Extreme Wealth Inequality Persists
There was little or no media coverage of the release of data on the distribution of the wealth of Canadians in 2016 last week, perhaps because there has been little…
Andrew Jackson
The Private Corporation Tax Loophole and the Ultra Rich
The 2017 Economic and Fiscal Update provides some detailed data (see pp. 51-53) on who will be impacted by the government’s plan to limit how much passive investment income can…
Unwarranted Gloom and Doom: The IMF on Canada and NAFTA
To read the media today, one would think that NAFTA is a keystone of Canadian prosperity and that renegotiation could lead to a national economic disaster. That view has already…
The NDP and Old Age Security
NDP leadership candidate Jagmeet Singh has proposed (with few details) to reform the current Old Age Security system by integrating Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS.)…
Canada Lags in Job Quality
The 2017 OECD Employment Outlook provides an assessment of member country performance in terms of the quantity and quality of employment as judged by a new set of key indicators.…
The Wage Structure, Rents and Urban Inequality in Canada
Richard Florida’s new book, The New Urban Crisis (Basic Books, 2017) takes a careful look at rising inequality in big cities in the United States. He details the fact that…
Income Inequality Surged Under Harper
Just as Conservatives gathered to elect a new leader, Statistics Canada released income data for 2015. These allow us to look at trends under the full term of the Harper…
Basic Income and the left: The political and economic problems
Should the Left and labour support a demand for a Basic Income (BI)? This simple question has provoked a fervent and confusing debate. The discussion over BI touches on real…
The 2017 Federal Budget
Here is the link to my analysis and comments re the Limits of Liberalism. http://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/andrew_ajackson/2017_federal_budget_end_of_progress
Reflections on the Social Democratic Tradition
The Broadbent Institute and Douglas-Coldwell Foundation have just published a paper of mine as part of a larger project on social democratic renewal, The paper is mainly retrospective, and touches…
Post Capitalism
Here is a link to my review of an extremely interesting new book by Guardian economics and political columnist Paul Mason. “Paul Mason is a leading British economic journalist, currently…
Is “Postcapitalism” On the Horizon?
Photo by Paul Sableman Paul Mason is a leading British economic journalist, currently a columnist for The Guardian. He is also a long time left political activist. His new book,…
The 2016 Federal Budget
Here is a link to the Broadbent Institute pre Budget Submission, trying to push the Liberal platform in a more progressive and social democratic direction. http://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/budget_2016_charting_progressive_agenda
New Study on Positive Economic Impacts of Public Infrastructure Investment in Canada
A five-year $50-billion public infrastructure spending initiative would generate a return on investment to Canadians over the long term as high as $3.83 per dollar spent, trigger significant private sector…
Job Vacancies
Congratulations to Statscan on the occasion of the first release from the National Job Vacancy and Wage Survey, with data for the first quarter of this year. The survey received…
Canada After Harper
Here is the link to buy a new book, Canada After Harper, edited by Ed Finn and with an introduction by Ralph Nader, just published by Lorimer. Most Canadians know…
The Return of the Gilded Age: Consequences, Causes and Solutions
On April 8, I had the honour of delivering the Harry Kitchen Lecture in Public Policy at the invitation of the Department of Economics at Trent University. I took the…
The Harper Record on Jobs, 2006 to 2014
Here is the link to a short study I have done for the Broadbent Institute on the Harper Record on Jobs from 2006 to 2014 based on annual averages from…
Harper Conservatives vs the IMF on Deficits
Here is an extract from my column on balanced budgets in the Globe ROB today. “When it comes to balancing the books, the Harper government is seemingly more Catholic than…
The Ecofiscal Commission and Polluter Pay
From iPolitics, here is my constructively critical take on the first discussion paper of the new Commission chaired by Chris Ragan. In a nutshell, polluter pay is a good idea,…