Corporations and corporate power
OTTAWA—Credit rating agencies (CRAs) must be independent in order to be effective, says a new report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The report, by Doug Peters and Arthur Donner, is critical of the role CRAs played in the current financial crisis. They suggest that if a new Canada Securities Commission is instituted it should provide for an independent credit ratings system.
Halifax, N.S. – A new report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in Nova Scotia busts the myth that was created by the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) that regulation of prices at the gas pump ‘robs from consumers’ in Atlantic Canada. The CCPA-NS mythbuster takes a closer look at what’s missing from the analysis in the AIMS report and refutes this claim.
In a historic first, on January 29, five Latin American Presidents addressed the 2009 World Social Forum (WSF) held in Belem, Brazil: Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Lula da Silva of Brazil, and Fernando Lugo of Paraguay.
The WSF, the gathering of leftist social movements and activists, is held every two years, and the latest one was the most successful so far, attracting an astounding 133,000 participants from 150 countries.
Many conservative politicians and business executives have denounced rather than acclaimed the government stimulus plans recently launched in the United States and Canada. They charge that, instead of reviving the sick economy, massive additional government spending will be poured down a drain of unproductive waste, making the recession worse.
Halifax, NS The Maritimes experienced an 1800 percent increase in cruise passenger numbers between 1990 and 2008. However, the author of a new Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-NS report, entitled Cruising without a Bruising: Cruise Tourism and the Maritimes, warns that this growth is not necessarily good for local ports and communities.