Dwight and Tom’s legacy: more of the same #nlpoli
Herb Kitchen died last week. He was the minister of finance in the early 1990s who brought down the difficult budgets, starting in 1991 that were part of a plan…
public debt
Facing the financial wall, again #nlpoli
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro makes money by making and selling electricity. In 2018, the last year for which we have statistics, Hydro made about 40 gigawatt hours of electricity and…
Bank of Canada to help GNL make payroll #nlpoli
Bank of Canada234 Wellington St, Ottawa The Bank of Canada announced today that it will purchase up to 40% of money market securities with terms to maturity of 12 months…
Despite Opposition demands, Alberta NDP says no to risky conservative ideological experiments in its 2017 budget
PHOTOS: Finance Minister Joe Ceci. Below: Interim Progressive Conservative Ric McIver showing off his Three Stooges tie, the sale of which puts the gross in Gross National Product; Opposition Leader…
Prov gov finances headed south #nlpoli
The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is offering its bonds on the American market, according to Bloomberg News. VOCM reported it locally on Wednesday.The provincial government hopes that its high…
The Fan Klub, Churchill, and taxes – update
As the provincial Conservatives and New Democrats filibuster the levy bill in the House of Assembly that Winston Churchill quote about taxes popped up again.The ones pushing the quote hard…
The Incrementalists #nlpoli
Today is budget day.There's been lots of speculation flying around, most of it a confirmation that people have little real information about anything. If you have been paying attention, though,…
The Sir Robert Bond Papers 2016-03-18 04:30:00
The deficit for 2015 will be a record.We know that because of comments at the House of Assembly by Premier Dwight Ball and finance minister Cathy Bennett.News media are reporting…
Fiscal policy for the left, or Corbyn vs Mulcair on deficits
The question of deficits dominated a lot of the economic debate in Canada during the 2015 federal election and even today. Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party introduced a new fiscal policy…
Things are THAT bad #nlpoli
David Thompson is an independent economist in the same way that Jerry Earle and Wayne Lucas are independent human resource consultants.But the problem isn’t that CBC couldn’t make a factual…
If we dither, we die. #nlpoli
by Chuck Furey________________"Indecision becomes decision with time" someone once said.The current fiscal nightmare in Newfoundland and Labrador is real.One only need compare the amount of borrowing in 1933 (34%} to…
Politicians and Public Debt #nlpoli
Remember the debt clock?Finance minister Tom Marshall went around the province during that year’s budget consultation – now “rebranded” as “engagement” – with this big electric counter that purported to…
Newfoundland government finance, 1832 to 1949 #nlpoli
Before Newfoundlanders stopped governing themselves in the early winter of 1934, they’d run a sometimes arduous course.Newfoundland gained a limited form of self-government in 1832 and in 1855 gained Responsible…
Let’s hear it for the Fraser Institute geniuses #nlpoli
A year after Kathy Dunderdale left office, the Fraser Institute said she was one of the best fiscal managers of all the Premiers in Canada.Provincial Conservatives repeated the story anywhere…
Metrics #nlpoli
Telegram editor Russell Wangersky tried on Monday to put the government’s financial mess into some shape that people could understand.The simple fact, to put a shortfall of $2 billion into…
The Bridge to Ottawa #nlpoli
Premier Dwight Ball said everything is on the table to deal with the massive financial problem facing his administration.And then, in a string of year-end interviews, Ball immediately took everything…
Essence #nlpoli
The Telegram has been running a series this week on the number of communities in the province where people can’t drink the water supplied by their local municipality. Regular readers…
Where is Canada’s mild Keynesian alternative?
You know something is up when the social democrats are trailing the centrist pundits on the economy. The space for a just a mild Keynesian alternative in Canada is wide…
Where is Canada’s mild Keynesian alternative?
You know something is up when the social democrats are trailing the centrist pundits on the economy. The space for a just a mild Keynesian alternative in Canada is wide…