Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
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Aggressive growth policies a priority after Ottawa balances its budget
Canada’s growth in 2016 and beyond will be slower; our estimate for future long-term growth potential of 2 per cent is a full percentage point below growth potential less than a decade ago… future federal budgets should be committed to investing in growth. All elements of the federal budget should be examined through the lens of whether they are making a positive contribution to economic growth capacity. Investing in infrastructure should be a top spending priority
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Our Misplaced Faith in Free Trade
Expanding global markets is a worthy goal, but history offers lessons that can lead to more constructive trade, capital and currency policies. The first is that gradual reform is more effective than a sudden turn to free markets, deregulation and privatization… A second lesson is that nations should be left space for experimentation. Some spend too much on social programs, others too little… especially true for rich nations [is that] every free-trade agreement should come with a plan to strengthen the social safety net
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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Harper’s Sneaky, Undemocratic, Terrible Deal with China
… the Harper government… announced that it had decided to ignore widespread public opposition; parliamentary opposition from the NDP, Greens and even lukewarm Liberal criticism; an ongoing First Nations legal challenge; even division at its own cabinet table and from grassroots membership; and proceed with the ratification of the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA)… “The terms agreed to by Ottawa are unprecedented and would be laughed out of Britain, Brussels, Canberra or Washington. Beijing has negotiated a heads-I-win-tails-Canada-loses deal.”
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
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Tories’ job-creation scheme falls short
… a re-elected Tory government will deliver on 2011 campaign pledge to let couples with children to split their income… That rules out all-inclusive EI relief or significant EI reform. It rules out any possibility of help for the long-term jobless, laid-off workers who need retraining and young people seeking an economic foothold. Moreover, it means Ottawa will keep collecting $2 billion a year more in EI premiums than it distributes in benefits.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living
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Facing climate change head-on means changing capitalism
Core inequalities need to be tackled through redistribution of wealth and technology… to heal some of the deepest and most lasting wounds left by colonialism… I am outlining an economic future that is not collapse, that is not grim, that is in fact, I hope, more exciting and inspiring than the economic choices we are being presented as Canadians.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology
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Civic leaders tackle youth unemployment
CivicAction… put forward a plain-language 10-point action plan entitled “Escalator: Jobs for Youth Facing Barriers” …priorities are: Assemble a vanguard of local companies willing to provide job-specific training and entry-level internships to young people who can’t find a job because they don’t have experience and don’t have skills that match employers’ needs.
Tags: economy, youth
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Franklin expedition ends the great public-private debate
Economist Mariana Mazzucato’s new book, The Entrepreneurial State, takes a bold step in “debunking” this fake construct… She says the necessity of venture capital is highly exaggerated. Private investors are now far too focused on short-term profit to take real risks. It’s governments that do it. The private sector then steps in when results are assured, to take the credit and the profits.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living
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Oliver’s focus on zero deficit is purely political
… from the point of view of the national good, the Tory fixation on the deficit makes little sense. And nowadays it’s not just left-leaning economists and social activists who are making that point… this is not the right time to cut spending in order to get to a balanced budget at all costs. Instead… government should take advantage of record low interest rates to invest in infrastructure with the goal of making long-term improvements in Canada’s lagging productivity.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
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That strong recovery? It was just a myth
… our relative underperformance is getting worse… the Canadian labour market is mired in a recession-like funk, five full years after the recovery officially began. Growth and job-creation can’t even keep up with population, let alone repair lingering damage from the downturn… pious orthodoxy still trumps the need for job-creation. Fiscal policy at the federal level, and most provinces, is obsessed with eliminating deficits as quickly as possible.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation
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How to survive a slow-growth recovery
… in a protracted global slump neither fiscal nor monetary policy is of much use… This doesn’t mean policy-makers are helpless… priority should be to protect the small segment of the population that is bearing the heaviest burden of the nation’s slow recovery… four groups: young job seekers who can’t get an economic foothold; laid-off employees who’ve taken a sizable pay cut to get back into the workforce; involuntary part-time workers; and the long-term unemployed.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living
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