A colleague emailed me a submission to the Supreme Court of Canada seeking to have them interpret whether the investor-to-state dispute settlement regime of NAFTA (in Chapter 11) is in violation of the Charter of Rights. We will know in a few months time whether the highest court in the land will hear this appeal of a decision made by […]
Read moreLast Fall, in my capacity as a member of the Vancouver City Planning Commission, I helped organize a conference on affordable housing from a longer-term urban planning perspective. The final report is now available here. It features a summary of what happened at the conference, written by yours truly, but also contains lots of great visuals that were developed and […]
Read moreYesterday, the BC office of the CCPA released our annual alternative provincial budget, which we call the BC Solutions Budget. It is hard to keep these things fresh when the government does not listen year after year. Mostly, we harp on the fact that the budget estimates have become so conservative that they are off by billions come fiscal year […]
Read moreThanks to DeSmogBlog for posting a leaked copy of a new Fraser Institute report denying climate change.Their release follows; click the link to get to the desmog page which has links to more info and the actual leaked report. I think it is worth reiterating that the Fraser, like its US counterparts, has been very successful in sowing confusion over […]
Read moreSurely, the Tories knew this was coming. Just when Harper comes out swinging with those nasty attack ads, reminiscent of the anti-Kerry swift-boat ads in 2004, the Liberals (unlike the Democrats) counter-punch very effectively. I think the months to come are going to be pretty ugly in Ottawa. Harper letter decries Kyoto as ‘socialist scheme’ ALEXANDER PANETTA Canadian Press OTTAWA […]
Read moreThe UK’s Compass Institute, loosely tied to the Labour Party, has issued its second of three big picture think pieces. The first, The Good Society, was highlighted on RPE last Fall. The second is called A New Political Economy. It is a thick document full of good ideas, most of which are relevant beyond the UK. From the introduction, The […]
Read moreSteven Shrybman, a lawyer at Sack Goldblatt Mitchell, offers a short summary of TILMA, drawing from a longer legal opinion in development: February, 2007 [Updated version] Re: A Very Short Synposis of TILMA In April, 2006, Alberta and British Columbia entered into a Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (“TILMAâ€). Certain provisions of the scheme went into effect at that […]
Read moreI was at the very first World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, back in 2001. My wife and I were travelling in Brazil and Argentina, fuelled by cheap passes from a relative at Air Canada, so we had to make a stop to check out the WSF. It was amazingly new and sexy (perhaps that was just the Brazilian […]
Read moreLondon Mayor Ken Livingston reflects on the World Economic Forum in Davos: Davos 07: lessons of the week I may not have found socialist soulmates in Davos, but I did not come away disappointed by the discussions. Ken Livingstone Davos is one of the world’s most important economic forums. In London 700,000 people are employed by foreign companies or in […]
Read moreA good article in the Toronto Star profiling the climate change denial industry. Funny how they want conclusive proof of harms caused by human-induced global warming, but seem to have no problem proffering dubious evidence themselves. It is also curious how these “free thinkers” come up with the exact same positions and arguments. Like an old African proverb: you cannot […]
Read moreMurray Dobbin, in his Tyee column, connects the dots between North American integration and the BC-Alberta deregulation deal known as TILMA. The danger is that Saskatchewan fails to contain the prairie fire, and it roars eastward. Dobbin paints some very plausible scenarios of what might transpire under TILMA’s investor-to-province dispute setlement scheme. To me, it is more about uncertainty – […]
Read moreThe February 15 edition of the New York Review of Books has an (extensive) intellectual obituary of Milton Friedman by Paul Krugman (Who Was Milton Friedman?). I’m impressed the Krugman does not really pull his punches much. He is very critical of Friedman the public intellectual after some kinder words about Friedman the economist’s economist.
