Archive for the ‘Economy/Employment’ Category
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Trudeau is talking sense amid deficit hysteria
If the private sector is reluctant to spend because of uncertain growth prospects, then clearly some other sector needs to pick up that slack. At a time of contracting global growth, exports clearly can’t pick up the baton of growth. That leaves the government and, yes, a budget deficit or two, if that’s what it takes to restore economic growth… Like much of the rest of the world, Canada has an economy that is operating below capacity; people who need work; stores that need customers; infrastructure that needs rebuilding.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation, standard of living, tax
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A Moveable Glut
… excess savings and persistent global weakness is the new normal… Wall Street doesn’t want to hear that an unstable world requires strong financial regulation, and politicians who want to kill the welfare state don’t want to hear that government spending and debt aren’t problems in the current environment… They don’t like being told that we’re in a world where seemingly tough-minded policies will actually make things worse. But we are, and they will.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Debt Is Good
… the great debt panic… was even more wrongheaded than those of us in the anti-austerity camp realized. Not only were governments that listened to the fiscal scolds kicking the economy when it was down, prolonging the slump; not only were they slashing public investment at the very moment bond investors were practically pleading with them to spend more; they may have been setting us up for future crises.
And the ironic thing is that these foolish policies, and all the human suffering they created, were sold with appeals to prudence and fiscal responsibility.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology
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Conservative Party’s taste for indebted households strains economic future
Canada is in the group of countries with the largest increases in the debt-GDP ratios since 2006 in the 30-to-40 per cent range and a Canadian increase 50 per cent higher than that of the U.S… we [demonstrate]… a reluctance to sensibly use fiscal policy for economic stabilization and instead let private savings flow to already stretched and highly indebted households that puts the health of the Canadian economy, and thus our economic future, at risk.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, privatization, standard of living
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The reality of Harper’s Conservatives and Canada’s stagnant job growth
Over the past two years and change, the country has added a net 263,000 jobs – or a thin 10,000 a month. (U.S. employment, after accounting for the size difference, grew at nearly triple the Canadian pace over the same period.) In that time, Canada’s working-age population has grown by nearly 700,000; job creation hasn’t even come close to matching population growth… The vast bulk of job creation has been in the lower-paying services sector.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Canada needs to re-evaluate its approach to economic stimulus
Low rates in recent years have done little to stimulate private investment, and the steep slide in the dollar since mid-last year has done little to stimulate manufactured exports… there are few signs that businesses are set to open the floodgates on the $500-billion in extra cash reserves they’ve built up since the recession… Targeted provincial fiscal action could firm up growth, without adding undue stimulus in other parts of the national economy.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, jurisdiction, tax
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Tories’ economic projections all smoke and mirrors
The Conservative government’s sole economic policy objective has always been the elimination of the deficit. This is the only criterion it uses to judge its economic record; nothing else has mattered — not stronger economic growth, not increased job creation, not improved productivity, not saving the environment, not greater tax efficiency and tax fairness, and not strengthening federal-provincial and Aboriginal relations. The primary objective of the Harper government has always been to diminish the role of the federal government in economic policy.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Ontario’s labour ministry must collect unpaid wages
It’s hard to believe you could work for a company and not get paid. But that’s what’s happening to thousands of workers across Ontario each year. And though the Ministry of Labour has the means to collect wages on behalf of employees… Its current success rate is only 37 per cent on the cases where it actually issued orders to pay. Worse, it prosecuted only eight employers who had refused to pay. That is alarming. It’s a Get Out of Jail Free card for employers who refuse to pay their workers.
Tags: crime prevention, economy, featured, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
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Stop shortchanging workers on jobless benefits
Bédard and Fortin call for a single, national standard for benefit eligibility and duration, to replace the current 62 regional standards based on local jobless rates. Basically, workers would qualify for the same benefits wherever they live. They suggest workers be required to put in 20 weeks to qualify, with a minimum 15 hours per week. Benefits would be based on a worker’s best 20 weeks worth of insurable earnings prior to losing a job. And payouts would reflect the length of time the person had been employed.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living
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TPP talks offer Canada an opportunity to punch above its weight in Asia
After 19 rounds and numerous meetings of officials, TPP negotiations are nearing completion. What Canadians need to realize is that by addressing our supply management system within the context of the TPP, we have an opportunity to develop dairy and poultry export industries that will allow Canada to punch above its weight. A massive market in Asia awaits.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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