This and that for your Sunday reading. – Luke Savage weighs in on the false promise of tax giveaways to the rich as an economic strategy for anybody else. – Nichole Dusyk argues that it’s past time to bridge the gap between Canada’s climate change promises and our actual policies.
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Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – John Michael McGrath warns that the second wave of the coronavirus is once again moving much faster than the governments charged with controlling it. – Vitor Gaspar, Paolo Mauro, Catherine Pattillo and Raphael Espinoza discuss the value and importance of public investment as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Joshua Schiffer highlights how the best response to COVID-19 for now involves the use of imperfect but easily-applied means of reducing its spread, rather than doing nothing until some perceived perfect answer is available. And Jessica Corbett reports on Oxfam’s new study showing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Joseph Stiglitz discusses how decades of laissez-faire economics and deference to the rich have undermined any effective democratic decision-making. Bruce Boghosian observes that structural change is needed to avoid a tendency toward the concentration of wealth and concurrent rise of inequality. And
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Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Robert Cribb, Patti Sonntag, Michael Wrobel, P.W. Elliott and Carolyn Jarvis examine the Saskatchewan Party government’s utter refusal to monitor or regulate pollution caused by the oil industry – and the people who have been kept at risk as a result. And Geoff
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your week. – David Moscrop makes the case for a long-overdue inheritance tax in Canada: Over time, if left unchecked, capitalism facilitates the pooling of wealth — cash, property, business ownership, investments — among a select few. This is as true in Canada as anywhere else.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Mitchell Thompson discusses the absurdity of setting up Canada’s banks for collapses and bailouts, rather than ensuring they serve the public interest. And Colin Butler reports on CUPW’s continued push for a postal banking option to provide better service to far more
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This and that for your Thursday reading. – Nathan Akehurst writes that the Carillion collapse was just the tip of the iceberg in the corporatization and destruction of the UK’s public services. And Neil Macdonald points out that the Trudeau Libs are pitching privatized infrastructure as easy money for investors
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Steve Burgess points out that we shouldn’t be the least bit surprise by the latest news of politically-connected billionaires managing to tilt the tax system in their favour. Ed Broadbent calls for a much-needed end to tax policy that favours the wealthy in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how beyond the scandals and failures we’ve seen to date, the Global Transportation Hub was always built on a dangerous desire to allow businesses to escape rules and democratic oversight. For further reading…– Geoff Leo reports here on Brightenview’s use of benefits for “rural” investors to try to
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This and that for your Thursday reading. – Nathaniel Lewis and Matt Bruenig discuss the relationship between massive inheritances and ongoing wealth inequality. Nick Hanauer makes the case for much higher taxes on the wealthy as part of a plan for improved economic development, while a new Ipsos poll finds
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – George Monbiot examines the history of James McGill Buchanan, Charles Koch and others who have used massive amounts of time and money to ensure that wealth wins out over democracy in shaping U.S. policy – and how their influence will sounds familiar elsewhere
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On sucker’s deals
While my Leader-Post column won’t be running this week, I’ll take the opportunity to offer some context and an update on Geoff Leo’s must-read report on Brightenview’s founders who have become the Wall government’s latest corporate darlings. By way of background, Leo was also the one to break the news
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Paul Krugman notes that after promising to bring some outside perspective to politics, Donald Trump is instead offering only a warmed-over version of the Republicans’ typical voodoo economics. And John Cassidy highlights how Trump’s plan appears to be nothing more than to wage
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Andrew Jackson discusses the problems with increased corporate concentration of wealth and power – including the need for a response that goes beyond competition policies. In the 1960s, institutional economists like John Kenneth Galbraith described a world of oligopoly in which a few
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on Brad Wall’s choice to cover up the truth behind the Saskatchewan Party’s Global Transportation Hub scandal – and the most plausible (if still inadequate) explanations for that decision. For further reading…– Again, the latest public revelation was Geoff Leo’s reporting of political pressure to pay inflated prices for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Simon Enoch explains why the Sask Party’s plans to inflict an austerian beating until economic morale improves is doomed to failure: It is now abundantly clear that the Saskatchewan government’s “transformational change” agenda is in reality a not-so-subtle euphemism for provincewide austerity
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Claudia Chwalisz points out that in addition to relying on a distortionary electoral system, the Trudeau Libs’ majority was built on a bubble which now seems likely to pop. Michael Harris wagers that Canadians will remember the broken core promise when they
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Evening Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Rahul Kalvapalle reports on the latest Ipsos poll showing how younger Canadians expect to lead a worse life than the generations who went before them. – PressProgress examines how inequality has been burgeoning under Christy Clark’s B.C. Lib government. And Maimuna Majumder notes
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – The Star argues that a crackdown on tax evasion and avoidance is a crucial first step in reining in inequality. Susan Delacourt wonders when, if ever, Chrystia Freeland’s apparent interest in inequality will show up in her role in government. And Vanmala Subramaniam
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