The IMF and Progressive Economics in Canada
It is interesting to note that the most recent IMF staff report on Canadian economic issues echoes some key concerns of progressive economists. I have reported these for the Broadbent Institute.
As noted in this summary, the IMF report that corporate Canada’s cash hoard is the biggest in the G7 and has been mainly amassed by energy and mining companies. (This story got picked up by the Globe and Mail.)
And as reported here they more or less endorse the view that linkages from tar sands development to the wider Canadian economy are very under-developed.
The IMF report can be found here.
Clearly it’s a bad bet going all-in on dirty energy, especially in this century. Canadians are much more than hewers of wood and drawers of bitumen.
We need a balanced economy that provides jobs for Canadians across country, not just remote areas in open pit mines.
It’s a bad idea to support rapid tar-sands development and claim that will create middle class jobs.
“Canadians were much more than hewers of wood and drawers of bitumen.”
There, Stephen Harper fixed that for you.
See pages 25 and 29 in particular. On page 25:
“Our results suggest that the increase of cash holdings of Canadian firms reflects greater precautionary demand for liquidity in an increasingly uncertain economic environment, and that firms that have greater holdings of cash are more likely to increase their capital spending in the future.”
Page 29 says the same thing in long-form.
Do you actually believe that cash is sitting in an account? I am sure it is invested in a derivative market of some sort- hence the reason it is not invested in real investment. 640 trillion dollars globally in derivative vehicles of some variety, and I am sure Corp Canada has this liquidity lent out to some dealer in some kind of vehicle. There is a reason it is there and it is not about sitting around doing nothing- and in fact I think it was very irresponsible of the IMF to report such massive pools of wealth in such a manner.