Here, on the positive natural effects of minimum wage increases – and why we shouldn’t lose them to the threat of artificial problems being created by employers looking for excuses to exploit their workers. For further reading…– The Bank of Canada’s staff analytical note on the effect of planned minimum
Continue readingTag: pressprogress
Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – PressProgress points out Statistics Canada’s latest numbers on Canada’s extreme wealth disparity – with 60% of the population owning only 10% of the wealth while a lucky few amass gigantic fortunes. – Jordan Brennan discusses how a lack of labour conflict has led
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Toby Sanger discusses how the Trudeau Libs’ obsession with privatized infrastructure only stands to put control over public services in the hands of corporate predators: Corporations are sitting on hundreds of billions of excess cash in Canada and trillions worldwide — money they
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Andrew Jackson writes that widespread precarity in work is keeping wages down even as unemployment stays relatively low: (W)age pressures and inflation might remain persistently low even with a low unemployment rate due to the seemingly inexorable rise of precarious work. Marx’s reserve
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Dennis Howlett highlights how the Libs are only making our tax system even less fair by overreacting to trumped-up criticism of a plan to close minor loopholes: As the dust settles on the Trudeau government’s private corporation tax reforms, Canada seems to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Matthew Hoffmann discusses the reality that addressing climate change will require substantial changes to how we currently live – but that we don’t have a reasonable choice but to put in the work to make the transition. – Michael Wolfson writes that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on Ottawa’s Canada 150 event which was planned solely for the benefit of VIPs and businesses rather than mere people – and how that reality fits the Trudeau Libs’ general governing themes. For further reading…– Again, CBC reported on the Canada Day fiasco, while the Ottawa Citizen published accounts
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Ed Finn reminds us how the economy as a whole – including the private sector – suffers when austerity is inflicted on public services: The public and private sectors have become so interdependent that one cannot be attacked or diminished without hurting the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne questions whether Justin Trudeau’s brief nod to precarious work and burgeoning inequality will be reflected in any action. But Sheila Malcolmson notes that Trudeau’s say-anything approach includes turning himself into a human shield for Donald Trump, while PressProgress reports on the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne questions whether Justin Trudeau’s brief nod to precarious work and burgeoning inequality will be reflected in any action. But Sheila Malcolmson notes that Trudeau’s say-anything approach includes turning himself into a human shield for Donald Trump, while PressProgress reports on the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Scott Sinclair offers his take on what we can expect Donald Trump to pursue in renegotiating NAFTA, and points out that while there are some options which might boost Canadian manufacturing and other sectors, it’s also possible that matters could get far worse
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Colin Busby and Ramya Muthukumaran offer some suggestions as to how to ensure there’s an adequate social safety net to support people stuck with precarious work: Federal and provincial governments, acting in concert or independently, should reduce the uncertainties of a volatile labour
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Vincent Bevins interviews Branko Milanovic about the economic roots of the working-class revolt against neoliberalism, while pointing out that there’s nothing inevitable about globalization harming large numbers of people in the developed world: Let’s start with the obvious question. Does the elephant graph
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jonathan Sas highlights why we’re best off having public services delivered by the public sector: The three decades long bashing and diminishing of the redistributive capacities of the state has led to pronounced inequality, degraded infrastructure stock, and a blunted ability of government
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Miles Corak offers a must-read paper on the two stories most often told about inequality in Canada, reaching this conclusion on the recent accumulation of wealth at the top of the income spectrum and the readily observable inequality of opportunity based on the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon #ERRE Links
A bit of electoral reform material for your weekend reading. – Nathan Cullen points out how the Special Committee on Electoral Reform’s report (PDF) serves as an effective road map to make every vote count in Canada. – PressProgress highlights how the Libs are attacking their own campaign promises in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Michal Rozworski writes that the Trudeau Libs’ economic model has come into view, and that we should be fighting back against what it means for the public: I’ve long argued that the Liberals are at the leading edge of rebuilding a centrist, neoliberal consensus for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Toby Sanger offers some important background to the federal government’s expected plan for privatized infrastructure by noting that the anticipated result would be to double the costs. And Luke Kawa notes that the Libs are already having trouble spending the money they’ve
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jordan Brennan points out why Nova Scotia (and other jurisdictions) should move past austerity economics: The McNeil Liberals appear set to rack up budgetary surpluses through a strategy of public sector wage suppression. This is likely to backfire. It is an elementary
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Owen Jones discusses the UK’s experience with privatized rail as yet another example of how vital services become more costly and worse-run when put in corporate hands.- Sean McElwee highlights still more resea…
Continue reading