CJ Election Brochure Sept 30

It is rare in official Ottawa for candid admissions about the dire state of Canadian household indebtedness to be made public.  Successive neoliberal Conservative and Liberal governments have tended to regard the financialization of the Canadian economy and the accompanying growth in household indebtedness as either an insignificant or a benign development.  I have tried … Continue reading CMHC provides frank insight into Canadian household indebtedness →

As Canadian economic and business analysts pore over the latest round of dismal to mediocre economic data, seeking to parse any nuggets of market pleasing information that can be used to shore up their confirmatory biases, the world of ordinary citizens and average households feels an increasing sense of despair. The problem is that the … Continue reading Social Costs and the need to re-think First Principles →

If the malaise that has gripped both the Canadian political system and our economy is quite deep, it is nevertheless not too late to fix it and put the country back on a sustainable and more equitable footing.  To do so, though, will require transformative change by new leaders prepared to embrace far-reaching reforms. Most … Continue reading A Different Road →

The outline of both a sustainable ecological future and a more equitable political economy will only emerge when new collaborative approaches and public-spirited incentive systems replace the perverse, winner-take-all logic favored by those interests committed to business-as-usual policies.  In this regard, three policy and institutional changes are required if we are to dislodge the baleful … Continue reading Part 2: Reclaiming the Public Interest in Canada →

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/06/22/neoliberalism-pipelines-and-canadian-political-economy/ The national debate about how to get diluted bitumen to trans-oceanic markets by means of a twinning of the existing Kinder Morgan pipeline route between Alberta and British Columbia – known as the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project – illustrates the sad state of economic planning, diversification and vision in Canada. The current policy … Continue reading Neoliberalism, Pipelines and Canadian Political Economy →

“My main point…has been that market systems imprison policy.  Those of us who live in those market oriented systems that are called liberal democratic exercise significantly less control over policy than we have thought…That our thinking is itself imprisoned is a separate phenomenon of importance.” The Market as Prison, Charles E. Lindblom, The Journal of … Continue reading Part 1: Canada and the Erosion of the Public Interest →