They emphasis the need to address asset revaluation concerns in the context of climate politics and suggests that a focus on domestic politics is crucial. They also discusses the role of obstructionist interest groups (like the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers) and their influence on climate policy, pointing out that
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Alberta Politics: Russian vodka disappears from Alberta shelves – but what about Russian pipeline steel and AIMCo’s Russian investment fund?
On Sunday, Premier Jason Kenney announced the provincial government has directed the Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis Commission to stop accepting Russian-made liquor products and to quit selling current stock to retailers. The announcement also indicated without details that retailers had been instructed to stop selling Russian vodka and the
Continue readingThings Are Good: Canadian Universities to Educate Business About Climate Change
A select group of universities across Canada have signed up to be part of a a new initiative to get long-term investors to care about climate change. The universities have endowment and pension funds that need to guarantee returns for decades (if not centuries) and thus have an obligation to
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Gold, Savings & Security In The Real World
Here is what the crowd, the authorities, and the mainstream media, including the business press, will tell you: It’s called BS. Think for yourself. For example, when real inflation rates of 8% or more are counted, money in the bank is losing money, and most investment funds are losing money.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ten things to know about CMHC’s Insured Mortgage Purchase Program
In March 2020, the Trudeau government launched a new version of the Insured Mortgage Purchase Program (IMPP). According to CMHC’s website: “Under this program, the government will purchase up to $50 billion of insured mortgage pools through CMHC.” Here are 10 things to know: 1. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Oil Capitals Hunker Down
To Calgarians, the city is starting to feel like a punching bag. Its primary industry suffers one body blow after another. Oil prices crashed at the end of 2014 as surprising growth in U.S. shale production boosted supply while OPEC refused to cut its output. Major investment firms, finally recognizing
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Is Kenney Coming After Our Pensions?
Premier Jason Kenney, ardent free market conservative, has started sounding a little like Peter Lougheed, a former premier with more progressive conservative leanings. Indeed Lougheed was once labelled “Peter the Red” by B.C. Premier Dave Barrett after he bought Alberta an airline. Lougheed never hesitated to dive into socialism when
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Is Kenney Costing Alberta Investment and Jobs?
Calgary Economic Development CEO Mary Moran reported recently that a tech company that had considered setting up its head office in Calgary had changed it mind. The reason? Talk of separation. “We as an organization just lost a 1,000-person company that didn’t come to Calgary, selected another city, because they’re
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Kudos to Carney (and Good Luck!)
Mark Carney is a banker par excellence, a Canadian boy who made the big time. He served as Governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and is credited with helping the country weather the recession. He then went on to become Governor of the Bank of England,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Laurie Macfarlane writes that contrary to the dogma of budget scolds, the truly reckless course of action is to fail to invest public money in state capacity: After four decades of neoliberalism, the state’s capacity has been drastically hollowed out. Key public
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Trudeau’s proposed speculation tax
I’ve written a blog post about the Trudeau Liberals’ recently-proposed speculation tax on residential real estate owned by non-resident, non-Canadians. The full blog post can be accessed here.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Supportive housing for persons with serious mental health challenges
I’ve recently written a ‘top 10’ review of a new book on supportive housing—i.e., subsidized housing with social work support—for persons with serious mental health challenges. The book’s an anthology that was edited by three Ontario-based researchers. A key questions that emerges in the book is: Should such housing be
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: An Analysis of Financial Flows in the Canadian Economy
An essential but perhaps overlooked way of looking at the economy is a sector financial balance approach. Pioneered by the late UK economist Wynne Godley, this approach starts with National Accounts data (called Financial Flow Accounts) for four broad sectors of the economy: households, corporations, government and non-residents. Here’s how
Continue readingThings Are Good: Use a Bot to Make Ethical Investments
money A new company, OpenInvest, wants you to use its bots to make your monetary life more ethical. A very popular way to invest in the market is to use index funds, which are a smorgasbord of stocks which will hopefully rise with the stock market as a whole. Most
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: The great rentier give-away
With today’s fiscal update, the Trudeau government has really shown itself to be at the forefront of global left neoliberalism. Taking nearly all his cues from his business-dominated Advisory Council on Economic Growth, the Finance Minister announced a new Canada Infrastructure Bank as the centerpiece of the fiscal update and the Liberal’s economic
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Banking on Privatization?
Finance Minister Bill Morneau tables his Fall Economic Statement on 1 November. We’ll likely find out then whether he has some has real treats, or if they’re planning more privatization tricks for provincial and municipal governments, as his business-dominated Advisory Council on Economic Growth proposed in the form of a public-private infrastructure
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: “Investment” versus investment
Surprise! A new investigation by the Toronto Star and the CBC found that recent treaties with tax havens like the Bahamas and Panama aimed at more “transparency” have just made it easier for corporations to evade ever more taxes. And Canadian corporations have obliged this golden opportunity. “Investment” abroad has ballooned all the while the […]
Continue readingThings Are Good: It’s Time To Divest
The use of coal to generate electricity is coming to an end, and one of the many reasons coal’s time is up is thanks to divestment. Divestment of fossil fuels has been argued on university campuses for years and started largely as a moral argument that we shouldn’t profit off the reckless destruction of the […]
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Continue readingThings Are Good: 8 Development Banks Combine Efforts for Sustainable Development
Eight development banks from around the world have decided the best way to encourage more sustainable transit development is to combine their efforts. They are looking at accelerating their investments in transport solutions that are better for the environment than current transport solutions. Transportation consumes a heck of a lot of oil and even marginal […]
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Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Some missing elements from the Canadian TPP debate
With an agreement reached on the Trans Pacific Partnership, the 12-member trade and investment treaty, opinions began swirling about what the deal means for the future of Canada. Plenty of facts have been bandied about in an effort to clarify the TPP’s significance: 12 Pacific Rim countries, 800 million people,
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