil wealth: Study
by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives | Jan 17, 2013: OTTAWA—A new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives compares the Canada and Alberta experience to that of Norway, another major petroleum producing and exporting country, and finds they have taken very different paths and with very different outcomes.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – George Monbiot reminds us that the mere fact that neoliberal economic theory has failed by any rational measure doesn’t mean there won’t still be plenty of well-funded efforts to promote it at the expense of social interests: The policies that made the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Michael Harris discusses the impending moment of truth for the Cons in owning up to their substantive failures toward Canada’s First Nations: Whether it’s Canada’s natives or its health ministers, Stephen Harper’s preferred place for his opponents is under his thumb. He has
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Barbara Yaffe lets Hugh Segal make the case for a guaranteed annual income to end poverty in Canada: (Hugh Segal) says it could be arranged by way of a tax credit through the income tax system, to top up income of anyone
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Frank Graves writes about the decline of Canada’s middle class – and notes a parallel between the type of economy which tends to produce broad social failure, and the Cons’ familiar obsession with extraction: The other key factor is rising inequality and a
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: If A Fiscal Cliff Kills, Canada Should Tax Death
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” – Benjamin Franklin The fiscal cliff in the United States did not just endanger its own country’s economy but the world’s, including Canada’s heavily dependent one. But in the American problem lies, at least partially, a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that to start the new year. – Lynn Stuart Parramore discusses the dangers of needless means-testing for basic social benefits: When I spoke to Joseph Stiglitz, he discussed the idea that “means-testing is mean.” Programs like Medicare and Social Security, he explained, are matters of political economy. They
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Pam Palmater explains the historical background to Idle No More: (M)ost Canadians are not used to the kind of sustained, co-ordinated, national effort that we have seen in the last few weeks — at least not since 1969. 1969 was the last time
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Ed Broadbent responds to the Fraser Institute’s attempts to minimize the importance of growing inequality: Economists tell us the chances of finding and keeping a good job today depend more than ever on a high level of education and skills required by
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your Christmas reading. – Naomi Klein comments on what we should take from the Idle No More movement: Chief Spence’s hunger is not just speaking to Mr. Harper. It is also speaking to all of us, telling us that the time for bitching and moaning is over.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Murray Dobbin connects a pattern of economic trends which has seen more and more wealth concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people to the elimination of public discussion about work life: The neo-liberal revolution of the 1980s proposed unfettered capitalism
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