(The following was sent by ITUC Washington representative Peter Bakvis and deserves wider distribution. While this action by the World Bank might reduce food prices at the margin, it would be far preferable for them to push for regulation of speculation in food instead of joining in a destructive game.) In partnership with Wall Street investment bank JP Morgan, […]
Read moreToday’s Statscan release “Incomes of Canadians” provides data for 2009 and a partial reading on the impacts of the recession. (I say partial because the 2008 annual average data were impacted by the onset of the recession in the last quarter of the year, and since these impacts continued well into 2010.) The data give some sense of the devastating […]
Read moreThere is an excellent post by Scott Sinclair at the CCPA blog.
Read more At the CEA meetings I participated on a panel organized by IRPP to discuss a recent paper – by Finnie and Gray – on older laid-off workers and the policy option of “wage insurance.”  The paper shows that older laid off workers leaving stable jobs and finding new employment typically experience significant declines in earnings – in the range of […]
Read moreIt has been widely reported in the Globe and elsewhere that Canada ranks #2 in the just-released OECD Better Life Index, outstripped only by Australia. I am all for measures of objective and subjective social well-being that go beyond GDP as a measure of progress, and this OECD report offers up some useful information. But providing grounds for national chest […]
Read more“Exiting from the Crisis: Towards a Model of More Equitable and Sustainable Growth” is a new book (over 270 pages) now available on line. This volume of essays from global trade union leaders and economists is the product of the Global Unions Taskforce on a New Growth Model, a joint project of the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the […]
Read morePoring over the entrails leads me to a couple of observations. First, as is usually the case, the change in the distribution of seats which commands headlines is an imperfect reflection of the change in the distribution of votes. The NDP breakthrough in Quebec was remarkable and historically important and unprecedented, but so was the NDP surge in English Canada. […]
Read more The OECD have weighed in on what policy measures are needed to limit the damage of long term unemployment in the aftermath of the Great Recession. I would judge the NDP platform – which includes a significant job creation tax credit and increased EI benefits – to be closest to the OECD prescription. The OECD note in a pre release […]
Read moreThe policy paper to be presented to the CLC Convention next month is now posted on our web site and is well worth reading. http://www.canadianlabour.ca/sites/default/files/pdfs/policypapergoodjosen.pdf
Read moreI saw quite a lot of media coverage of a BMO report that Canadian retail prices are 20% higher than in the US despite exchange rate parity. There were allegations of price  gouging and references to the allegedly much more intensely competitive US retail environment. I hesitate somewhat to say so in case the argument is misused, but there are […]
Read moreA quick and easy way to get a very bad bad headache is to attempt to compare and contrast the fiscal plans attached to the major party platforms. But they throw some light on the real priorities of the parties, and the real choices in play in the election. One thing the Conservatives, Liberals and New Democrats apparently have in […]
Read moreHere is the CLC commentary and analysis.
Read moreToday, by way of background to tomorrow’s labour force release, , the Canadian Labour Congress released the fifth issue of our Recession Watch bulletin (prepared by my colleague Sylvain Schetagne.) It highlights just how much slack there still was in the job market in February, 2010 compared to before the recession. Despite the rise in jobs since the bottom was […]
Read moreKen Battle of the Caledon Institute has written a very useful report, “Restoring Minimum Wages in Canada.” It contains a wealth of data on minimum wage trends by province since 1965 and their changing relationship to average wages and to the low income line. Battle shows that, in almost all provinces and territories, with the notable exception of BC, minimum […]
Read moreIt is notable that the Globe has run a major story today – on p.1, above the fold in the print edition – drawing attention to the fact that recent corporate tax rate cuts have not produced an increase in real business investment. Reference is made to the views of labour economists. The Globe story will not be “news” to […]
Read moreThere is an interesting new piece on incomes of future retirees, “The Canadian National Retirement Index”, by MacDonald, Moore, Chen and Brown in Canadian Public Policy. It uses the Statistics Canada Life Paths Model to forecast the incomes of future retirees. This greatly amplifies, to my mind, the case for expansion of the Canada Pension Plan and public pensions generally […]
