Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
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Stephen Harper’s economic luck runs out
The Liberals had bequeathed the Tories a sound fiscal situation and a string of surpluses, so much so that in its early years, the Harperites could cut taxes and still boost spending on their favourite causes… with seemingly no consequences… But the Tories’ real stroke of luck was that resource prices… remained strong even after the financial crisis… There’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of fortuitous circumstances. The problem occurs when you take that luck for granted
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Monetarism is dead, finally
It has now been half a century since Friedman first expounded on monetarism and it is increasingly apparent that the time has come to lay his theory to rest… The Bank of Canada first latched onto monetarism during the 1970s, when both inflation and unemployment were near double digits and increasing simultaneously… The last half decade or so has demonstrated that old theories die hard and slow… Experts are finally changing their minds
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Computers, jobs and rising income inequality
… the elimination of routine jobs by machines results in the relatively unskilled competing for the many lower-level jobs that are non-routine and cannot be readily automated… it may result in higher unemployment and even lower wages for those at the lower end of the skills ladder… a basic income for all citizens… will be hard to refute… [given] the moral and economic logic for spreading the bounty of technological progress
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Tory policy? Big Business isn’t feeling the love
… the government’s nine-year reign likely constitutes the most significant pro-business policy shift in Canada’s postwar history. More recently, however… the Conservatives have come into direct conflict with business. With a tough election looming, and the government’s actions increasingly dictated by political optics rather than any consistent economic ideology… The myriad of boutique tax cuts, micro-targeted to capture strategic little slices of the electorate, has been widely denounced in business circles.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, tax
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A tip of the hat to Prof. Piketty
… the time has come to rethink the conventional wisdom that big government is bad, and so must not be fed higher taxes that would make it even bigger. Government debt is also bad, say proponents of this view, but the only acceptable way to pay it down is to cut programs. They are right that reducing debt is important, but there is another way to do it: finding new sources of revenue… [Some] taxes have the virtue of being so small as to be almost painless and yet able to raise vast sums.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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Workers need a New Year’s raise
… wages of permanent workers have risen a bit faster than those of temporary workers, and wages of women have risen a bit faster than those of men. But these differences do not hide the fact that real wages are pretty much flat across the board… Demand for most goods and services will not grow at a robust pace if wages continue to stagnate and lag behind productivity… the problem of stagnant wages is compounded by the fact that wage increases are typically distributed very unequally.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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Slumping oil price undercuts Stephen Harper
The central pillar of Harper’s economic strategy — being an aggressive fossil fuel exporter — has crumbled in a world awash with petroleum… Even if there were an appetite for Alberta’s viscous oil, it would be landlocked… The provincial premiers, tired of waiting for leadership from Ottawa, have hatched their own plan to build a low-carbon economy by putting a price on pollution, developing renewable energy and capping greenhouse gases.
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, tax
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Why Stephen Harper should love carbon taxes
If Ottawa simply photocopied the BC model, it would mean higher taxes on gasoline and other fuels, but lower taxes elsewhere. Ottawa could cut payroll taxes, such as Employment Insurance premiums, which are widely seen as a tax on jobs and a disincentive for companies to hire. It could cut income taxes, too… with a carbon tax, a government could do the seemingly impossible. It could cut income taxes and other taxes, without cutting spending.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Should Toronto have a higher minimum wage than the rest of Ontario?
The numbers point to something that most Ontarians already know: the cost of living varies wildly across the province. What doesn’t vary at all is the minimum wage. It’s set at $11.00 for all of Ontario. But with economic inequality soaring in Toronto, in part due to a mix of low-wage jobs and high housing costs, some economists and policy researchers are starting to believe that employers in expensive cities should be forced to pay workers more.
Tags: economy, housing, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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The ‘Jobs or Environment’ Choice Is ‘False’ Says Mega-Union
… Unifor thinks Canada can and should produce fossil fuels. But the 40,000 oil and gas workers it represents are best served by a carefully regulated sector that expands in sync with Canada’s energy needs, respects strict climate guidelines and where possible avoids exporting raw fossil resources to foreign markets — “If we can show that Canadians from coast to coast, working at all stages of the value chain, find common cause in a vision of sustainable full employment… that’s a model for the whole country.”
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living
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