Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy
December marked the three-year anniversary of Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. While I believe there is much to celebrate, much remains to be done. The Strategy surprised a lot of observers,…
fiscal policy
The Economist Takes Note: Modern Monetary Theory Gets Much Deserved Attention
As faithful readers of this blog will know, I make only very sporadic contributions to this blog but a substantial fraction of those contributions have made reference to modern monetary…
Austerity Kills: Conservative cure worst thing for what ails the economy says Stiglitz
Governments around the world are heading down a path to economic suicide. So said Nobel Prize-winning former chief economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz, to hundreds of well-heeled financiers…
IMF Hints at Need for Less Fiscal Austerity and a Plan B for Canada
Albeit in a highly nuanced way, the IMF has called on the G-20 to temper short-term fiscal austerity now that the global economy “has entered a dangerous phase.” In their…
First We Take Manhattan….. What Occupy Wall Street Could Mean
This is not the stuff of usual protests. Over the past month, a little idea from a Vancouver outfit has mushroomed into a cross-continent movement. Occupy Wall Street, kicked off…
One Way the Richest 1% Can Help the Other 99%
It’s often said that there aren’t enough rich people in Canada to make a real difference to fiscal policy and, in consequence, the rest of us. Yesterday Canadian Business’s annual…
The State of the Economy and Labour’s Response
The advanced economies, including Canada, risk falling back into recession because of government spending cuts and a looming financial crisis. The Canadian Labour Congress has been calling for our federal…
Stephen Harper and Economics 101
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who prides himself on being an economist, has characterized his government’s fiscal policy as “expansionary.” If he really thinks the simple fact of running a budget…
The Ontario NDP Platform
Pollsters tell us that Ontario’s New Democrats may double their seat total in next month’s provincial election. It’s also entirely conceivable that they could be part of a coalition government…
Wageless recovery and the politics of austerity
The UNTCAD just published its annual report on Trade and Development, titled Post-crisis Policy Challenges in the World Economy. The report describes a two speed global recovery, showing how developing…
Hurricane Trichet Hits Jackson Hole
I just finished watching Jack Layton’s state funeral and notice that Jean-Claude Trichet’s speech from Jackson Hole is out. The European Central Bank president does not seem to get it.…
Recession Ahead?
TD Economics yesterday released a rather gloomy report, putting the odds of a US recession at 40%, and arguing that that Canadian economy is more vulnerable to recession than it…
Outlook Darkens as Budget Debate Begins
Allow me to indulge myself just this once. Almost exactly one month ago I wrote a post arguing that the Bank of Canada was being too optimistic about our economic…
On Balancing the Budget
Andrew Watt has written an especially cogent piece on why the balanced budget rule proposed for the Euro area by Merkel and Sarkozy is a very, very bad idea. It…
MYTHOLOGIES: MONEY AND HYPERINFLATION
In an earlier post, Marc Lee mentioned in passing the German hyperinflation episode of the 1920s. It’s remarkable that this event still holds such sway over the popular imagination despite…
MMT: What it Means for Canada
Arun Dubois’ blog post yesterday on Modern Monetary Theory has prompted me to write my own take on the subject. For those interested, an interesting thumbnail sketch of MMT, essentially…
No Retreat, No Surrender: Time For Progressives to Explode Deficit/Monetary Myths
Friends, I’m concerned. I fear that too often, we on the left retreat when we should attack, surrender when we should vanquish. What do I speak of? Well, I am…
Stimulus vs Public Investment
A column by Stiglitz in the Financial Times makes what I think is an important point. The current debate over fiscal policy for the US, Europe and Canada is often…
More on Public Sector Austerity in Canada
A short addendum to my previous post: I checked the most recent IMF projections in the June, 2011 Update to the Fiscal Monitor. Table 1 provides estimates of changes in…
Public Sector Austerity: Why is Canada Leading the Way?
The major economic problem faced by Canadians is a very slow recovery and weak job market, not government deficits or rising debt. But public spending cuts at the federal and…