CCPA-BC Director Seth Klein speaks at the annual meeting of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (an international gathering of leading economists) in Berlin. His 12-minute speech summarizes some of the key lessons to date from our Climate Justice Project.
Economy and economic indicators
This brief, presented to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, analyzes the impact of key measures in the 2012 federal budget on poverty and inequality—and by extension, on food insecurity in Canada.
At the recent World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, some among the world’s business and political élites were clearly on the defensive. Worried about the Occupy movement and rising public outrage over inequality, they wondered if their unchecked free enterprise economy was in danger.
The post-2000 petroleum-led resource boom is substantially reshaping the Canadian economy. It has driven up the dollar exchange rate from 62 cents to parity with the U.S. dollar, squeezing out other export sectors: traded services, tourism, forestry, and most notably manufacturing, where it has dramatically reduced output and employment.
OTTAWA – Dans une étude dévoilée aujourd’hui par le Centre canadien de politiques alternatives (CCPA), les auteurs calculent l’ampleur auparavant secrète de l’aide extraordinaire dont les banques du Canada ont eu besoin au cours de la crise financière.
Selon l’étude réalisée par David Macdonald, économiste principal du CCPA, l’aide accordée aux banques canadiennes a atteint 114 milliards de dollars à son point culminant – soit 3 400 $ par homme, femme et enfant au Canada.
OTTAWA—A study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) estimates the previously secret extent of extraordinary support required by Canada’s banks during the financial crisis.
According to the study, by CCPA Senior Economist David Macdonald, support for Canadian banks reached $114 billion at its peak—that’s $3,400 for every man, woman, and child in Canada.
Throughout the 2008-2010 financial crisis, Canadian banks were touted by the federal government and the banks themselves as being much more stable than other countries’ big banks. Canadians we assured that our banks needed no bailout. However, in reality, Canada’s banks received billions in cash and loan support during the 2008-2010 financial crisis—and the Canadian government has remained resolutely secretive about the details.
This Technical Paper reports on the negative structural consequences of the mostly unregulated resource boom which has been remaking Canada’s economy since the turn of the century. The paper also proposes a set of measures which would help to minimize those negative side-effects of resource development, and contribute to a more balanced, successful, and sustainable industry mix in Canada’s economy in future generations.
In 2011, American retail giant Target bought 189 Zellers stores across Canada. Soon after the purchase, the corporation sold 39 stores to Walmart and another handful to other retailers such as Sobeys. Target has consistently referred to these dealings as “real estate transactions” and asserted that they are under no obligation to the people who work at Zellers.
It is essential that we oppose the terribly destructive policies being imposed upon us by the federal Conservative government, but it is equally if not more important that we think and talk about the kind of alternative approaches that we need.