Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
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Corporate balance sheets healthy as economy languishes
Jan. 23, 2013
the C.D. Howe Institute has just issued an e-brief entitled Not Dead Yet: The Changing Role of Cash on Corporate Balance Sheets. The think-tank says its eight-page paper identifies the “real reasons” for the cash buildup in corporate coffers… Useful as this information is, it doesn’t address the problem Flaherty and Carney raised…
Tags: budget, ideology, privatization, standard of living
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Don’t turn factories into cookie-cutter condos
Jan. 28 2013
Fat profits on multiunit residential complexes allow developers to outbid any other user for a given plot of urban land. That jeopardizes the sustainability of manufacturing, warehousing and other industrial uses. The resulting disappearance of decent industrial work will undermine the economic and social well-being of our biggest cities.
Tags: economy, standard of living
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Idle No More, Meet the Norwegians
Jan. 10, 2013
… there may be some important lessons for Canada’s First Nations from across the Atlantic in the looming showdown with Stephen Harper… this tiny Nordic country stood up to powerful outside oil interests intent on exploiting their natural resources and achieved a remarkable economic success. By standing their ground with a clear vision and united front, Norwegians negotiated arguably the toughest ever terms with the world’s most powerful industrial sector.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, Indigenous, participation, rights, standard of living
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Harper’s reputation as a brilliant economic manager rests on luck and bravado
Jan.10, 2013
Only one politician has benefited from the downturn: Prime Minister Stephen Harper… He has even convinced Canadians to swallow a five-year dose of austerity… It is a rational answer, but it bears little resemblance to what he did. His approach was so convoluted — riddled with contradictions, about-turns and lucky breaks .. It was Carney’s swift action more than anything else that blunted the impact of the recession.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology
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Canada can do better
Dec 28, 2012
Canada’s productivity growth is the lowest it has been in five years… Canada’s output per worker is only 17th in the OECD. In the same period, Canada’s average productivity growth fell by about 60%. Secondary school graduation rates are about 5% below the OECD average… Canadians work longer hours than the OECD average, so the problem is in organization, targeting and technical systems. These trends must not continue…
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living
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Creating shared prosperity will benefit everyone
December 27, 2012
Inequality need not be a partisan, left-right issue. If we learn from the scientific evidence regarding the multi-dimensional costs of inequality, we will realize that creating a shared prosperity benefits all sectors of society (not just poor people). And then policy-makers from both ends of the political spectrum can join in building a more balanced and efficient society.
Tags: crime prevention, economy, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, poverty, rights, standard of living, tax
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The teachers’ dispute and the war on wages
December 19, 2012
… as their profits came under pressure [employers] demanded what they called greater flexibility — in wages, work practices and hiring. Over the past 30 years, most Canadian governments have devoted themselves to eliminating anything that interferes with this flexibility… This government has given itself the power to set teachers’ wages and working conditions arbitrarily. It calculates that most voters will be envious enough of teachers that they will support its plans.
Tags: budget, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Why Not Talk About Work?
Dec 17, 2012
Government policies since Canada signed the free trade deal and NAFTA have savaged working families financially and socially all in the name of having an internationally competitive economy… The days of ever-expanding trade are over but suddenly that strong domestic economy — a safety net at a time of global recession — has been severely weakened… governments show no sign of having figured this out so the misery is likely to continue.
Tags: economy, ideology, immigration, rights, standard of living
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Cuts and short-term thinking pose threat to Canadian scientific research
Dec. 14, 2012
While the value of research is not in question, the role of government in research and innovation is. Debates on this topic have been sparked by cutbacks to research funding programs and multiple rounds of layoffs of government researchers this year, including most recently about 30 researchers at the NRC… Long-term research at NRC generates knowledge that may lead to game-changing technological advances in the future.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, privatization, standard of living
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What is Foreign Capital, Anyway? And Exactly Why Do We Need It?
Dec. 10, 2012
The only thing these foreign investors bring to the table
is money – and we’ve got plenty of that. Our real national capacity to
produce is not enhanced by these transactions, and may be undermined
(given the risks posed by foreign control over a strategic,
non-renewable resource)… there is no real economic sense in which Canada truly needs
foreign capital (whether physical, human, or financial) to develop our
own natural resources.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living
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