Forget houses as a source of secondary income – that’s so 2007. After the latest recession, Americans are increasingly dipping into their retirement savings to fund on-going consumer expenses. Many private 401(k) plans have rules that allow workers to withdraw some amount of saved funds before retirement and such early
Continue readingTag: pensions
Accidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, looking at one of Thomas Piketty’s findings about the self-propagation of wealth which has received relatively little attention – and pointing out how the a pattern of greater wealth grabbing higher returns can both be managed in order to reduce undue concentration of wealth, and even turned to the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Robert Reich calls out four fundamental lies used to push corporatist policies. But perhaps more interesting is the truth which no amount of concentrated wealth seems to be able to suppress: But the more interesting thing here is the memo’s concession of a hurdle
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Linda McQuaig discusses how the interests of big banks ended the Cons’ willingness to consider postal banking which would produce both better service and more profits for the public: (C)ompetition is the last thing the banks want. And given their power (straddling the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – David Dayen discusses how prepaid debit cards are turning into the latest means for the financial sector to extract artificial fees from consumers. And Matt Taibbi reports on the looting of public pension funds in the U.S.: Nor did anyone know that part
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Robert Reich discusses the Koch brothers and their place in the U.S.’ new plutocracy: The Kochs exemplify a new reality that strikes at the heart of America. The vast wealth that has accumulated at the top of the American economy is not itself
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Mitchell Anderson compares the results of corporate-friendly Thatcherism to the alternative of public resource ownership and development in the interest of citizens – and finds far better results arising from the latter: Thirty-five years after she swept to power as British prime
Continue readingAlberta Diary: More than 2,000 people make a point about the Redford Government in deeply chilled downtown Edmonton
Some of the more than 2,000 people who protested the policies of the Redford Conservative Government in Edmonton’s Sir Winston Churchill Square today. When I was a cub reporter at the still-unhyphenated Victoria Daily Times – always a better paper than the Colonist, let it be noted – I was
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Robert Reich writes about the basic economic lessons the U.S. has forgotten since its postwar boom: First, America’s real job creators are consumers, whose rising wages generate jobs and growth. If average people don’t have decent wages there can be no real recovery
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Ken Georgetti discusses how the corporate tax giveaways of the past 15 years have hurt most Canadians: The Conservative government and special interest groups claim incessantly that cutting corporate income taxes is good for the economy and for individual Canadians. We have
Continue readingAlberta Diary: CFIB members please post: ‘Money from public sector wages & pensions NOT wanted here!’
CFIB AstroTurf technicians roll out part of their campaign against improved pensions for Canadians, a plan certain to harm the group’s naïve supporters. Below: A suggested sign for the windows of CFIB-member businesses. Whew! That was a close one! We almost improved the Canada Pension Plan! So says the so-called
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Pierre Brochu and David Green study the effect of minimum wage rates, and find a connection between a higher minimum wage and greater employment stability. But if there’s a choice between stable, well-paying work and precarious employment where job churn and wage
Continue readingWise Law Blog: Supreme Court of Canada Rules on Pension Income and Damages in Wrongful Dismissal
The Supreme Court of Canada’s recent ruling in IBM Canada Ltd. v. Waterman provides a great deal of clarity on the issue of collateral benefits such as pensions in a wrongful dismissal action and whether such a benefit ought to be deducted from the amount owed by the employer on account of
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper and the Nightmare Before Christmas
Well I finally got to screen Stephen Harper's year end interview with Global TV, and it was one of the weirdest interviews I've ever seen.And one of the most chilling. For there was Harper sitting in what looked like a set from A Christmas Story.But sounding like a character out
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Don Lenihan is the latest to highlight the difference between citizens and consumers – as well as why we should want to act as the former: In the old view, public debate is all about defining the public interest by establishing collective needs.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Ed Broadbent comments on Parliament’s review of inequality in Canada: In a more encouraging vein, the majority report cautiously endorses some positive proposals. Given stated support from both of the opposition parties, these could, and should, move to the top of the
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: The in-and-out trick: Thoughts on Canada Post, CPP and your child’s breakfast
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 readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Canada Post’s vow to ‘protect taxpayers’ needs a reality check
This piece was first published in the Globe & Mail. In a move that caught everyone off-guard, Canada Post announced a five point “action plan” last week that included phasing-out home delivery of the mail over the next five years, making Canada the only G7 nation to do so. Why? To “protect taxpayers.” Of
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Day the Con Regime Revealed its True Face
First he claimed his callous comments about hungry children were out of context, and ridiculous… Then he claimed the story wasn't accurate, and ridiculous… Then when he realized the reporter had the whole interview on tape he apologized. Read more »
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Joan Walsh discusses how employers are exploiting the U.S.’ wage supplement policies by taking the opportunity to severely underpay their employees – resulting in both insecure income and employment, and significant public expense to reduce the poverty suffered by full-time workers. And Lana
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