Read moreThe Globe and Mail’s recent Unhealthy Schools series finds that our public schools are mouldy, serve unhealthy food, and are lacking in programs such as physical education. As a parent I can appreciate the anxiety people feel about the quality of our schools. This series just adds to that anxiety by citing anecdotes that reflect the thesis. But these paltry […]
Read moreVancouver is suffering from a plague of poverty, homelessness, drug addiction, mental health issues and crime. The good news is that all of these are inter-related, and that senior governments have the funds to make a difference. So with the Olympics coming is just three years, the political culture of neglect is showing signs of activism. Vancouver’s Mayor Sam Sullivan […]
Read moreI am in Ottawa, where the price of gas is 78 cents per litre. When I left Vancouver a couple days ago, the price of gas was $1.05 per litre. Would someone please explain to me how gas prices could be so different, especially given that BC is right next to Alberta. Is it that Ontario is consuming middle east […]
Read moreThe status of the environment as the new top issue of 2007, and the coming federal election, is now uniformly accepted in the popular media. PM Stephen Harper is belatedly and desperately rolling out some “new” environmental initiatives (or reintroducing initiatives they previously had canceled) to try to out-green former Environment Minister, Stephan Dion. I doubt this will work, as Harper is going to have […]
Read moreThe latest from the Toronto Star “war on poverty” series. Here is David Olive: A constant state of dread TheStar.com – News – A constant state of dread If the poor weren’t so conveniently invisible, maybe we’d come to our moral senses and devise a national strategy for eliminating poverty. But the one in six Canadians trapped in poverty […]
Read moreLast week the Fraser Institute released a report arguing for a shift in Canada’s tax mix that would increase the GST to pay for personal and corporate income tax cuts. The proposal would be a massive gift to the richest among us. It is kind of like asking everyone to make out a cheque for $300 to Jimmy Pattison. Such […]
Read morePhilosopher Peter Singer asks what the super-rich should give in order to reduce global poverty. Drawing on Piketty and Saez, Singer finds that doing the right thing would barely be noticeable to their standard of living. From New York Times Magazine: What Should a Billionaire Give – and What Should You? By PETER SINGER December 17, 2006 The rich … […]
Read moreUBC’s David Boyd takes on dinosaur-in-chief Terence Corcoran on the nexus between environment and economy, and Canada’s lagging rankings: Old ideas produce heat, not light … The myth that nations must choose between economic prosperity and a healthy environment has been conclusively debunked.Countries including Sweden, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands are similar to Canada with respect to per capita incomes, […]
Read moreWalden Bello, of Focus on the Global South, says yes: Globalization in Retreat Walden Bello When it first became part of the English vocabulary in the early 1990s, globalization was supposed to be the wave of the future. Fifteen years ago, the writings of globalist thinkers such as Kenichi Ohmae and Robert Reich celebrated the advent of the emergence of […]
Read moreI recently read somewhere a commentary that Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez was not really that radical, that his populist rhetoric was largely limited to expanding social programs for the poor, and that behind the scenes he was still playing nice with US businesses. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost the link to that article. Perhaps Chavez’s latest announcement will alter that […]
Read moreIn his presidential address to the American Economics Association, Nobel laureate George Akerlof points to a new agenda for macroeconomics, rooted in more realistic assumptions about human behaviour. Below is the abstract and introduction. The full paper is here. Economist’s View’s coverage also includes a New York Times article that interviews Akerlof about his views (here). The Missing Motivation in […]
Read moreStephen Gordon wonders whether eliminating the Canadian Wheat Board would be of benefit to consumers: The Canadian Wheat Board: Won’t anybody think of the consumers? The Canadian Wheat Board – a cartel for Canadian wheat producers – is experiencing the sort of troubles that all cartels have to deal with at some point or another: some of its members believe […]
Read moreAndrew Brown says the dark side of Microsof’s new Vista operating system is a nasty digital rights management system. Oh the relentless greed of the movie industry. In cahoots with Microsoft they are seeking to guarantee their billions in profits and to ensure Tom Cruise can continue to make $20 million a movie. Making the upgrade I have no need […]
Read moreWhere I live in BC, the provincial government is doing its best to subtlely undermine public health care, rather than make the reforms countless commissions have recommended to make the system better. A full frontal assault is not possible due to the continuing popularity of a public model, but perhaps they think that if they mismanage the system enough and […]
Read moreBest wishes to all for 2007. Thanks to all who stop by the RPE blog to read and add their comments to articles and stories we think are important. This blog began in June 2006 with me starting to post items of interest, but without really telling anyone about it. It gained strength over the Fall once more bloggers joined […]
Read moreWhen it comes to intellectual giants, it is hard to top Einstein. From this article in the Monthly Review in 1949, it looks like he would have made a pretty good economist had he not bothered with all of that “how the universe works” stuff. We know he’d be good at the math. Many economists came over to the dismal […]
Read moreA nice summary of the legacies of Galbraith and Friedman, with a strong plug for Galbraith and what the economics profession lacks due to his death. I should note that the Progressive Economics Forum will be creating a John Kenneth Galbraith Prize at this year’s Canadian Economics Association meetings. Jamie Galbraith has given his backing and will be in Halifax […]
Read moreCompare and contrast. First, the “soft landing” view, from Carlos Leitao, Chief Economist of The Laurentian Bank, as quoted in the Globe and Mail: [T]he Canadian economy is in the midst of â€a significant slowdown that we still think should be relatively short-lived. Nevertheless, the downside risks are important and far outweigh upside risks.†[T]he U.S. economy â€has proven to […]
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