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Having Their Cake and Eating It Too
Thursday, April 14th, 2011
April 13, 2011
This study examines historical data on business investment and cash flow from 1961 through 2010, and, using econometric techniques, finds no evidence in the historical data that lower taxes have directly stimulated more investment. Business fixed capital spending has declined notably as a share of GDP and as a share of corporate cash flow since the early 1980s—despite repeated tax cuts that have reduced the combined federal-provincial corporate tax rate from 50% to just 29.5% in 2010.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Not exactly an economic gold medal
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011
Mar. 30, 2011.
The Conservatives’ drive for a majority is premised on positioning themselves as the best economic managers… In reality, however, the claim that things may be tough here, but they’re better than anywhere else, has never been statistically valid… Canada’s performance has been middling at best… among the countries that avoided bank failures, Canada’s performance has actually been subpar.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
The fairy tale land called Equilibria
Friday, March 18th, 2011
March 14, 2011
Citizen columnist John Robson poked great fun at me recently with his “Economic children’s story” (March 5): a humorous fairy tale about a land where unions kill the goose that laid the golden egg, until taxpaying denizens (starting in Wisconsin) throw off the yoke imposed by overpaid teachers and garbage collectors. Of course, if workers were really paid in golden eggs, unions would never have been invented. Instead, unions were born in a less pastelhued world where workers fought even for the basics of survival. Employers and their think tanks have been complaining ever since…
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, privatization, rights, standard of living
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Boost the wage, help the worker
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
February 22, 2011
U.S. economists David Card and Alan Kruger found no reliable empirical evidence that higher minimum wages produce unemployment. But they found several benefits of minimum wages, including a “trickle-up” effect (whereby many non-minimum-wage workers also got raises); reduced turnover; and higher productivity… If demand for goods and services is chronically weak, increasing purchasing power (by boosting wages) can kickstart demand and thereby increase job creation… Minimum wages… should be increased gradually but steadily in the years to come.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Debates | 1 Comment »
Redirecting our rage at the real gravy train
Monday, January 17th, 2011
Jan. 17, 2011
In the 1930s, outrage at the pre-Depression extravagance of the rich, contrasting with the dislocation experienced by masses of Americans, sparked a decade of left-leaning foment. Government expanded income security, directly hired millions of unemployed, and actively supported a new generation of unions to fight for the common folk. Meantime, it reined in business excess through tough financial rules, anti-trust policies, and high taxes on the rich. This time around, there’s been plenty of populist anger – but (so far) it’s been steered in exactly the opposite direction
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality History | No Comments »
To manage health costs, invest in social well-being
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010
Dec. 8, 2010
For concrete physiological reasons, human health suffers when people are subjected to prolonged hardship, stress and disparity. The physiology of this connection involves many body systems, including the impact of stress and unhappiness on metabolism, hormone production, circulatory function and other systems… addressing the underlying social problems… can help to rein in health costs. Governments must therefore be holistic in their programming and budgeting, instead of obsessing on reducing one budget line without regard to how that may affect other expenses.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
The Ins and Outs of Foreign Investment
Sunday, November 14th, 2010
Nov. 12, 2010
Instead of continuing to wordsmith an Act that has almost always been a rubber stamp, we should undertake a more honest and wide-ranging examination of the pros and cons of foreign investment. And the starting point of that examination should be a review of where we stand right now… If foreign investment enhances the real capacity of our national economy (by adding real capital investment, technology, and export opportunities that we wouldnt have had otherwise), then its a no-brainer: we clearly benefit. But for the most part, thats not the kind of foreign investment weve been getting lately.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
The new protectionism is shutting us out
Friday, September 24th, 2010
Sep. 23, 2010
World trade collapsed in the 1930s because of collapsing consumer demand, not protectionism; competitive tariffs were a response to that implosion, not its cause. For the same reason, world trade plunged 12 per cent last year, despite the G20 promises… . Almost universally, countries around the world are becoming more aggressive in protecting and stimulating domestic output and employment. They don’t usually jack up tariffs… instead, they use less visible but equally effective tactics… Our passivity in the face of others’ pro-activity has taken us from trade feast to famine.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Taxes and public services help build a better city
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
Sep 08 2010
Successful industries need positive inputs, not an absence of taxes. Skill. Quality infrastructure. Clusters — so specialists can meet and learn from each other. Strategic supports for investment. And markets. Big markets. Toronto must do more to nurture its key tradable clusters… Collectively, we need to invest more in the things that make Toronto a great place to live (like transit, parks and culture). And invest more in addressing the growing problems that threaten to undo that successful civic recipe (like concentrated poverty, underhousing and precarious, low-wage employment).
Tags: featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
We need business to speed up our sluggish recovery
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
Sep. 01, 2010
Business should be leading economic recovery, borrowing money (from households and banks) to fund new investments and jobs. That’s how capitalism is supposed to work. In today’s lean-and-mean world, however, business is free-riding on the spending efforts of others. Despite tax cuts and other business-friendly policies, the private sector isn’t taking on the risks, and taking on the debt, necessary to fuel broader recovery.
Tags: economy
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
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