Neoliberalism is Canada’s real productivity problem
The Bank of Canada complex on Ottawa’s Wellington Street. Photo courtesy the Bank of Canada Museum. It is rare for the Bank of Canada to say that we face a…
Andrew Jackson
The left, inflation and monetary policy
Banksy mural in Midwood, Brooklyn. Photo by Joshua Geyer. The return of high inflation after the global pandemic poses a major political and analytical challenge for labour and the left.…
Prospects for the NDP
Jagmeet Singh, the current leader of the New Democratic Party. Photo courtesy the NDP/Facebook. This article is part of a series in which CD editors asked NDPers, current and former,…
The FIRE and the ashes: Rekindling Democratic Socialism
My new book is now available from BTL. The Fire and the Ashes – Between the Lines (btlbooks.com) In The Fire and the Ashes, long-time union economist and policy analyst…
The Fiscal Deficit, Modern Monetary Theory and Progressive Economic Policy
Image from Wikimedia Commons Modern Monetary Theory or MMT has crept in from the academic margins to become an influential doctrine in progressive policy circles in the United States. Both…
The Fiscal Deficit, Modern Monetary Theory and Progressive Economic Policy
Modern Monetary Theory or MMT has crept in from the academic margins to become an influential doctrine in progressive policy circles in the United States. Both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie…
Mel Watkins
Canada’s most prominent progressive economist has passed. He will be sorely missed. https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/mel-watkins-a-life-well-lived
Mel Watkins: A Life Well Lived
Political economist, activist and professor Mel Watkins (1932-2020). Image created by Krishna Lalbiharie. Mel Watkins, who passed on April 2, was a wonderful human being, a friend and mentor, the…
Why Keynes was a socialist
In an important new book Keynes Against Capitalism: His Economic Case for Liberal Socialism (Routledge, 2019) James Crotty argues that Keynes was a socialist who advocated a much more radical…
Taxing Wealth to Create a More Equal Canada
This is a longer, wonkier version of a piece I wrote for National Newswatch. As part of a broader fair tax agenda, Jagmeet Singh and the federal New Democratic Party…
Plausible Socialism
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, there was a widespread sense that liberal capitalism had triumphed in the battle of ideas, and that socialism as a plausible alternative was…
Between Dystopia and Democratic Socialism
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, there was a widespread sense that liberal capitalism had triumphed in the battle of ideas, and that socialism as a plausible alternative was…
Socialism For Realists
I recommend reading Sam Gindin’s paper “Socialism for Realists” to be found in the current issue of the relatively new socialist journal, Catalyst. Sam spent most of his working life…
Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World
Book Review Adam Tooze. Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World. Viking. New York. 2018 The global economic crisis is now more than a decade old, and…
Value Creation vs Value Extraction in Today’s Economy
Book Review Mariana Mazzucato. The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy. Allen Lane. 2018. The playwright Oscar Wilde quipped that a cynic is a person who…
How to Measure and Monitor Poverty? LIM vs LICO vs MBM.
The federal government has promised to launch a Canadian Poverty Reduction Strategy in the coming weeks or months on the basis of now completed consultations with Canadians and the still…
Budget Fails to Crack Down on Private Corp Tax Shelter
The federal Budget changed the rules a bit re the taxation of passive investment income in private corporations, but falls well short of what was promised in terms of extra…
The Stock Market Jitters
The real problem is the absence of a sustainable growth model. My latest Globe ROB column.
The Working Poor and the Working Income Tax Benefit
Here is a short research paper I wrote for the Broadbent Institute. https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/broadbent/pages/7073/attachments/original/1519312305/Canada’s_Working_poor_and_the_Working_Tax_Benefit_-_Report.pdf?1519312305 And here is a short summary: The Liberal government have promised to make progressive changes to the…
Smooth Sailing Ahead For the Global and Canadian Economy?
The consensus forecast of just about everybody – the IMF, the OECD, the Bank of Canada, the Canadian banks – is that Canada will share in a global recovery from…