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Bill Maher recaps the summer
Bill Maher has returned to work after the summer hiatus, and offers this stinging recap of the past three months in American politics: Posted by Colin Welch at 1:17 PM Edited on: Saturday, September 18, 2010 1:21 PM
The BC Liberals Get Even
Sometimes it’s difficult to avoid cynicism about the bloodsport known as politics: http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/09/10/AxeFallsOnOfficer/ Posted by Colin Welch at 10:45 AM Edited on: Saturday, September 11, 2010 10:48 AM
The HST Debacle
In todays’ Vancouver Sun, Vaughn Palmer offers a devastating critique of the BC Liberal’s handling of the HST. Palmer highlights the key revelations of new government documents from a FOI request regarding the HST. Palmer explains that senior government officials were discussing the HST well before the last election of May 12, 2009. He concludes […]
A Review of John Gray’s False Dawn
John Gray’s popular critique of globalization and laissez-faire capitalism, False Dawn*, was originally published in 1998. It has enjoyed a resurgence as a “prophetic” account of our current global economic problems, but I think the book is better viewed as an incomplete analysis, and one that is riven with contradictions and equivocations. Gray’s clearest and […]
Wooing Business Leaders Is Futile for New Dems: A Response
With a few corrections, the following is my contribution to the conversation arising from an article in The Tyee by Will McMartin: ……….. Well done, Will! Another strong empirical analysis, in a manner almost non-existent in the “A” section of our corporate newspapers. While giving up on appeals to the business sector might appear reasonable […]
OECD Measures Debt via GDP
One of the most important but confusing economic benchmarks is the level of debt carried by a nation. Is it in constant or inflated dollars? How do we account for population growth and inflation? Adding to the complexity is the different levels of government in a country like Canada. Probably the best way of measuring […]
A.J. Polan: Lenin and the End of Politics
One of the more stimulating and thoughtful examples of progressive “left wing” pluralism is A.J. Polan’s Lenin & the End of Politics*. Polan’s book is not merely an attack on the political and historical outcomes of Bolshevism; it’s an attack on the very logic that underlies Lenin’s most democratic and emancipatory analysis of the state, […]
Their woes are our gain
The current economic problems in Europe and elsewhere have become, at least for the time being, a moment of opportunity for Canada. Canada’s relatively stable financial sector, low debt ratios and healthy consumer demand are attracting a great deal of attention from international investors. As a result, Canadian government bonds do not cost as much […]
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
Canada’s corporate media remains unchanged, even though the extensive Canwest newspaper chain has been sold (for $1.1 billion) and renamed Postmedia Network Inc. From a July 17, 2010, story from the Vancouver Sun, we see that the major players are merely changing their jackets: … The senior team, which will run the country’s largest metropolitan […]
Interesting trade stats from British Columbia
British Columbia’s long standing push to diversify its trade, and move away from a reliance on exports to America, appears to be gathering steam. Of course, as we found out in the late 1990’s, a growing dependence on emerging industrialized countries – particularly when we’re mostly selling raw resources – may also be perilous: […]