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The rich say boosting the capital gains tax will hurt productivity, but it’s just not true. Time to do a little myth-busting

Monday, June 17th, 2024

Most academic economists support a higher inclusion rate, partly because it levels the playing field between different types of capital income. But the best motivation is $20 billion in revenue it will raise over five years, to support modest new programs announced in this budget. This will help fund school lunches, affordable housing initiatives, dental care and disability benefits — while still respecting Freeland’s fiscal “guardrails.”

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Humans aren’t widgets, and Canadian workers are not in ‘short supply’

Saturday, February 11th, 2023

Tiff Macklem, Governor of the Bank of Canada, also cites employers’ complaints as justification for painful interest rate hikes. He aims to ‘solve’ the labour shortage by deliberately raising unemployment… The federal government, too, is catering to employers by increasing immigration targets… Properly planned and supported immigration is good for the economy and for society. But importing masses of workers just to make life easier for employers is the wrong way to do it

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How workers are being sacrificed to a doctrine that intentionally keeps unemployment high

Saturday, December 24th, 2022

The economy risks serious recession from an interest shock that was neither necessary, nor effective in reducing inflation… Hundreds of thousands of Canadians could lose their jobs, and many their homes. Why? They’re being sacrificed to visibly reassert a doctrine that keeps unemployment deliberately high – not just to control inflation, but more importantly to control workers.

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A self-inflicted recession and a pointless sacrifice to a mystical two per cent god

Sunday, July 3rd, 2022

With unemployment low, we now face a devil’s choice between continued inflation and deliberate recession. We need other strategies for motivating growth when needed, and slowing it when it’s not. Other tools could be invoked right now to control inflation, such as strategic price controls, targeted taxes on corporations and high-income earners, and low-cost or free public services. But the dominant orthodoxy demands monetary austerity, and nothing else.

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Workers didn’t cause this inflation. And they shouldn’t have to pay for it

Sunday, May 29th, 2022

So long as the actual causes of inflation are addressed (by fixing supply chains, energy prices, and housing), inflation would then decelerate, even as wages keep up. Contingent wage protections (like cost-of-living adjustments) would also maintain the purchasing value of wages, without prompting higher inflation. To the limited extent that domestic demand pressures are reinforcing higher prices, it is better to use more focused and fair contractionary measures to dampen spending.

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Don’t be fooled by Ontario’s ‘minimum wage’ for gig workers

Friday, March 4th, 2022

Ontario’s manipulative ‘minimum wage’ is an attempt to forestall genuine legislative and regulatory changes… workers at gig platforms already have the right to unionize through normal channels, and achieve genuine collective bargaining rights—they don’t need any special ‘law’, just clarification that they are indeed workers (whether employees or dependent contractors) not independent businesses.

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National child-care plan would accelerate post-COVID recovery

Sunday, January 3rd, 2021

… while most of the initiative and fiscal support for national ELCC is coming from Ottawa, provincial governments would benefit enormously from the new system. Provincial GDP would grow, tens of thousands of jobs would be created, and provincial revenues would grow by $8-14 billion per year… In the wake of COVID-19, Canada needs the economic benefits of high-quality, universal ELCC more urgently than ever. Investing in a national plan is an economic “no-brainer” that will pay for itself.

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A national child-care program would be a boon to Canada’s post-COVID recovery — none more so than Ontario’s

Saturday, November 28th, 2020

Ontario’s failure to build a 21st-century child-care system is holding back provincial economic recovery. Its patchwork arrangement of overstretched group care, tax-subsidized nannies and sky-high fees squanders tens of billions of dollars of GDP, income and tax revenue. Ontario, and other lagging provinces, have a golden opportunity to fix this problem — and in so doing accelerate Canada’s reconstruction after COVID-19.

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There’s no shortage of labour. Employers just need to improve their offer

Saturday, June 13th, 2020

Employers’ complaints of “labour shortages” are not credible; and a more universal approach to income protection (as partly reflected in the CERB) should be maintained. Ultimately, we must find a better “incentive to work” than compelling people to accept low wages, uncertain hours, and risk of infection on pain of destitution.

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Some of our most undervalued workers now among our most valuable as pandemic forces rethink of what jobs are critical

Saturday, March 21st, 2020

Millions of so-called “low skill” workers are also indispensable to our well-being, possibly even our survival… They have to keep working: both to earn income (most wouldn’t even qualify for Employment Insurance), and to serve us… Indeed, the precarious insecurity of these supposedly “menial” jobs now poses major risks to the rest of society.

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