The poverty trap for real
Poverty is of course about a lack of money, but it is also about a lack of resources both in the cultural and social sense. I live in a small…
Canadian economy
Conservatives Robbed Canadians
We was robbed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives during the May 2 Federal election. The truth about the Canadian economy was withheld. Recall, the election eventually revolved…
Canada falls from competitiveness Top 10
Noted from the Globe yesterday: Canada has continued its slide in business competitiveness, falling to 12th place from 10th last year in a World Economic Forum ranking of countries around…
The irony of greed: The end game for Neoliberalism?
The global economy is in the toilet and the Boomers’ representatives are chanting: “flush, flush, flush.” Me? I am eating cigarettes and wine while admiring the remarkable consistency in the…
Today in Flaherty
He will speak: Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is expected to comment on the economy this morning, following the release of the latest data from Statistics Canada. Economists widely expect that…
Canada and its economic wiggle room
A TD report is not optimistic about our room to maneuver should the U.S. go into another recession: “Policy makers in Canada have less wiggle room on the fiscal and…
Today in Finance Committee
So the big political news out of the Finance Committee meeting today where Jim Flaherty and Mark Carney provided updates on the state of economic affairs for Canada amidst this…
An economist we could use at Friday’s Finance Committee
Jeffrey Sachs on globalization and present challenges for the US and European economies. His thoughts also ring true for Canada: ...I’ve watched dozens of financial crises up close... Neither the…
Debt Refinancing, the Federal Government and the Provinces
Ok this post is in the form of a naive question. And it goes like this: If the Federal Government can borrow (OK MMTers don’t vide your back-end here, I…
Ouch
Crap GDP numbers for May make the Bank of Canada's 2nd Quarter 1.5 per cent growth figure very difficult to achieve. Crap numbers from the US, and the antics of…
A rotting fruit that does not give vent to its own demand?
Given we seem to be stuck in fairly heady economic times it seems worthwhile to me to put out another post on the subject of employment, labour force growth and…
Towards an adult conversation about Canadian labour markets
Have you ever heard the urban legend about how such and such generation of Canadians are lazier than the past generation? Or the One about how this generation just does…
Canada: persistently 2nd worst in class
During the last election much was made about Canada’s relatively good performance during the last recession. What was conveniently left out of the discussion by all political parties is just…
A little perspective on GDP growth or does policy matter?
These are odd times. Not one policy seems to get floated these days which does not include in the tag line that it will be good for economic growth. And…
UBC economist Milligan throws cake at educated, unemployed youth
I tuned into a rebroadcast of this morning’s the CBC’s the Current while cleaning the kitchen this evening which had an unusually good documentary on the problem of youth unemployment;…
"Restraining the welfare state"
This piece last Sunday in the Star, "Restraining the welfare state," by Stanford Professor Michael Boskin, a former Bush the first adviser, has evoked a fair response in letters to…
The insanity of Canada’s non-existent domestic labour training regime
Canada does not have nationally coordinated labour training regime. Why does this matter? Just take a look at what is going on in Alberta. There the oil patch is gearing…
The Day After: Majority, Left-Turn and Sovereignty
The implications of last night’s election are by now a series un-knowable knows and hopeless speculations. I am going to make some comments based on a mix of the two.…