The past few days have not been great for public services in Canada. Canada Post will be phasing out home delivery of mail. Expansion of the Canada Pension Plan was scuttled at the finance ministers’ meeting. In the grand scheme of things, however, these are not extreme cutbacks. It’s not
Continue readingTag: neoliberalism
Parchment in the Fire: NAFTA at 20: State of the North American Worker
Twenty years since its passage, NAFTA has displaced workers on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, depressed wages, weakened unions, and set the terms of the neoliberal global economy. By Jeff Faux, December 13, 2013. Foreign Policy In Focus is partnering with Mexico’s La Jornada del campo magazine, where an earlier
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Americanized Labor Policy Is Spreading in Europe – NYTimes.com
Americanized Labor Policy Is Spreading in Europe – NYTimes.com. While most of the debate over Europe’s response to the financial crisis has focused on the budget austerity enveloping the Continent, the comparatively unheralded erosion of worker protection is likely to have at least as big and lasting an impact on
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: The marketisation of our universities: Economic criteria get precedence over what’s good in human terms | British Politics and Policy at LSE
The marketisation of our universities: Economic criteria get precedence over what’s good in human terms | British Politics and Policy at LSE. Business criteria, not education or the public good, drive what marketised universities do, writes Luke Martell. Universities are restructuring for the new era, ploughing money into marketing and glitzy buildings, designed to
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Austerity and Human Rights
The Council of Europe Commission for Human Rights has published a report documenting the various ways in which austerity is negatively impacting on human rights across Europe. I have copied the summary of the report below: Europeans are living through the deepest economic recession since the Second World War. What
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: George Osborne’s Economic Policy: More Poverty, Worse Public Servies
Check out @chakrabortty’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/chakrabortty/status/409810696763760640 Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Austerity, Conservatism, neoliberalism
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Polanyi on the Persistence of Economic Dogma
In reading Karl Polanyi’s 1944 classic, The Great Transformation, I’ve come across some passages regarding the persistence of the doctrines of economic liberalism (what we would today refer to as neo-liberalism) despite the onset of economic crisis. Despite being written almost 70 years ago, it sounds like it could have
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Competition and the Commercial Spirit
I came across this gem while reading Hayek’s discussion of private monopoly and competition in Law, Legislation and Liberty. Hayek is discussing the relationship between competition and economic rationality, disputing those who argue that economic rationality or the ‘commercial spirit’ needs to exist for competition to work. In contrast, Hayek
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Societal Dysfunction and Why We Need Food Banks
A friend made the following, very perceptive, comment the other day, and it serves as the inspiration for this post. What is wrong with us/our governments that we either cannot or will not address the systemic issues that force so many people to rely on food banks? They were supposed
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Orthodox economists have failed their own market test | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian
Orthodox economists have failed their own market test | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian. From any rational point of view, orthodox economics is in serious trouble. Its champions not only failed to foresee the greatest crash for 80 years, but insisted such crises were a thing
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Crash! A brief history of modern global capitalism – audio slideshow | Comment is free | theguardian.com
Crash! A brief history of modern global capitalism – audio slideshow | Comment is free | theguardian.com. An amazing slideshow of a century of capitalist development and economic crisis narrated by one of my former professors, Leo Panitch, author of The Making of Global Capitalism. Filed under: Capitalism Tagged: Austerity, Capitalism,
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Debt and Deficit as Shock Therapy » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
Debt and Deficit as Shock Therapy » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names. When Naomi Klein published her ground-breaking book The Shock Doctrine (2007), which compellingly demonstrated how neoliberal policy makers take advantage of overwhelming crisis times to privatize public property and carry out austerity programs, most economists and media pundits
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: The grip of privatisation on our vital services has to be broken | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian
The grip of privatisation on our vital services has to be broken | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian. Any doubts about who really controls Britain should have now been dispelled. Any thought that the financial crisis might have broken the neoliberal spell, rebalanced the economy or
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: On Russell Brand’s Interview
I heard Brand’s interview late last week, and I’ve been stewing on it ever since. On a lot of topics, I have to say that I agree with Brand’s frustration. The existing power structures are not healthy – in fact I would argue that they have been subverted by
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Preparing for the Perfect Storm: Neoliberal Authoritarianism in an Age of Austerity
Two noteworthy news items for this week: First, the Guardian ran an article last week regarding the soon to be published Social Mobility and Child Poverty report on, well, social moblity and child poverty in the UK. According to the paper, leaked findings of the report indicate a gloomy future
Continue readingAlex's Blog: Canada’s Dangerously Distorted Tax Conversation
“(In)visible Dialogue”. Installation by Wang King Road. 2011. Wikipedia Commons. (This post was written by Alex and Jordan Himelfarb; an abridged version appeared in the Star here.) We don’t like paying taxes. This is not big news: we don’t much like paying any bills, and there’s probably never been a
Continue readingAlex's Blog: Canada’s Dangerously Distorted Tax Conversation
“(In)visible Dialogue”. Installation by Wang King Road. 2011. Wikipedia Commons. (This post was written by Alex and Jordan Himelfarb; an abridged version appeared in the Star here.) We don’t like paying taxes. This is not big news: we don’t much like paying any bills, and there’s probably never been a
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Econ 101 is killing America – Salon.com
Econ 101 is killing America – Salon.com. Salon.com In the Middle Ages, people looked to the Church for certainty. In today’s complex, market-based economies, they look to the field of economics, at least for answers to questions concerning the economy. And unlike some disciplines, which acknowledge that there’s a huge
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: “A Corporate Trojan Horse”: Obama Pushes Secretive TPP Trade Pact, Would Rewrite Swath of U.S. Laws | Democracy Now!
“A Corporate Trojan Horse”: Obama Pushes Secretive TPP Trade Pact, Would Rewrite Swath of U.S. Laws | Democracy Now!. Crucial information on the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership — Looks like a strengthened version of the failed FTAA from 2001. Filed under: Capitalism, Democracy, Neoliberalism Tagged: Democracy, neoliberalism
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: US government shutdown, and other fairy tales and political theatre
I’m not sure what to make of the hoopla going on in the US right now. I’m inclined to think it’s all just political theatre, as Gerald Celente calls it, designed to distract the people from the real issues – the central one being, who controls the government and the
Continue reading