I’ve written a blog post providing an overview of poverty measurement in Canada. Points raised in the post include the following: -One’s choice of poverty measure has a major impact on whether poverty is seen to be increasing or decreasing over time. -Canada’s federal government recently chose the make the
Continue readingTag: household debt
The Progressive Economics Forum: What Impact will the 2019 Federal Budget have on Canada’s Housing Market?
I’ve written a blog post about what the recent federal budget means for Canada’s housing market. Points I make in the blog post include the following: -The budget contains several initiatives designed to make it easier for households of modest means to become homeowners. -Such initiatives are often framed as
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: An Analysis of Financial Flows in the Canadian Economy
An essential but perhaps overlooked way of looking at the economy is a sector financial balance approach. Pioneered by the late UK economist Wynne Godley, this approach starts with National Accounts data (called Financial Flow Accounts) for four broad sectors of the economy: households, corporations, government and non-residents. Here’s how
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Rochon Asks: “Is the Canadian economy unraveling?”
In a recent CBC blog post, Louis-Philippe Rochon assesses the current state of the Canadian economy. The link to the blog post is here. Follow him on Twitter @Lprochon.
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Three planks for a possible anti-austerity
What would anti-austerity in Canada look like? There are really two types of questions here. There are those of analysis: what has Canada’s austerity looked like, what makes it distinctive and how does it appear in people’s everyday experience? The others are those of political strategy. These are questions that will have to wait for a social, political
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Louis-Philippe Rochon’s Top 10 Economic Predictions for 2015
Louis-Philippe Rochon has written a provocative blog post for the CBC titled “Top 10 Economic Predictions for 2015.” The post is available here.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Do High Tuition Fees Make for Good Public Policy?
This afternoon I gave a presentation to Professor Ted Jackson’s graduate seminar course on higher education, taught in Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration. The link to my slide deck, titled “The Political Economy of Post-Secondary Education in Canada,” can be found here. Points I raised in the
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: When Good Data Goes Bad: The NHS2011
This piece was published today in the Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab. Two findings stand out in the National Household Survey (NHS) data released Wednesday, both critical in this post-recession era of uncertainty: 1) A quarter of Canadian households spent 30 per cent or more of their pre-tax income on shelter, the
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Household debt going from bad to worse
Canadians are now more indebted than either Americans or the Brits at the peak of their housing bubble. Statistics Canada today revised the national accounts. The result on the household debt front was that instead of Canadian households having a debt to disposable income ratio of 154, it has now
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Dead Money
Kudos to Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney for raising the profile of the over $500 billion Canadian corporations are holding in excess cash surpluses and not investing in the economy, which garnered front page coverage (and kudos to the CAW for inviting him to speak.) It’s not the first
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Deflating Housing Bubble Risks Recession
Seen in isolation, Finance Minister Flaherty probably did the right thing yesterday in seeking to safely deflate the housing bubble and lower the dangerous growth of household credit to a record level as a share of household income. But he did it very late in the game, and risks tipping
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: US family net worth crushed by financial crisis
The US Federal Reserve today released its triennial examination of incomes and net worth of American households in the Survey of Consumer Finances. It shows the crushing effects on net worth of a housing and financial bust unparalleled since the great depression. The shocking results of this study overviewed in
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Canada’s Self-Imposed Crisis in Post-Secondary Education
On June 7, I gave a keynote address to the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees Education Sector Conference. My PowerPoint presentation (with full references) can be found at this link. Points I raised in the address include the following: -Canada’s economy has been growing quite steadily over the past three
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Banksters will be on a Desperate Prowl for the Rest of 2012
As I’ve suggested many times, the current global economic conditions were to be expected. We are in a static, no growth economy forever, the maximum growth hovering around 2%. for the foreseeable future. I could live with that, but market-driven neoliberals couldn’t, and they are the ones who, alas, control
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Discussing Quebec Student Protests on Talk Radio
Last Friday, I blogged here about the Quebec student protests. Subsequently, I was invited to appear on 580 CFRA News Talk Radio, with hosts Rob Snow and Lowell Green. I should note that Mr. Green is the author of several books, including: -How the Granola Crunching, Tree Hugging Thug Huggers
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Debt Continues To Smother Us All Thanks to the Banksters
So here’s how it works. Although coming off record profits in 2011, Canadian banksters have decided to nickel and dime us in 2012 with their new chequing and ATM fees. Why? Because, on the one hand, healthy corporations are hoarding their Flaherty tax cuts cash, are understandably reluctant to invest given a
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Five Lumps of Coal for Canada’s Economy
The recent IMF Report on Canada prompts me to remind everyone of some startling figures about the Canadian economy: 1) The private and federal debt combined ratio to GDP is an astonishing 203%. 2) The jobless rate in November is 7.4%, the worst in 5 months. 3) Youth unemployment is
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Unemployed people can’t pay taxes, and they certainly curtail their spending
Like the good neoclassical economist he is, President Harper said on Friday that he and his bulldog want to indulge their pathological addiction to austerity and tackle that mean old junk yard federal budget when, in fact, we know that they should really be focusing on the job creation strategies
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: The zombie-banker lives and roams the earth
Another follow-up; Craig Alexander, TD’s chief economist – it pains me to reference a classic neoclassical bank economist – noted on Lang and O’Leary last night that Canada’s debt to income ratio is high less because of increasing debt and more because real wages are falling. So the deleveraging I
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: We’re in an of economic whirlpool with no immediately conceivable way out
An addendum to yesterday’s post with some additional observations referenced from Tavia Grant’s report in The Globe and Mail today. I suggested yesterday that we’re in an economic whirlpool with no immediately conceivable way out, and Tavia suggests implicitly that what could suck us down to the bottom of that
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