Following recent dismal reports on rising unemployment, stagnant GDP growth, and a deteriorating economic outlook, we can only hope federal Finance minister Jim Flaherty will provide some Christmas cheer with changes “to better promote job creation and economic growth” (as he’s asked for advice on through his pre-budget consultations). Unfortunately,
Continue readingTag: taxation
The Progressive Economics Forum: Taxing Capital Gains
The following also appears in The Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab: Earlier this week, Kevin Milligan questioned proposals “to increase the tax on capital gains.” Currently, Canadian income tax applies to only 50 per cent of capital gains. Milligan argues that light personal taxation is justified for income that has
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Is Money Enough? The Meaning of 6% and Flaherty’s Health “Plan”
A shorter version of this piece was posted on the Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab As Christmas presents go, this one was a shocker: Over lunch on Monday, cash-strapped Finance Minister Jim Flaherty promised provincial and territorial finance ministers he’d increase federal funding for health care by six per cent
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: OECD on Inequality
Following concern expressed by the IMF, the Conference Board and of course thousands of protesters around the world, the OECD has just released an extensive 400 page report on the problem of growing inequality: Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps on Rising. I haven’t read through it yet, and it
Continue readingExcited Delirium: Economics, Media and Mass Manipulation
Change is inevitable when the cards are stacked against so many people.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Corporate Tax Evasion on a Global Scale
This new study from Education International looks interesting. “This EI study follows on from a previous study published in March 2010 by Global Financial Integrity, a research and advocacy organisation promoting transparency in the international financial system, estimating that current total deposits just by non-residents in offshore and secrecy jurisdictions
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: More Corus charitable work
Annual financial reports filed by Canadian charities with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), are rudimentary and largely unchecked by tax department officials. This suggests rather little oversight is exercised despite the billions of dollars involved in the sector. I tried to raise this matter with Hoang Mai, the Official Opposition
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Good tax, bad tax
News item, The Guardian, November 3, 2011:
“Bill Gates will tell the G20 group of developed and developing countries on Thursday that they could raise an extra $48bn (£30bn) a year to fight global poverty by levying a small tax on share and bond tr…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: It is class warfare…
begun [by] the financial overlords who control all of the major levers of power in what passes for our democracy.
… three decades of rampant upper-crust greed … will be well marked by future historians recording the death of the American dream. In…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Federal R&D Panel Report
In a week when business lobby groups are appearing before the House of Commons Committee on Finance and calling for more tax breaks, the federal R&D Panel appointed a year ago released a very good report saying Canada’s very generous system of R&D tax incentives haven’t been effective and what we need instead are more direct grants […]
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Street protests ignored
The one-percenters and their agents in government remain deaf.
As rage at Wall Street rises, its moneymen shower cash on candidates, David Goldstein, McClatchy, October 17, 2011:
“WASHINGTON — Even as protests over its political influence grow loude…
cmkl: If only everyone paid their taxes
Doug Saunders points out that the amount of money required to fix Europe’s debt ills is about as much as you’d get if you taxed all the money held in off-shore tax havens at 11 per cent.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Europe, G20 and financial transactions taxes
Thanks mostly to the superb campaigning by international development, poverty and environmental activists, there’s been remarkable progress in getting Europe to introduce financial transactions taxes, aka the Robin Hood Tax. Last month, the European Commission presented a proposal for a broad-based financial transactions tax in all 27 members states of the European Union. At […]
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Solution for continued wealthcare
Report: A quarter of U.S. millionaires pay taxes at a lower rate than some in middle class, by Lori Montgomery, Washington Post, October 12/11
“A quarter of millionaires in the United States pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than man…
Red Tory v.3.0.3: 999 = 666?
Like a stopped clock, it turns out that Michele Bachmann may well have been correct when she awkwardly quipped in the most recent Republican debate that “the devil is in the details” regarding Herman Cain’s ludicrous “9-9-9” plan for overhauling … Continue reading →
The Progressive Economics Forum: First We Take Manhattan….. What Occupy Wall Street Could Mean
This is not the stuff of usual protests. Over the past month, a little idea from a Vancouver outfit has mushroomed into a cross-continent movement. Occupy Wall Street, kicked off by Adbusters in July and coming to Toronto this weekend, has already spread to 70 American cities and is going global as protestors challenge society […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Libertarians for an Inheritance Tax
I rarely give thanks for Neil Reynolds, but today’s column is a must-read. The point is that taxing large inheritances should appeal not only to those of us concerned about highly unequal outcomes, but also to those simply concerned about equality of opportunity. It may or may not be possible to justify inequalities based on differences […]
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: Inequalistan
Chris Hayes dismantles the Republicans’ favourite new talking point that “the top 10 percent of ‘wage earners’ pay 70 percent of the income taxes.” You have to hand it to the perverse genius of right-wingers sometimes, as in this case … Continue reading →
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: "You can talk at your own town hall meeting"
Terrance Heath produces an excellent piece on the American ‘Tea Party’ movement brought to life by the Koch brothers and other plutocrats and apparatchiks. Is The Tea Party Over? Maybe. – published by The Campaign for America’s Future :
“It’s always s…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Finding tax sources that fit today’s economy
Financial Transaction Tax: Making the financial sector pay its fair share
Brussels, 28 September 2011 – Today the Commission has presented a proposal for a financial transaction tax in the 27 Member States of the European Union. The tax would be levi…