It’s no secret that Canadians’ individual finances have been getting perpetually more precarious, with most people lacking the ability to fund even a single urgent expense. But the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed what happens when the fragile finances of large numbers of individuals shatter all at once. And while our
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Accidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Noam Scheiber, Nelson Schwartz and Tiffany Hsu point out how the social isolation required in response to COVID-19 is only confirming and exacerbating the U.S.’ class divide. And Shawn Micallef highlights the vast difference between social isolation in a large home as opposed
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Derek Thompson reports on Denmark’s wage subsidies which are finally being mimicked by other countries including Canada. And Duncan Cameron points out how the Libs’ early response fell far short of the mark. – Rachel Giese points out how the coronavirus response shows
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Conventional Wisdom!
Deathly serious? Or downright hilarious? It would be rude to suggest the Saskatchewan Party government should be able to appropriately classify a pandemic. Meanwhile, Scott Moe’s entire economic plan for both the pandemic and recovery consists once again of having the federal government absorb the liabilities of the oil sector,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Kenan Malik discusses how the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the fragility of the UK’s social and economic structures: The economic burden imposed by the policy of social distancing has fallen most upon the poorest and the lowest paid, many of whom cannot
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Coronavirus Explained & What You Should Do – In A Nutshell – PSA
Eight minutes of the facts and what you can do.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Adam Tooze writes that the coronavirus pandemic has offered a reminder that the economy (particularly defined in terms of shareholders’ interests) can’t be given priority over human survival and well-being. – John Daley discusses three possible options in responding to the coronavirus –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – David Roberts points out that the coronavirus has rendered it imperative to provide supports for people faced with circumstances beyond their control. And Tess Kalinowski and Laurie Monsebraaten report on the community service providers trying to ensure people’s basic needs are met in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Emmanuez Saez and Gabriel Zucman call for (PDF) governments to act as buyers of last resort to minimize the economic fallout from the coronavirus. Andrew Jackson offers his take on the appropriate public policy response to ensure that workers’ incomes aren’t decimated at
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Jim Stanford offers his take on how our governments should respond to the coronavirus epidemic – including an emphasis on health, income security and debt relief, along with a plan for reconstruction. And Armine Yalnizyan and Jennifer Robson provide some more specific
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan write about the U.S.’ choice between health care for all, or the spread of disease as people can’t afford to seek medical treatment. – David Dayen highlights how the coronavirus is likely to expose the weaknesses of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Robert Reich highlights how the long-term costs of failing to invest in a just transition and a healthy society far outweigh the short-term price of providing for basic needs, while Duncan Cameron calls out the deception behind claims that we can’t afford
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Bethany Lindsay reports on the start of B.C.’s inquiry into money laundering through casinos. And PressProgress offers a reminder as to how the Saskatchewan Party has chosen to operate under the “Wild West” of election financing rules to ensure it can rely on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Owen Jones asks why we’re not treating the existential threat of a climate breakdown with anything close to the urgency applied to the coronavirus response. And Niklas Höhne, Michel den Elzen, Joeri Rogelj, Bert Metz, Taryn Fransen, Takeshi Kuramochi, Anne Olhoff, Joseph Alcamo,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Polly Toynbee and David Walker write about the brutal social consequences of a decade of austerity in the UK. – Andrew Jackson reviews James Crotty’s Keynes Against Capitalism with a strong emphasis on Keynes’ recognition of the need for a democratically-planned economy. –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Fernando Arce discusses how Doug Ford’s attacks on labour create public health risks. And Amanda Mull writes about the futility of telling workers with no safety net to stay home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, while Donald McNeil Jr. points out
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Joseph Stiglitz writes about the need to cultivate solidarity as an alternative to neoliberal selfishness. And Chuck Collins reminds us how the very existence of billionaires represents both a profound failure of public policy, and a cause of distortions at the whims of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Saeed Kamali Dehghan reports on a new World Health Organization study showing the utter lack of progress toward sustainable development, particularly due to the harms caused by our climate breakdown. Mahita Gajanan focuses on the reality that every child’s future is threatened
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Carson Hammond and Rob Rousseau each make the case that Canada needs a left movement for change comparable to the wave of U.S. activism propelling Bernie Sanders toward a presidential nomination. – Brigid Delaney argues that we need to stop settling for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Michael Enright interviews Linda McQuaig about the loss of public resources to privatization – even in the face of popular opinion: People don’t like big corporations. They don’t like the big five or six banks because of the banking fees, etc. So
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