On middle ground
Tim Harper’s column today is certainly worth a read in exposing the implausibility of the Cons’ “economic stability” theme. But I’ll point out that he completely buys the Cons’ equally…
inequality
When Good Data Goes Bad: The NHS2011
This piece was published today in the Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab. Two findings stand out in the National Household Survey (NHS) data released Wednesday, both critical in this post-recession…
Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Annie Lowrey reports on the still-spreading blight of income inequality in the U.S.: An updated study by the prominent economists Emmanuel Saez…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Jordon Cooper writes about the dangers of growing income inequality in Saskatchewan and around the world: Income inequality is driven largely by market…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Richard Seymour rightly calls out right-wing lobby groups in the UK for distorting the facts in order to attack social programs: The report…
On benefits at stake
Martin Regg Cohn is right to note that there’s no empirical support for attacks on unions when it comes to jobs or economic development: Why then is Hudak trying to…
Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Justin Ling reports on the federal government’s covert surveillance of Idle No More: Sitting in her teepee on Ottawa’s Victoria Island in…
New column day
Here, on how “we must increase stock prices!” – or worse yet, “we must increase company X’s stock prices!” – makes for a thoroughly regressive public policy goal. For further…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Frances Russell laments the state of Canada’s Potemkin Parliament (and the resulting harm the Cons are inflicting on our political system and our…
Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Emily Badger discusses how poverty affects people who are forced to use their physical and mental resources on bare survival: Human mental bandwidth…
Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Alan Pyke observes that instead of reflecting any particular merit, massive payouts to CEOs are all too often made despite (or because…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Polly Toynbee reminds us that a precarious living for much of the middle class is nothing new – and neither is a cacophony…
Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Paul Kershaw highlights what’s most needed to support Canada’s younger generations: Even with all this personal adaptation, most in Gen X and…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Simon Enoch nicely challenges the City of Regina’s blind faith in “risk transfer” by pointing out how that concept has typically been applied…
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Robert Reich discusses how we’d all better off if we acted in the public interest and insisted that our representatives did the…
Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jenny Carson asks what governments are doing to lift poor workers out of poverty. (Spoiler alert: the Cons’ answer is “why would…
American Healthcare and inequality
If you’re employed and especially if you’re rich then you can get all kinds of healthcare services. If an employed and rich person’s kidney, lungs or heart fail, a new…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Glenn Greenwald, David Atkins and Simon Jenkins all discuss the U.K.’s detention of David Miranda – with heavy emphasis on the Cameron government’s…
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Not surprisingly, this week’s revelations about Pamela Wallin have set off plenty more discussion about what’s wrong with the Senate and its…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Alison Bennett reports on the OECD’s work on offshore tax avoidance, highlighting the “stateless income” that’s shuffled around the globe so as to…