This and that for your Sunday reading. – The Economist discusses research by Miles Corak and others on intergenerational inequality. And interestingly, other studies seem to suggest Corak has actually underestimated the barriers to social mobility: THE “Great Gatsby curve” is the name Alan Krueger, an economic adviser to Barack
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Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – James Bloodworth discusses the most important challenge facing Ed Miliband and Labour in the UK – which largely matches the task for progressives around the globe: People have never put all that much stock in politicians of course, and the expenses scandal
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Inside the Monstrous Heart of the Harper PMO
It's one of the scariest places in Canada eh? The dark heart of the Con conspiracy. The home of the Big Lie. And now Paul Wells has given us a glimpse of the horror that lies within. And of the weird leader in his inner sanctum. And although I'm sure
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Glen Hodgson and Brenda Lafleur explain how Canada’s lower and middle classes alike have been left out of any economic growth as a result of increased inequality: We believe the more accurate interpretation is that after worsening in the 1980s and 1990s, income
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Charles Campbell discusses Robert Reich’s work to highlight the importance of a fair and progressive tax system. And while Lawrence Martin is right to lament the systematic destruction of Canada’s public revenue streams under the Libs and Cons alike, his fatalistic view
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Got trouble with ‘overbearing urban planners’? The Manning Centre wants to help!
A civic election all-candidates’ meeting in Calgary. “Why don’t we pass the time with a game of solitaire?” Actual Manning Centre supported candidates may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Manning Centre namesake Preston Manning; Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi; Calgary developer Cal Wenzel (CTV photo). If on Oct. 21 the
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: The Shorter Paul Wells
Prime Minister Harper plays Chess; his opponents, a broken Bolivian Armpit Flute. He first wrote this column in 2007, and he’s just changed up the words a bit since.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On key decisions
I’ll generally concur with Paul Wells’ take on Barack Obama’s reference to Keystone XL yesterday. But it’s worth taking a slightly closer look at both the broad issue framed by Obama, and the Cons’ narrow means of avoiding it. The point of greatest significance in Obama’s speech was indeed the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – For all the talk of fraud and cover-ups among the Cons this week, the most important story on that front looks to be the release of Judge Mosley’s decision on Robocon – featuring findings of fact based on the best evidence presented by
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Pat Steenberg observes that the Harper Cons’ deficits are the result of conscious choices to reduce government revenue – and that we can fix our deficit and rein in inequality at the same time by reversing the damage: (W)hen our governments say they
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – While there’s room to question whether we should accept spending as self-definition in the first place, Zoe Williams is right to make the point that arbitrary restrictions on benefits serve to put yet more barriers to full social participation in front of the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Saturday reading. – Hamida Ghafour writes about the effect of tax avoidance by the world’s wealthy on the lives of the rest of the population – particularly when coupled with austerity pushed based on a lack of revenue: The OECD is a fierce defender of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On ranges of options
There are surely worse offenders to point out in the bevy of recaps and previews we inevitably see at year’s end. But I’ll pick on Paul Wells’ latest as an example of a well-regarded observer making obvious missteps in trying to limit the scope of possibilities we should consider: The
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Paul Boothe discusses the dangers of giving in to resource-boom hype rather than planning for sustainable development:The resource roller coaster and the crazy things it causes us to do are not new. Remember the…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to end your Saturday. – Jim Stanford looks in detail at the aftereffects of free trade with the U.S., and finds rather little to cheer: In sum, the promise that free trade would induce more trade, productivity growth, and higher incomes (following traditional Heckscher-Ohlin mechanisms) is not remotely
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Business Insider reports on a new study from the U.S.’ Congressional Research Service showing that in addition to exacerbating inequality, top-heavy tax cuts rank somewhere between useless and downright harmful when it comes to overall economic growth: According to a new study by
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Winslow Wheeler compares the NDP’s F-35 hearings to politics on the opposite side of the U.S. border: The differences between Canadian politicians and members of Congress are utterly stunning. Unlike here, oversight in the Canadian Parliament is alive and well. In Canada, I
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for a sunny Sunday. – Paul Wells offers some theories as to why the Cons haven’t yet launched attack ads against Thomas Mulcair. But I’d think the more important aberration is the fact that they did do so against Bob Rae before he ever became the Libs’ permanent
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Pathologies revealed
Paul Wells is right to point out the parallels between the McGuinty Libs’ environmentally-destructive, all-or-nothing omnibus bill and the similar legislation being rammed through Parliament by the Harper Cons. But there’s an even more telling connection between Ontario and federal politics. At the time they presented their 2008 FU to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
This and that to end your week. – Paul Wells comments on the NDP’s new style of opposition: When I used to ask the Liberals, when they were the Official Opposition, why they didn’t calm down a bit in QP, they would complain that gesticulating was the only way to
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