Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
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We will all benefit from further business tax reforms
Monday, May 31st, 2010
May 31, 2010
The beneficiaries of business tax reform have not been the corporations themselves, as most would conjecture. Corporations don’t pay taxes – people do. Given investors can put their money into projects anywhere around the world, business taxes must ultimately be shifted onto immobile factors of production, who are primarily the working folks.
Tags: economy, globalization, tax
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Canada dares not fall behind in cutting corporate taxes
Saturday, May 29th, 2010
May 29 2010
… without reducing the federal corporate rate a further 3 percentage points, Canada would lose 233,000 jobs and $47 billion in capital investments. “Abandonment of Canada’s tax competitiveness strategy (would) leave the country with a corporate income tax rate of 29 per cent, considerably higher than the average of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and many emerging economies.”
Tags: globalization, tax
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Parliament to vote on securing pensions at failing companies
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
May 25, 2010
Politicians of all federal parties are being pressed to vote Wednesday to raise the security of vulnerable pension plans. Pensioners are urging them to support a bill from a Thunder Bay New Democrat that would bring Canada’s bankruptcy law up to the standard in most other developed nations… The bill would give pension promises equal standing with secured loans when companies restructure under bankruptcy protection, or go out of business.
Tags: pensions, standard of living
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New voice for the financial elite
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
May 18 2010
The trade-off between fighting inflation and fighting unemployment lies as the centre of the monetary policy debate. But it’s a debate that’s almost entirely dominated by the financial community. That dominance will only increase with the establishment of this new monetary policy centre, which will present itself as a credible “independent” voice, while parroting the views of the financial elite that’s paying for it. …the C.D. Howe Institute… has a long history of pressuring the Bank of Canada to focus on eliminating inflation through high interest rates, even though high interest rates also kill jobs.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation
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Canada-EU deal will affect more than trade
Monday, May 10th, 2010
May 10 2010
… most Canadians haven’t a clue that our federal and provincial governments are negotiating with the European Union what could be the largest, most significant bilateral trade deal in history. The lack of transparency in these negotiations has prevented meaningful public debate. In a twisted way, the absence of public debate has been misconstrued by media commentators as public complacency. In a more contrived way, neo-liberal and free market pundits conclude that Canadians finally understand the economic, social and perhaps even moral benefits of free trade. This is hogwash.
Tags: economy, globalization, participation
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The people as moral economists
Friday, May 7th, 2010
May. 07, 2010
…First, the people, through their governments, are told to bail out banks by taking over their toxic assets to save the world. Then the bankers, who just this week declared huge profits, turn and tell governments to slash public spending, such as wages and pensions, to cover the deficits incurred in the bailouts. The people absorb the hit both times. This isn’t just theft, it’s brazen… The people have this instinct for the fairness issue in economics because it arises routinely in their own lives. Even when they’re wrong, confused or, for that matter, racist, they’re in the ethical ballpark. They do economics as covert ethics… It’s worth listening to what they say, and not just to those who insult, demean and dismiss them.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology
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HST is a small price to pay for prosperity
Friday, May 7th, 2010
May 07 2010
Evidence shows that an HST — or a value-added tax — is good for the economy. By eliminating the layers of taxation levied against products before they make it to the store shelf, a value-added tax makes it cheaper to produce goods and services. It makes our products more competitive in what is a global marketplace where competition is not just down the street, but across the ocean. Studies show it leads to lower prices.
Tags: globalization, tax
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Building better things, living better lives
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
May 06, 2010
Economics has a philosophical dimension, and because it deals with human action, its roots are in moral philosophy. Economics often forgets this… A useful distinction is often drawn between a market economy and a market society. The latter is the consequence of the financialization of everything. And if financialization weakens the economy, it wreaks havoc in society.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living
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The ongoing corporate welfare scandal
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
May 03, 2010.
…the report cites several examples from 2009 where ministers obfuscated when announcing these loans by publicly employing the term “repayable investment” (which makes it appear as though the company will have to repay the money)… the recipient may or may not have to pay it back… And taxpayers are none the wiser.
Tags: economy
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Accountants call on governments to require company pension plans
Saturday, May 1st, 2010
May 01 2010
Canadian governments should make businesses offer pension plans, although nothing so costly as civil servants enjoy, argue researchers for a group of 73,000 accountants… The authors cite the huge divide between those with and without pension plans… Lefebvre and Gosalia advocate moving toward pension plans that would guarantee a base level of income in retirement, while also offering a savings plan that could have variable results.
Tags: pensions, standard of living
Posted in Debates | 1 Comment »
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