Three planks for a possible anti-austerity
What would anti-austerity in Canada look like? There are really two types of questions here. There are those of analysis: what has Canada’s austerity looked like, what makes it distinctive…
Michal Rozworski
The Greek canary in the European coalmine: An interview with Yanis Varoufakis
Over at Ricochet, I’ve transcribed my podcast interview with Yanis Varoufakis, economist and Syriza candidate in tomorrow’s Greek elections. With Syriza looking to get the most votes and possibly an…
Political Eh-conomy Radio: the left in Greece and Poland
https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/podcast-150123-poland-greece1.mp3 I’ve been visiting family in Poland for the past few weeks so, fittingly, this week’s podcast deals with the situation of the left at two opposite ends of the…
A short break
Just a quick note to say that I’m dealing with a death in my partner’s immediate family and will be posting far less frequently, if at all, for the immediate…
Beyond social democracy: new institutions, new subjects
So many of the debates on the contemporary left come back to the legacy of social democracy. The Swedish experience came closest to fulfilling social democratic ideals in the post-war…
No to pipelines, yes to Site C?
Peace River Valley No to pipelines, yes to Site C? Here’s a piece I wrote for Ricochet after getting riled up by *some* of the arguments against Site C. The…
Some thoughts starting from a Fraser Institute graph
I’ve been meaning to post something on a chart from a Fraser Institute report for a while but slept on it. The chart comes from Fraser’s annual Consumer Tax Report…
Political Eh-conomy Radio: Jim Stanford on Canada’s economy
https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/podcast-1411212-jim-stanford.mp3 Today’s episode is the last of 2014 as I’ll be away spending the holidays with family. For a bit of a year-end summary of Canada’s economy, my one guest…
No thanks Uber, I’m not signing your petition
So the ride-sharing app Uber is urging Vancouverites to sign a petition on its site to put pressure on the City to allow Uber to operate. An ad for the…
Political Eh-conomy Radio: Climate deals and pipeline steals
https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/podcast-141128-oil-and-climate.mp3 Today’s episode is focused on the economics and politics of climate change, both more globally and locally. To get a global perspective on the state of climate negotiations and…
A review of Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything
I have another piece up at Ricochet: a review of Naomi Klein’s big book on climate change, This Changes Everything. It’s friendly but critical, looking at what the book’s themes…
Political Eh-conomy Radio: Doug Henwood on US economics and politics
https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/podcast-141114-doug-henwood.mp3 This week, it’s my great pleasure to present a feature interview with Doug Henwood — economic analyst, author of books including Wall Street and host of the wonderful Behind…
Robots, migration and the future of work (Briarpatch Magazine)
I have a longer read in the newest issue of Briarpatch Magazine, which is dedicated to the world of work. If you don’t know Briarpatch, be sure to check out…
Forget income splitting, tax the rich!
For now, I’ll keep double-posting my pieces for Ricochet here. The latest is on income splitting and taxing the rich more generally. The idea is that even though taxing the…
Let’s not be too quick to cheer for the market as oil prices slump
Another title for this piece could be oil prices and politics. The last few weeks have been full of worries about the fate of Canada’s oil sector. Global oil prices…
Political Eh-conomy Radio: Focus on China
https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/podcast-141102-china.mp3 The focus of today’s podcast is China: its development over the past several years, the situation of workers and unions as well as future directions. To get some perspective…
On childcare in Ricochet
I forgot to post the piece I wrote on the NDP’s universal childcare proposal for Ricochet. Here it is belatedly. It was published last weekend and tries to situate the…
Political Eh-conomy Radio: Looking towards childcare in Canada, with lessons from Sweden
https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/podcast-141016-childcare.mp3 This week, the federal NDP reignited a national debate over childcare by proposing a universal $15 per day childcare program. This is the focus of today’s episode, which features…
Is Canada the Sweden of anything?
There was an odd article last week on the explainer site Vox that argued Sweden doesn’t achieve its relative equality with very progressive, “soak the rich” taxation. While Matt Bruenig…
Means-test the rich, or another argument for eliminating tuition
Here’s an oversimplified choice for how to fund post-secondary education. Imagine you have two options for dealing with how people pay for post-secondary education: Universal free tuition, means-testing to see…