Archive for the ‘Economy/Employment’ Category
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Is the Bank of Canada quietly moving to the left?
Perhaps the prevailing economic wisdom has shifted as a result of the 2008 recession… and has produced a realization that central banks can and should aim to stimulate economies when they are hit by shocks like a big drop in oil prices… that monetary policy should not be focused solely on controlling inflation, but must have an eye toward achieving full employment and stimulating growth.
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Supply management costs poor families five times more relative to household income: study
… the simplest would be using free-trade negotiations to open up the markets and then the existing quota system would adjust its systems and prices accordingly… [but] “… if you opened up borders kiss goodbye to our dairy sector”… ”for the first time in 22 years, the board that sets farmgate prices for milk (what farmer’s are paid per litre) lowered it this year. “The Canadian Dairy Commission is showing to the Canadian public that it actually can work… but for last 30 years it only showed the Canadian public it cannot work on behalf of consumers”…
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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Job creation is not very high on Canada’s list of problems
It used to make sense to put job creation at the top of the list of policy priorities. But in an economy where there are fewer people of working age, the challenge now will not be to find them a job. It will be to make sure that they have the equipment, technology and skills to generate the most income possible.
Tags: economy, featured, participation, youth
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Knowledge Isn’t Power
… there’s no evidence that a skills gap is holding back employment… the notion that highly skilled workers are generally in demand is just false… the inflation-adjusted earnings of highly educated Americans have gone nowhere since the late 1990s. So what is really going on? all the big gains are going to a tiny group of individuals holding strategic positions in corporate suites or astride the crossroads of finance. Rising inequality isn’t about who has the knowledge; it’s about who has the power.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, privatization, standard of living, tax
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Modern free trade era produced slower growth and greater income inequality: study
The defining features of the Canadian economy during the NAFTA era have been slower GDP growth, a surge in corporate concentration, and heightened income inequality… The timing of the study is important given the current government’s intensive policy of negotiating ever-more intrusive NAFTA-like trade and investment agreements with countries like Japan, the European Union, China and others.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
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The unbalanced thinking behind a balanced budget law
While the Conservative goal is ostensibly to balance the books, this is, at best, a secondary goal. Their real priority has to been to cut spending so as to cut taxes, not reduce debt… When the government took office, federal taxes consumed 16.0 per cent of GDP, which has fallen to a forecast 14.5 per cent of GDP this fiscal year. That seemingly small difference translates into $29.8-billion of forgone revenues, enough to have financed any social activist’s dream agenda.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
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What’s wrong with Canada? The destruction is still creative
Corporate failure and reorganizations are the norm in a market economy… Joseph Schumpeter… described a “process of industrial mutation… that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism.” … members of today’s Canadian Establishment can only be well aware that they are not in power or control… They are all too busy looking over their shoulders.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology
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This is the time to raise fiscal spending, not lower interest rates
… you do not have to be a Keynesian to realize that now is not the time to be focused on fiscal balance… It’s not that the Feds are simply running a prudent fiscal policy – they are running an unnecessarily tight fiscal policy. Strip out interest charges, and Ottawa is running a primary surplus… at the current time, there is actually a $30-billion gap between revenues and program spending – and at just the wrong time both in economic and political terms… Now is not the time to cheapen the currency for a quick-fix antidote that only affects the winners
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, standard of living
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Canada needs a true economic union
If our country is to succeed in this constantly changing, hypercompetitive new world, all our governments need to be pulling in the same direction. Some key elements of the economic union must be: – The reduction of interprovincial barriers that hamper and infringe on trade within Canada…. – The establishment of a strategic, long-term national approach to training that helps ensure Canadians in every region have the skills they need to prosper in the workforce of today and tomorrow… – The creation of a pan-Canadian energy strategy And as part of that strategy: a co-ordinated plan to reduce greenhouse gases, ensuring that our economic growth is sustainable. The most urgently needed element of the economic union is a long-term pan-Canadian infrastructure strategy.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, rights, standard of living
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For Ottawa, it is time to invest, not cut
… given low levels of debt, there is no real imperative to balance the federal budget this year, especially through new spending cuts… some provinces and, especially, the cities are less able to finance new infrastructure investment than the federal government despite pressing needs… There is no sound economic or accounting reason why we should not seize the opportunity of record-low interest rates to address our long-recognized and serious infrastructure deficit.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living
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