This and that for your Thursday reading. – Alex Munter discusses the connection between public health and economic development, along with the need to take a far longer-term view of both. And PressProgress points out Matthew Stanbrook’s message (PDF) that the Cons are undermining Canada’s medical system through malign neglect.
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Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Scott Clark and Peter De Vries discuss the need for a Canadian economic plan which involves investment in the long term rather than politically-oriented payoffs only within a single election cycle. And Joseph Stiglitz points out the obvious need for a global
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Althia Raj, Karl Nerenberg, Tim Harper, Jennifer Ditchburn and Kristy Kirkup, Lee Berthiaume and Jason Fekete, PressProgress and CTV News all point out some of the more noteworthy aspects of Nigel Wright’s testimony in Mike Duffy’s trial (along with the large amount of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Crawford Kilian reviews Tom Mulcair’s Strength of Conviction and describes what we can expect out of an NDP federal government as a result: He seems likely to be a very pro-family PM, if only because his own family clearly shaped him that way.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Christos Tsiolkas talks to Yanis Varoufakis about the Troika’s appalling contempt for Greek democracy. And Barbara Ehrenreich laments the fact that only well-off people are given any meaningful opportunity to speak about poverty and deprivation – though that should highlight the need for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Alan Freeman discusses the need for an adult conversation about taxes to replace the Cons’ oft-repeated policy of ignorance: Focusing on low taxes is great politics. It’s also a really dumb way to run the economy of an advanced industrialized country. Getting
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Joseph Stiglitz discusses how Greece has been turned into a sacrificial lamb at the altar of austerian economics: Austerity is largely to blame for Greece’s current depression — a decline of gross domestic product of 25 percent since 2008, an unemployment rate
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Barry Eidlin argues that Canada’s comparatively stronger trade unions have led to a far more equal distribution of income than exists in the U.S., and discusses what we need to do to reinforce that tendency: In a recent article and forthcoming book, I
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Fast food and fair wages: What happens when a good idea from Alberta hits the big time in New York?
PHOTOS: New York, New York … You gotta love it! Below: Fast food, New York City style. Below that: New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. Alberta’s New Democratic Party government got a powerful boost from an unexpected quarter yesterday for its plan, which is controversial
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Barbara Tasch writes about the IMF’s latest research on growing inequality in developing and developed countries alike. And Michael Krassa and Benjamin Radcliff study the impact an improved minimum wage can have on economic well-being: Simply stated, as the minimum wage increases, the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – PressProgress makes the case that we can’t afford to risk another term of government neglect by the Harper Cons. Jeremy Nuttall discusses how the Cons’ fixed election date and anti-social economic policies each figure to cause direct damage to Canada’s economy in the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Scott Santens argues that a basic income represents the best way to ensure that the gains from technological advancement are shared by everybody. And Thom Hartmann makes the case for a guaranteed income based on its simplicity and cost-effectiveness, while Mark Sarner
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s NDP government moves too cautiously, but in the right direction, on raising the minimum wage
PHOTOS: The government of Alberta’s spin on an increase in the minimum wage – what a contrast to the grim excuse-making of a few months ago! Below: Jobs Minister Lori Sigurdson (from the Premier of Alberta’s Flickr account), Premier Rachel Notley (photo by Dave Cournoyer) and Alberta Chambers of Commerce
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Sheila Block points out the problems with the spread of low-paying, precarious jobs. And PressProgress fact-checks the CFIB’s attempt to make as many workers’ lives as precarious as possible by suppressing minimum wages and standards. – But Sara Mojtehedzadeh reports that Ontario’s provincial
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Mark Anderson reports on the Change Readiness Index’ findings that the growing concentration and inequality of wealth is making it more and more difficult for countries to deal with foreseeable disasters. But Jon Queally points out that a concerted effort to quit
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Alberta is not Greece yet’ … Why do we have to pay for Jack Mintz’s mythmaking?
PHOTOS: Calgary in the near future, as fancifully described by the usual suspects at the University of Calgary, if the NDP doesn’t start delivering Conservative polices with alacrity. Below: U of Calgary Professor Jack Mintz, grabbed from Imperial Oil’s annual report; former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge. VICTORIA, B.C.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Inside baseball: Legislature picks Speaker; Albertans to get first glimpse of NDP policy Monday
PHOTOS: Opposition Leader Brian Jean, at left, and Premier Rachel Notley, far right, drag the new Speaker, Medicine Hat MLA Bob Wanner, to his chair, a tradition dating to the days when chairing the Legislature wasn’t as desirable a job as it is today. Below: Another shot of Mr. Wanner,
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Nope, Alberta still needs to raise the minimum wage
Last night, Andrew Coyne published a column in which he champions introducing a minimum income over raising the minimum wage as a radical policy suggestion for Alberta’s new NDP government. Coyne couches the column in his typical pseudo-contrarianism. Here he is supposedly advocating socialism…gasp! In reality, however, Coyne gets it backwards: a minimum income in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – The World Bank’s latest World Development Report discusses how readily-avoidable scarcity in severely limit individual development. Melissa Kearney and Philip Levine write that poverty and a lack of social mobility tend to create a vicious cycle of despair. And James Ridgeway examines
Continue readingAlberta Politics: $15 is too low, and three years is too long to wait, for a higher Alberta minimum wage
PHOTOS: Greetings from Halifax, where a minimum wage almost as low as Alberta’s isn’t half of what a two-earner family needs to live a decent life. Can it be much different in Calgary or Edmonton? Below: Enthusiastic Tweeter Dan Kelly’s Twitter thumbnail; Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci. HALIFAX, N.S. The
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