Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Ben Chu reports on a new study showing that the UK’s economy is broken in failing to translate GDP gains into any help for workers whose wages are falling. And the Canadian Press reports on the latest survey showing how many Canadians are
Continue readingTag: NAFTA
Montreal Simon: Why Andrew Scheer and His Cons Have No Future
Ever since Andrew Scheer was chosen as the new leader of the Harper Party, I've been trying to explain to the few Cons I know, that they've made a terrible mistake. Trying to explain that by choosing a religious fanatic who would criminalize women, marginalize gays, and ignore climate change, they
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Ed Finn discusses how corporate giants exert far more influence than we generally know – or should be willing to accept. And Joseph Schwartz and Bhaskar Sunkara comment on the difficulty in achieving durable social-democratic policies while economic power is concentrated in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Sarah Anderson studies how corporate tax cuts enrich CEOs, but don’t do anything to help workers. And she then follows up with this op-ed: If claims about the job-creation benefits of lower tax rates had any validity, these 92 consistently profitable firms
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Abigail McKnight and Richard Reeves write about the gilded floor that prevents the wealthy from facing the realities lived by most people. Eric Levitz discusses how the Trump economy is producing plenty for the ultra-rich, but little but mediocrity for everybody else. And
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, asking why Justin Trudeau and Gerald Butts are so willing to offer political cover to the Trump administration (including the now-departed Steve Bannon). For further reading…– Ryan Lizza’s report on Bannon’s relationship with Butts is here. And Adam Radwanski had previously reported on the Libs’ strategy of cultivating relationships
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Danny Dorling wonders whether we’ve finally reached the point of shifting toward greater income equality, while noting the uncertainty in trying to assess pay ratios. – Kevin Carmichael discusses how homeownership is getting pushed further and further out of the reach of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Justin Trudeau doesn’t have the chops.
It is often amusing when Canadian writers try to compare Prime Minister Trudeau with American President Trump. They seem to think that Justin Trudeau has been understudying for his current role all his life, while Donald Trump is an accidental politician and is only now learning that the job requires
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Amira Elghawaby comments on the loss of empathy in Canadian politics – particularly due to a disproportionate focus on the perceived self-interest of a narrow group of upper-middle-class swing voters, rather than speaking to and about the people with the greatest need
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Leo Gerard calls for an end to trade deals designed to favour the wealthy at the expense of everybody else. And Rick Salutin writes that NAFTA can’t reasonably be seen as anything but: (N)o matter how many numbers Freeland plucks to show the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Asher Schechter examines new studies showing how massive markups are enriching corporations at the expense of workers: The two standard explanations for why labor’s share of output has fallen by 10 percent over the past 30 years are globalization (American workers are
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Timely Message
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland continues to treat the Canadian public as children, revealing nothing as to what our country’s goals are in the upcoming NAFTA renegotiations. The only peek behind the curtain she is allowing is that they are striving for provisions to strengthen protections for labour and the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Noah Smith offers a reminder that market principles don’t work for everything. And Amelie Quesnel-Vallee and Miles Taylor note that in the health sector in particular, the use of private providers to supplement an underfunded public system is leading to inequitable disparities in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Linda McQuaig makes the case as to why any NAFTA renegotiation needs to focus on workers’ rights: NAFTA has been key to the transformation of Canada over the last two decades, enabling corporations to become ever more dominant economically and politically, while rendering
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – The Center for Economic Performance finds (PDF) that increased inequality and concentration among firms in an industry exacerbates disparities in wealth while putting downward pressure on wages. And Frank Partnoy warns that we may be headed for another financial crisis as loan
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Charles Mathewes and Evan Sandsmark write that it’s long past time to start treating the excessive accumulation of wealth as something to be questioned – rather than accepted as an inevitability, or worse yet admired: The idea that wealth is morally perilous
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Angella MacEwen offers her suggestions as to what a fair and progressive trade agenda should look like: Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms are especially unpopular, as they prioritize investor rights over investor responsibilities. Canada and Mexico have had similar dismal experiences under NAFTA
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on why we should be skeptical of Donald Trump’s NAFTA demands – and why it should be willing to walk away from the table if it’s not possible to push for dramatic improvements to what’s being offered. For further reading:– The U.S.’ list of negotiating objectives is here (PDF).
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Fatal Mistake of the Con Monster Andrew Scheer
I always knew that Andrew Scheer is a Stephen Harper clone, with a Ted Bundy smile.I knew he's so partisan he might as well be packing a knife, to jam into the back of Justin Trudeau.I knew he's a religious fanatic who believes gay Canadians are "abhorrent" and that if he
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Jerry Dias and Dennis Williams write about the fundamental changes which we should be seeking to make to NAFTA in order to ensure that workers’ and citizens’ interests aren’t left out of trade rules: Meaningful Nafta renegotiation must comprehensively focus on balanced
Continue reading