Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category

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Nobel winner: don’t just listen to economists with ‘stake in the system’

Wednesday, January 1st, 2020

The voices that do get heard tend to be “people who call themselves economists but are actually working for a bank or have a stake in the system the way it is” – a minority within a profession where views were actually “much richer and more sophisticated, much more ideologically diverse”… Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems, published on 12 November by Allen Lane, is designed to “hold on to hope”

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Capitalism is the greatest force for human advancement that we have

Friday, December 27th, 2019

… four-fifths of starvation-level world poverty had been eradicated since the 1970s… What happened? It was globalization… It was free trade… It was property rights and the rule of law… I am not a radical. I will not tell you that we need no regulations. I will not say that we do not need reform… Find better ways to regulate it. Tax people more… If we let capitalism thrive, if we share it… then we can lift up the next two billion people together.

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Never mind the GDP. How are the people doing?

Saturday, December 14th, 2019

“Economic growth accompanied by worsening social outcomes is not success”… the movement toward a well-being index is a long-term, intergenerational program – completely in contrast to the short-term political frenzy that comes with chasing certain economic goals. As Ms. Sturgeon said, GDP “values activity in the short term that boosts the economy, even if that activity is hugely damaging to the sustainability of our planet in the longer term.”

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Canada should enforce its own labour standards

Monday, December 2nd, 2019

Provinces like Ontario let employers avoid labour standards, such as the right to vacation pay, by pretending that their workers are self-employed, independent contractors. Provinces like Ontario have also deliberately not kept their labour laws in sync with the requirements of the new economy – one characterized by franchising, digital employment and part-time work… [They] don’t enforce the labour standards that do exist. Citing budget constraints and an aversion to red tape, they cut back workplace inspections and respond inadequately to real complaints.

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The great transformation: How to achieve a ‘Green New Deal’ for Canada

Sunday, November 17th, 2019

Key sectors of the economy – information and communications technology; power and electricity; transportation and logistics; real estate – are fast decoupling from fossil fuels in favour of ever-cheaper solar and wind energies and the accompanying clean technologies, green business practices and processes of circularity and resilience that are the central features of a Green New Deal… Canada needs to establish a bold new economic vision if it is to adapt and prosper.

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Demographics and disruption demands new skills in Canada’s health-care sector

Saturday, November 16th, 2019

… health care can provide a career path for one million Canadians who are currently at risk of losing their jobs to automation… Properly designed, this mix of technology, skills and innovative management can soften the landfall of the silver tsunami, and further prevent the cresting cost of health care from overwhelming government budgets. In this new machine age, our society’s health will depend on it.

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Uncomfortable climate change realities from an energy executive

Friday, November 15th, 2019

… Canadians have the ingenuity and know-how to develop our resources while advancing environmental protection, reducing the carbon intensity of our energy products, enriching the communities where we live and work, and working respectfully with local citizens and Indigenous peoples, all while generating national and local economic growth. The export of liquefied natural gas from B.C. is a fine example of this.

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The Happy, Healthy Capitalists of Switzerland

Sunday, November 10th, 2019

Capitalist to its core, Switzerland imposes lighter taxes on individuals, consumers and corporations than the Scandinavian countries do. In 2018 its top income tax rate was the lowest in Western Europe at 36 percent… A pragmatic country can have a business-friendly environment alongside social equality, if it gets the balance right.

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We Need a New Capitalism

Sunday, November 10th, 2019

First, business leaders need to embrace a broader vision of their responsibilities… This requires that they focus not only on their shareholders, but also on all of their stakeholders — their employees, customers, communities and the planet… suggesting that companies must choose between doing well and doing good is a false choice. Successful businesses can and must do both… Research shows that companies that embrace a broader mission… outperform their peers, grow faster, and deliver higher profits.

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Doug Ford’s attacks on workers continue

Friday, November 1st, 2019

Ford says he’s “for the people,” but his failure to act confirms, yet again, what many in Ontario have come to learn. He works for “his” people: campaign donors and corporations. He could not care less about the health and safety or the lives of workers in Ontario. That is the real crime.

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