Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Larry Elliott interviews Joseph Stiglitz about the rise of Donald Trump and other demagogues in the wake of public anger over inequality and economic unfairness. And Stiglitz also joins a group of economists calling for an end to austerity in the UK. –
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Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – David Climenhaga writes that Canada needs a lot more of Jeremy Corbyn’s critical analysis of an unfair economic system, and a lot less Justin Trudeau-style cheerleading for it. And Bill Curry reports on a new push to cut down on poverty at
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Canadians for Tax Fairness discusses the appallingly small tax contributions made by Canada’s largest companies, the vast majority of whom have foreign subsidiaries to avoid paying their fair share. – Meanwhile, Robert de Vries and Aaron Reeves point out the unfortunate reality
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Dani Rodrik writes that politicians looking to provide an alternative to toxic populism will need to offer some other challenge to a system biased in favour of the wealthy and powerful: (P)oliticians who want to steal the demagogues’ thunder have to tread a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Rupert Neate reports on a new Credit Suisse study showing that the 1% owns half of the world’s wealth. And Heather Long notes that hundreds of U.S. millionaires are pushing not to have their taxes cut when it will only serve to
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Why Toronto needs a national housing strategy
Dr. Colin Phillips is an up-and-coming scholar in Canada’s homelessness sector. He has an opinion piece in today’s Toronto Star titled “Why Toronto needs a national housing strategy.” Points made in the opinion piece include the following: -The City of Toronto has worked hard to develop good practices on the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy studies the large-scale use of offshore tax avoidance in the corporate sector, just in time for the Paradise Papers to reveal another set of tax avoidance loopholes being kept open for the benefit of Justin Trudeau’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Michal Rozworski writes that the bidding war surrounding Amazon’s second headquarters is just a symptom of a grossly dysfunctional relationship between governments and businesses: We shouldn’t be surprised that Amazon can get away with using a few billion dollars of private investment as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Ashifa Kassam writes about the elements of Canada’s health care system which call for ambitious improvement rather than imitation: “I think privatisation is a major threat to public health care in Canada,” said Natalie Mehra of the Ontario Health Coalition. Earlier this
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Karl Russell and Peter Goodman note that lower unemployment rates in the U.S aren’t translating into higher wages. Alena Semuels points out the barriers preventing people from moving in order to pursue a higher income. And Kevin Brice-Lall interviews Jonathan Rosenblum about the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Matt Bruenig explores the U.S.’ wealth inequality and finds a similarly skewed distribution of wealth among all kinds of demographic subgroups. And Robert Reich discusses why the attempt to sell a tax cut for billionaires as doing anything but making that problem worse
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Stephanie Levitz reports on new polling showing an increasing number of Canadians self-identifying as part of the working class or poor, while also seeing little room for optimism about their futures. And Jared Bernstein offers his analysis as to why wages are remaining
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: New book on Indigenous homelessness
I’ve recently reviewed a new book on homelessness among Indigenous peoples. The book, published by the University of Manitoba Press, was edited by Evelyn Peters and Julia Christensen. My review can be accessed at this link.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Trish Garner offers some suggestions for evidence-based poverty reduction – with a strong emphasis on the need for employers to pay a living wage. And Jim Stanford challenges critics of a $15 minimum wage to put their money where their mouth is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Joseph Parilla examines how entrenched inequality serves as a barrier to economic development for everybody. – Heather Long highlights how the U.S.’ last round of corporate tax cuts led to lower wages for all but the lucky few. And Stuart Bailey writes about
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Income and geographic distribution of low-income renters in Toronto
In this second of a series of housing-related posts I analyze the income and geographic distribution of renter-occupied households in the City of Toronto. My first post focussed on affordability and inequality trends by analyzing time series (2001-16) data for Ontario by household income quintiles. As a complement, this blog
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Matt Bruenig examines who is living in poverty in the U.S. – and how policy choices result in many people who can’t feasibly earn wages being stuck below the poverty line: (C)hildren, elderly, disabled people, and students make up around 70 percent
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Leslie McCall and Jennifer Richeson offer another look at what happens when Americans are properly informed about the level of inequality in their country: What effect did this information have? First, more respondents came to believe that “coming from a wealthy family” and
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Some comments on the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario’s minimum wage commentary
The Financial Accountability Office of Ontario (FAO)—an independent, arm’s length, non-partisan research institute—released a paper on September 12th outlining the likely economic impacts flowing from the pending minimum wage increase (see here). The FAO’s findings are already garnering significant media attention and will almost certainly be used by the opponents
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Book review: Social policy in Canada (second edition)
Oxford University Press has recently released the second edition of Social Policy in Canada, co-authored by the father-daughter duo of Ernie Lightman and Naomi Lightman. I recommend this book as an excellent resource for students of social policy. It will be useful for classroom instruction, while also being a handy
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