It is crucial that Harris win but defeating Trump is not enough
It is crucial that Harris defeat Trump in today’s election. A Trump victory would be a disaster, a Harris victory a reprieve. Will Harris be able to build on and…
himelfarb
Me on Breaking Free of Neoliberalism on the Wonk Podcast with Eddie Greenspan
Have a listen : https://ppforum.ca/policy-speaking/alex-himelfarb-on-whats-behind-the-age-of-crisis/
It Can’t Happen Here
About 90 years ago Sinclair Lewis wrote his novel, It Can’t Happen Here. It’s uncanny. In the novel “Buzz” Windrip, a senator, a showman, a demagogue, a conman wins the…
beware the common sense con
When politicians offer up “common sense” solutions beware. Politicians will often tell us that what they stand for is precisely what regular folk, “ordinary hard-working taxpayers” want and believe. As…
Progressives have to get spiritual
While not exactly Trump Derangement Syndrome, I have become increasingly obsessed with the mind boggling support that Trump’s Republicans still seem to have, the success of right wing parties everywhere,…
The 3.5% Rule
One of the persistent reactions to Breaking Free of Neoliberalism has been doubt that big change – the kind of change the book clearly hopes for – is possible, in…
Sacrificial Citizenship
A thug accosts Jack Benny. Thug: Now, come on—your money or your life. Thug: Look, bud. I said, “Your money or your life.” Jack Benny: I’m thinking it over! —The…
The Good Life: we have the vision – what’s lacking is the will
When the 2007-2008 financial crisis hit, a loud chorus of pundits and politicians, for what turned out to be the briefest moment, came to see that we had got it…
Neoliberalism made Trump possible
Excerpt from Breaking Free of Neoliberalism: Canada’s Challenge A good deal of punditry has gone around in circles on the question of how someone like Donald Trump could become president…
The Power of Mr. X: Breaking Free of Neoliberalism
Against my better judgment, I was browsing twitter which I have been reluctant to do ever since it became Nazi-infested x. In any case, I came across an exchange between…
Am I optimistic and if so how is that even possible?
At the end of a recent interview I was asked how is it possible, given all the crises I talk about and all the social discord, that I still claim…
Check this out
Check this out from Lorimer. it contains my favourite portrait shot. https://formaclorimerbooks.ca/product/breaking-free-of-neoliberalism-canadas-challenge/
So this is happening
https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/breaking-free-of-neoliberalism-canadas-challenge-what-it-will-take-to-deal-with-american-decline-inequality-and-the-climate-crisis/9781459419476.html
Crack-Up Capitalism, Quinn Slobodian: A Review
In this engrossing historical account, Quinn Slobodian lays out how a few very rich men—yes pretty much men—and the neoliberal intellectuals upon whose ideas they fed, imagined and sometimes built…
A World Built On Sand: It’s Time For A War Against Insecurity
In these times of political polarization and social fragmentation, there is something that unites us, that almost all of us experience in common – insecurity, insecurity in the face of…
DEMOCRACY
Throughout the globe we are witnessing democracy under threat. Political scientists who for decades assumed that “the arc of the universe” inevitably bent towards more democracy, are now documenting its…
How to kill a zombie or the strange persistence of neoliberalism
Here’s a recent piece I wrote on the many deaths of neoliberalism. https://monitormag.ca/articles/how-to-kill-a-zombie-or-the-strange-persistence-of-neoliberalism/
What Does a Prudent Budget Look Like in these Uncertain Times?
I have been trying to sort out why I so dislike the recent federal budget. The loudest critics, the Conference Board, bank economists, much of the mainstream media have complained…
Fault Lines
I was honoured to chair the Council Of Canadian Academies panel on misinformation. Our report, Fault Lines, is available here. https://cca-reports.ca/reports/the-socioeconomic-impacts-of-health-and-science-misinformation/
There are no economic laws
In just the last few months we have had a number of elections in which we reelected incumbents who had performed, at best, somewhere within the zone of mediocrity. We…