Federal Surplus: Digging Deeper
This week Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are trumpeting the announcement of a small surplus ($1.9 billion) for fiscal 2014-15. The political symbolism of this “good news” is a welcome change for…
Jim Stanford
GDP Recession a Symptom of Deeper Failures
There were surely more people (myself included) watching Statistics Canada’s GDP release at 8:30 am Tuesday, than any other release in recent history! This reflected the political significance of the…
“Taking Care of Business,” by Stephen Harper and the Senators!
At the big Unifor Canadian Council meeting in Montreal last weekend there was a surprise appearance by a new musical group, called “Stephen Harper and the Senators”, featuring Stephen Harper…
When Bad News is Good News: Harper’s Call to Poloz
Was there any concrete economic reason for Stephen Harper to call Stephen Poloz yesterday, as global stock markets continued their gyrations? And then to have his office subsequently issue a…
Quality Public Child Care: An Economic No-Brainer
Child care will be a major issue in this federal election campaign. The NDP has pledged to create 370,000 new $15-per-day spaces through joint federal-provincial initiatives by 2017-18, at an…
Rhetoric vs Reality: The Harper Govt Economic Record
Speculation is intense that the unofficial election campaign we have already been experiencing for several months, is about to become official: Ottawa is awash in rumours the writ may be…
Harper is fighting the deficit battle but losing the economic war
Finance Minister Joe Oliver • Photo by Harvey K The evidence is mounting that Canada’s economy may already be in an outright recession. Recent data on investment, exports, building permits…
The Deficit Battle and the Economic War
Evidence continues to mount regarding Canada’s lousy economic trajectory, and there is now a pretty broad consensus among Canadian economists that the economy was likely in recession in the first…
Economics for Everyone: Second Edition
This week marks the official publication release of the second edition of Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism. In this blog I explain my motivations…
Judging the Odds for an “Election Recession”
Canada’s first-quarter GDP report was not just “atrocious,” as predicted by Stephen Poloz. It was downright negative: total real GDP shrank at an annualized rate of 0.6% (fastest pace of…
Guest Blog from Kim Pollock: Stagnation Without End
We are pleased to present this guest commentary from Kim Pollock, a former union researcher based in B.C. and Saskatchewan. Now retired, Kim is investigating various aspects of Canada’s economic…
My “Top Five” Most Outrageous Things About This Budget
With a document whose very timing, let alone content, was so transparently politicized and manipulative, it’s hard to even know where to start. Among the many galling, short-sighted, and ultimately…
Primer on Investor-State Dispute Settlement
In light of the latest NAFTA Chapter 11 decision to go against Canada, I was asked to put together some background notes for our Unifor leadership on this bizarre quasi-judicial…
Thinking Through the Fall-Out of Lower Oil Prices
Canada’s economic and fiscal debates in recent months have been dominated by the possible impacts of the sudden fall in oil prices since last autumn on growth, employment, and fiscal…
Confusing “Deficit Elimination” with “Prosperity”
The banner headline across the top of the front page of the national Globe and Mail edition caught my eye Saturday morning: “How B.C. became a ‘have’ province..” Wow, I…
Don’t Play Tories’ Game on “Risk” of Deficit
Acres of newsprint have been devoted in recent weeks to the possibility that lower oil prices might push the federal budget back into a deficit position. As I argue in…
Five Good Economic Developments in 2014
Every year has its ups and downs, of course. But there’s something about New Year’s that makes one naturally want to emphasize the positive. So here is my personal list…
Good Results from Latin American Elections (Guest Post by Paul Pugh)
Paul Pugh is a long-time progressive activist, trade unionist, and city councillor from Thuunder Bay, Ont., who has guest-written previous posts for us on economic policies in Uruguay. Here is…
Minimum Wages and Employment Outcomes
Last week my Unifor colleague Jordan Brennan and I published a study through the CCPA Ontario office examining the historical empirical evidence regarding the link between changes in minimum wages…
The Troubled Economics, and the Curious Politics, of the Canada-Korea Trade Deal
There are many motivations to explain the Harper government’s rush to sign free trade deals. Since coming to power, the Conservatives have implemented 6 FTAs, have “concluded” 2 more (with…