Last week, I wrote a short piece for Ricochet on the kind of simple but serious economic thinking missing from the Canadian election debate so far. Here, I want to expand on the reasons why we might have trouble talking honestly about the barriers to significant economic reform without a real popular upsurge. If
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The Progressive Economics Forum: Budget 2015: A tale of austerity past, present and future
Cross-posted from my blog. I’ve been banging the drum of “slow-motion austerity” for a while and little in the 2015 federal budget suggests any change from the pattern of death by a thousand cuts. This budget is another is a series of unspectacular austerity budgets. Taken together, however, the cuts
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Budget 2015: A tale of austerity past, present and future
I’ve been banging the drum of “slow-motion austerity” for a while and little in the 2015 federal budget suggests any change from the pattern of death by a thousand cuts. This budget is another is a series of unspectacular austerity budgets. Taken together, however, the cuts rapidly add up and
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Flaherty’s (mis)Adventures In Balanced Budget Land
Flaherty is expected to deliver an “optimistic” fiscal update report today, which will show the government tracking to achieve a “balanced budget” by 2015. Unlike last year’s update which went down like a spoonful of cod-liver oil — tastes awful, but good for you — Flaherty has signalled he
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Full Text Of Throne Speech, Delivered By Gov. General David Johnston
Here is the full text of the throne speech, delivered by Governor General David Johnston in Parliament on Wednesday, October 16, 2013. The post Full Text Of Throne Speech, Delivered By Gov. General David Johnston appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Some Thoughts on the BC Budget
Five months ago, I predicted that the Liberal government of British Columbia would fail in its effort to balance the 2013 budget. Notwithstanding this week’s boastful headlines to the contrary, the jury is still out. I will not assert, as many others have done, that the surplus is purely fictional,
Continue readingcalgaryliberal.com: Bite the Bullet, Redford
You know that State of the Province address that Ms. Allison Redford made tonight? About the “bitumen bubble”? A party and a government can only be coy for so long. Either you raise taxes or cut services to millions of Albertans. Or both. You can’t make a balanced budget exist
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: The Folly of Balanced Budget Laws in BC
The news is out. Due to declining natural gas prices, the BC Liberal government is projecting a budget deficit of $1.14 billion this year — $173 million more than expected. And while the government still insists that it plans on finding enough savings to balance next year’s (election year) budget,
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