Search results for “site/economics of childcare”

  • The dubious case for casinos

    I got way off my usual research agenda this morning for a business panel on CBC radio. The topic was the economics of casinos, the result of the City of Surrey voting down a new casino proposal. I have often disparagingly compared stock markets to casinos, but in fact I…

  • Image: Bento Rodrigues, Brazil, one month after the November 2015 breach. © Bruno Milanez, PoEMAS / UFJF

    Tailings dam collapses in the Americas: Lessons learned?

    In fewer than five years, three major dam collapses have occurred in the Americas—the most recent of which killed more than 230 people, and likely killed up to 260; many of the dead have never been recovered from the toxic mining sludge in which they were buried. The disasters that…

  • Growing Gap

    Why the 99 per cent still matter in Canadian politics

    A year after the Occupy movement focused public attention on the income, wealth and opportunity gap between the top 1 per cent and the 99 per cent, the issue is attracting the attention of conservatives in Canada. Quite simply, they want the problem to go away. So they’re intent on…

  • Best Books of 2012

    Here are, in no particular order, my picks for the four best books of 2012 from a progressive economics perspective. Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin. The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire. (Verso). I suspect this book will become a classic. It is a rich and highly…

  • Time for a Serious Conversation about Natural Gas

    It is pretty clear that the government’s ill-conceived Energy Plan is falling apart. The near religious call for self-sufficiency has been moderated (though not sensibly changed) and the legislated requirement for insurance eliminated. The plan to develop run-of-river and wind IPPs for export has been abandoned. The problem of charging…

  • Depleting natural gas reserves makes no sense for BC

    British Columbia is no petro state. So why do our political leaders insist that we are a global energy power? At the University of Calgary last month, Premier Christy Clark boldly asserted that BC could one day export four trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year, an amount that…

  • BC is giving away its natural gas

    In September, when the BC government tabled its First Quarterly Report on the BC Budget the big story was on plummeting natural gas royalties, which means cuts to public services in order to keep the budget balance in check. As the update states on page 6: The deterioration in natural gas…

  • New community development model emerging in Saskatoon inner city

    CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT Saskatoon – According to a recent Centre for Policy Alternatives groundbreaking study on inner city community development, a unique form of ‘bottom up’ development in Saskatoon and Winnipeg has been created largely by core residents themselves. Professor Jim Silver, University of Winnipeg, says…

  • Fiscal Cliff Notes

    The US federal budget is back in the spotlight now that the election is over. In one sense, not much has changed in that the Republicans continue to hold the House, the Democrats the Senate and White House. But what we are now witnessing is the culmination of budget deals…

  • Which side are you on?

    NHL Lockout “The owners can basically be viewed as the Ranch, and the players, and me included, are the cattle. The owners own the Ranch and allow the players to eat there. That’s the way it’s always been and that’s the way it will be forever. And the owners simply…

  • Is BC breaking its GHG law by pursuing natural gas development?

    Today we released a new report by yours truly, BC’s Legislated Greenhouse Gas Targets vs Natural Gas Development: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. It was just five years ago that BC brought in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act, a signal that BC was serious about climate action. The Act calls for a…