Read moreHere is the CLC brief to the Industry Committee hearings which we did not get to present due to the election. Hopefully the issue will still get a good hearing over the next few weeks, especially since the NDP have staked out some good ground on the issue. I note there have been 48 posts on foreign investment/ownership since the […]
Read moreThe media coverage of Layton’s announcement yesterday was disappointingly thin, and the details (including on the NDP web site) are pretty hard to find. The NDP would go one better than the Liberals in raising the Corporate Income Tax rate from 16.5% today (and 15% next year) to the 2008 rate of 19.5%. The Liberals would go back to 18%. […]
Read morePrime Minister Harper today re-announced the 2011 Budget proposal to introduce a one year program to reduce EI employer premiums by up to $1,000 for small businesses which expand employment in 2011 compared to 2010. I would characterise this as more of a token gift to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business than a serious job creation measure. The credit […]
Read more(I have also posted this to the new CCPA election blog which plans to run fairly short non technical pieces over the next month.) Â Harper’s key framing argument is that a stable majority is needed to maintain an economic recovery which would be derailed by a coalition. I find this more than a little ironic. Canada has indeed had […]
Read moreJeremy Leonard, research director of IRPP, suggests in today’s Globe that CPP retirement benefits be cut to balance the federal books, or at least he is cited to that effect by Barrie McKenna. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t major savings to be wrung out of spending. Mr. Leonard, for example, suggested that reforms to the Canada Pension Plan could achieve […]
Read moreHere is the CLC Budget Analysis At this point the economics of the budget are so overwhelmed by the uncertain political calculations that one hesitates to add to the discussion. There are a few modest half good things here in response to demands from labour and the left. $300 Million earmarked for the poorest of poor seniors is not to […]
Read moreMy recent post on public sector pay elicited a lot of comments, including a fair few based on the right-wing premise that the public sector is an unproductive burden on the private sector. I have always found this ascription of productivity to the public and private sectors to be deeply misleading in that it conceals the profound interdependence and interpenetration […]
Read moreAnother reason for that intolerably high public sector compensation premium — Further to my earlier post showing that the public/private sector pay gap is mainly due to more equal pay for women in service jobs, a recent piece from Canadian Public Policy by Hou and Coulombe shows that the pay gap between Canadian born racialized workers and non racialized workers […]
Read moreToday’s Globe has a long article by Konrad Yakabuski on the potential for a Wisconsin style attack on Canadian public sector workers. It’s hard to challenge his argument that this is very much in prospect, and indeed we seem set for a debate – or a series of national, provincial and municipal debates – on the allegedly large superiority of pay and […]
Read moreMore from Sylvain: The part-time rate in February 2011 -Â 19.7% of the workforce working part-time – fell just short of the highest levels ever recorded in July and August 2010. Not only has part-time work risen in the recession and recovery, it has been clearly driven by the lack of full-time jobs. 265,900 non-seasonally adjusted part time jobs were […]
Read moreAnalysis from my colleague Sylvan Schetagne .. The Canadian economy in February 2011 had fewer full-time jobs, but more part-time, self employment and temporary work. These are not signs of a strong job recovery. The unemployment rate remained stable at 7.8%, but job quality decreased significantly last month. The number of full-time jobs was down by 23,800 while part-time work […]
Read moreI attended an interesting forum on the economic outlook yesterday afternoon. Organized by Canada 2020, the speakers were noted US economist Brad DeLong (UCal Berkley, former senior Treasury official under Clinton, and Paul Krugman soul mate on macro issues at least), and our own David Dodge (who needs no intro.). De Long’s main focus was on the US, and his […]
Read moreI have no informed view on the merits or downsides of this proposed takeover of the Toronto exchange, but find it interesting the degree to which the Canadian corporate and political elites have again  fractured on the issue of foreign ownership of “strategic” assets. This is an interesting piece from the Financial Times of London. Most of the banks led […]
Read more(Revised Post adds detail.) If you read the Economist as I do you will be struck by those full page ads extolling the virtues of first class and business travel on Emirates airlines. A lounge on board. For those in first, a private suite with full fold out bed to sleep on. Even hot showers. Limo pick up and delivery to […]
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