Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Tom Parkin talks to Toby Sanger about the utter failure of corporate tax cuts to produce anything other than concentrated wealth and increased inequality. – Steven Greenhouse offers suggestions both as to how governments can level the playing field between workers and employers
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Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Ben Parfitt comments on the dangers of captured regulators such as B.C.’s Oil and Gas Commission who end up serving corporate “clients” rather than the public interest. And Bryan Walsh discusses the discounting effect which makes it all too frequent for people
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the meat and dairy industries alone are offering far too many examples of how entrenched corporate interests are using both government power and their own clout to hide basic facts from the public. For further reading…– K. Annabelle Smith wrote about the history of veggie burgers. But
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: MEDIA RELEASE: Alberta should increase social spending; cuts are not the way to go
(June 24, 2019-Calgary) With Alberta’s economy still facing challenges and vulnerabilities, the Alberta government should not be doling out tax cuts or cutting social spending, according to the Alberta Alternative Budget (AAB) released today. “Alberta still has, by far, the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio of any province,” says Nick Falvo, editor
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Sarah O’Connor examines how the future of work may echo past practices – including a misleading picture of wages for gig work which is assumed to be more stable than is actually the case. And Astra Taylor discusses how socialism is growing in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, pointing out how Drawdown‘s list of emission reductions which are possible based on peer-reviewed research into current technology (which received recent attention thanks to a CNN quiz and Vox update) only makes all the more clear the political divide on climate change. For further reading…– Bill McKibben highlights the
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: What Impact will the 2019 Federal Budget have on Canada’s Housing Market?
I’ve written a blog post about what the recent federal budget means for Canada’s housing market. Points I make in the blog post include the following: -The budget contains several initiatives designed to make it easier for households of modest means to become homeowners. -Such initiatives are often framed as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Morris Pearl and Pramila Jayapal make the case for raising more revenue from the people with the most to contribute. And Jayati Ghosh notes that a minimum effective corporate tax rate would go a long way toward avoiding the offshore sheltering of
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ontario Electricity VII – Committee Testimony
The PC Government in Ontario has introduced Bill 87 which would eliminate the rate-based borrowing to subsidize electricity prices and replace it with Government borrowing. Last week’s Provincial Budget estimates that the required borrowing to subsidize electricity prices for 2018/19 was $2.8 billion. It is likely to exceed $3 billion
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Will McMartin writes that if we needed more evidence that Jason Kenney’s trickle-down economics are nothing but a scam to concentrate more wealth in the hands of the rich, British Columbia’s own moves in the same direction produced none of the promised economic
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Frank Graves and Michael Valpy discuss the contrast between Canadian voters who are rightly concerned about the gap in wealth and power between the rich and the rest of us, and the Lib and Con politicians who go out of their way to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Robert Reich writes about the laughable spin that the Trump Republicans’ giveaways to the privileged and elimination of supports for the vast majority of people result in anything approaching a meritocracy: The monstrous concentration of wealth in America has not only created
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Joe Vipond and Noel Keough highlight the gap between the global impetus to avoid climate breakdown and the narrow self-interest of the Alberta oil industry. Michael Bueckert discusses Jason Kenney’s attempt to turn the government apparatus against the exercise of fundamental freedoms through
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Joe Pinsker offers a reminder that the wealthiest individuals are primarily concerned with positional rather than absolute gains – meaning that nothing useful is accomplished by diverting wealth toward them other than to drive up the price of status symbols. And Thomas Piketty
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Rent Control in Ontario
I’ve just published my new analysis of Ontario’s proposed rent controls and develop an evidence-based comprehensive alternative proposal at the CCPA’s “Behind the Numbers” blog.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading. – Chris Dillow discusses the connection between the failure to understand the role of luck in producing unequal outcomes, and the perpetuation of policies which exacerbate inequalities: As Ed Smith writes in his lovely book, Luck: “randomness is routinely misinterpreted as skill.” Why do
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Alexi White points out how tall tales about “welfare fraud” have been used as excuse to trap people in poverty. And the Star’s editorial board is rightly concerned about a social assistance review from a Ford government which couldn’t care less about anybody
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Peter Gowan discusses UK Labour’s plans for a more democratic and participatory economy. And Alex Ballingall reports on Jagmeet Singh’s plan to prohibit the use of “bearer shares” which conceal the ownership of corporate wealth. – Linda McQuaig rightly criticizes Doug Ford’s moves
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Campbell Robb laments the persistence of in-work poverty in the UK – though it’s of course worth noting the reality that poverty of all kinds is worth combating. Pat Thane points out that increasing poverty can be traced directly to deliberate and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, discussing the Price of Oil collaborative’s latest report on how the Saskatchewan Party is requiring provincial regulators to keep the public at risk in order to avoid having oil operators answer for their sour gas pollution. For further reading, I’ve previously written about the the same issue based on
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