A budget that screws the planet for short-term profits
First off, the 2012 federal budget that makes no upfront claim to be a budget. Indeed, the cover states only “Economic Action Plan 2012: Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity.” While…
Marc Lee
The Parable of the Prius
I was at a talk on dematerialization a few weeks ago, and one of the speakers told “the parable of the Prius” to illustrate Jevon’s paradox that efficiency gains do…
Enbridge Pipe Dreams and Nightmares
CCPA released today a report by yours truly on the economic costs and benefits of the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. In particular, I take aim at the outrageous claims…
Mike McCracken: Winner of the 2012 Galbraith Prize in Economics
The Progressive Economics Forum (PEF) is proud to announce that Mike McCracken, Chair and CEO of Informetrica Ltd. in Ottawa, has won the 3rd biennial Galbraith Prize for a lifetime…
Marc’s Conflict of Interest Disclosure
On January 5th, 2012, the American Economics Association adopted new guidelines for the disclosure of potential conflicts of interests by economists. Please find my disclosure information below (thanks to Andrew…
Air travel and carbon footprint
A bi-annual vehicle emissions test got me thinking about my personal carbon footprint. A lot broad-brush numbers and calculators exist out there to calculate one’s footprint, but I’ve never found…
Comparing two carbon bombs: LNG vs Enbridge pipeline
With the spotlight on the federal government’s aggressive push to export tar sands bitumen via the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline to Kitimat, and from there by tanker on to China,…
Odious profits and the Enbridge pipeline
Two obvious but generally unstated details about the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline are climate change and that oil and gas companies stand to make mega-profits. An honest appraisal of the…
Are Enbridge’s job numbers credible?
Putting aside the impact of the proposed Enbridge pipeline on GHG emissions or spills on land and at sea, the case in favour of the pipeline rests on creating jobs.…
Foreign influence in Canada’s oil patch
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver’s contention that the National Energy Board hearings on the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline are loaded down with foreign special interests is exactly right. But it…
Don’t let dubious political tactics turn us off politics
Here’s a guest post from Ben Gillies, a political economy grad from the University of Manitoba. Canadians Must Not Let Dubious Political Tactics Turn Us Off Politics Altogether By Benjamin…
Inequality and Climate Injustice: A Durban Post-Mortem
The United Nations climate change talks in Durban, South Africa, ended 2011 with a whimper. After a year in which climate disasters rolled across the globe, major polluting nations like…
Call for Nominations: 2012 Galbraith Prize in Economics
In June 2012, the PEF will be awarding the third John Kenneth Galbraith Prize in Economics. Nominations are now open to all PEF members in good standing (if you are…
The New Politics Initiative: Ten Years After
Rabble.ca is running a series of reflections on the tenth anniversary of the New Politics Initiative, which sought to create a more democratic politics in Canada ideally as part of…
On climate, Canada is a rogue state
On Sunday, CTV leaked Canada’s intentions to pull out of the Kyoto treaty process on climate change. What is significant about Kyoto is that it is a legally binding international…
We Are The Many
By now, you’ve probably heard about the artist Makana, who played We Are The Many to a room full of the handmaidens of the 1% (politicians), most of whom did…
Challenging capitalism: a 12-step program
Over a year ago, I posted “What are the Game Changers?“, an attempt at sparking some strategic thinking for the broader left. Now that we’ve had a month of Occupation,…
Who Occupies the Sky?
CCPA released a new report today by myself and Amanda Card that makes the links between inequality and carbon footprints. We look at the distribution of greenhouse gas emissions for…
Home energy retrofit (part 2)
This summer I put our household through an energy efficiency retrofit. I was working on a research paper on energy efficiency, and then both the BC and federal governments announced…
The financial wealth of Canada’s top 1%
Eric Pineault wrote to add some data on financial wealth distribution for Canada. He had a research assistant comb through microdata from Statcan’s Survey of Financial Security from 2005, and…