Archive for the ‘Economy/Employment’ Category

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More of same from Harper won’t end economic woes

Tuesday, July 21st, 2015

… he always blames the 2008 recession (which ended six years ago), and then he blames the Americans and the Chinese and even the Greeks — any scapegoat he can find. But more serious than his denial of responsibility is Harper’s claim that Canadians are helpless victims of circumstances beyond all control. There is nothing different or better to do, he says. We just have to hunker down, and keep following his “plan” — a plan that has clearly failed.

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In Fiery Speeches, Francis Excoriates Global Capitalism

Sunday, July 19th, 2015

Pope Francis does not just criticize the excesses of global capitalism. He compares them to the “dung of the devil.” He does not simply argue that systemic “greed for money” is a bad thing. He calls it a “subtle dictatorship” that “condemns and enslaves men and women.” … Francis has defined the economic challenge of this era as the failure of global capitalism to create fairness, equity and dignified livelihoods for the poor…

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Why sustainable business begins in the classroom

Friday, July 17th, 2015

… there is a paradigm shift underway, that we are at a “tipping point,” that engaging in transformational change is essential to the survival of humanity and the planet… It’s the unnuanced interpretation of Mr. Friedman’s ideas that is being challenged by the Global Compact and its signatories… [who are] committing to the pursuit of a “long-term perspective,” a “triple bottom line” or “shared value” – recognizing that profits, people and planet are inherently interconnected.

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Stephen Harper can’t ignore recession out of existence

Thursday, July 16th, 2015

A serious attempt to boost the economy would require measures to boost public investment in infrastructure and in innovation. This is highly affordable at a time of record low interest rates, especially given that many projects will more than pay for themselves over time. Even the International Monetary Fund has said we have room to invest more.

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Ottawa’s fiscal policy needs to promote growth, not just avoid deficits

Tuesday, July 14th, 2015

If all you care about is the target for the budget surplus, this approach to fiscal policy is admirable. But if you care about economic growth, and especially the livelihoods of the thousands of Canadians still unable to find jobs in this slow-growth economy, then this approach to fiscal policy leaves much to be desired… New spending of $6-billion, for example, would slightly enhance growth but would have almost no effect on the government’s debt-to-GDP ratio…

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Foreign Temp Worker Approvals Plummet

Monday, July 6th, 2015

”The Harper Conservatives wanted to give the impression they were cracking down on the TFW program, but all they’ve done in reality is create new streams that employers can use,” McGowan said. ”Some of those streams have fewer rules than the old streams did.” … the real indicator of foreign workers brought to Canada would be shown in the number of work permits granted, a number the federal government has not released in six months despite promises to do so quarterly.

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Canadian business innovation has faded despite federal cash

Thursday, July 2nd, 2015

The memo explores the possible reasons why Canadian firms appear to have shunned innovation… Canadian companies rely more on “imitation than on innovation” and are less likely to collaborate in R&D with public institutions than firms in other G7 countries… a potential solution… [is that] Canada consider following leading countries by offering more direct measures to promote innovation, rather than continuing to rely heavily on indirect methods, such as tax credits.

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Time to consider a guaranteed minimum income

Monday, June 29th, 2015

If we’re truly entering a “world without work,” in which technology replaces more and more jobs, then extending income support to everybody isn’t such a radical idea… No matter how high minimum wages are, they will not help people unable to get a job… The state of technology is such that we’re nearing a place in which the needs of the economy, and the needs of the people in it, can be met without requiring the labour of everyone… A post-jobs world seems unlikely to be a post-work world. Most people want to be productive

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A World Without Work

Sunday, June 28th, 2015

The paradox of work is that many people hate their jobs, but they are considerably more miserable doing nothing… Perhaps the 20th century will strike future historians as an aberration, with its religious devotion to overwork in a time of prosperity, its attenuations of family in service to job opportunity, its conflation of income with self-worth… There is no universal basic income that can prevent the civic ruin of a country built on a handful of workers permanently subsidizing the idleness of tens of millions of people. But a future of less work still holds a glint of hope

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Why Canadian industry needs to fix how it engages with the public

Wednesday, June 24th, 2015

… innovation is more than coming up with a new idea, product or technology. It is equally about innovation in processes. Yet, when it comes to resource development and market access, the inability of Canadian businesses and industry to forge new public-engagement processes to meet heightened environmental standards, disclosure, and, yes, social licence, is as much an innovation failure as anything ranked by the Conference Board.

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