In the early days of Quebec’s ongoing anti-corruption commission, a handful of nationwide experts were asked to comment on the breadth and extent of corruption and mafia influence in Canada. In the days that followed, a handful of headlines reiterated their message that dirty dealings might be just as prevalent in Ontario as it is in Quebec.
This morning the CBC reported on a Quebec developer that moved to Alberta some years ago to escape corruption only to be put out business for refusing to pay kickbacks.
Quebec’s anti-corruption commission, and the resultant resignations of a couple of the province’s most high profile mayors, has made Quebec the butt of any discussion of corruption in recent months. But to suggest that Quebec is the most corrupt province in Canada is probably going to far.
In all honesty, we just don’t know. Continue reading
Speaking of “Toyotism” and industrial inertia in the US, I stumbled upon this commercial for the new Toyota Tundra. Riffing on Toyota’s rise at Ford et al.’s expense, it throws salt on the wound of declining American manufacturing. I saw it playing before a movie in Saskatoon; I wonder if it aired south of the 49th.
The commercial lists a bunch of things that “You,” all-American-man, used to think when you were growing up—you didn’t think math would prove useful, but you became and engineer; you thought all-American-girl across the road was annoying, but she became your loving wife; you thought babies were even more annoying, but they became one of your proudest accomplishment; and…
“You even used to think the most dependable truck had to come come from Detroit.”
“Good thing you kept an open mind.”
I just learned Volvo is a Swedish company. No wonder the educated upper-bourgeoisie love them. Did I mention how much I adore Volvo?
But in all seriousness, I just finished reading and article from the early 90s, entitled, “The Economics of Job Protection and Emerging New Capital-Labour Relations.” In it, French economist Robert Boyer details the Fordist approach to job protection and capital-labour relations, questions the radical neoclassical call for complete flexibility, and proposes that we are faced with a choice: either “Toyotism” or “Volvoism.” Continue reading
A few days ago Boingboing.net spread the word about a beached dead whale raising a stench not far from Barbara Streisand’s Malibu property and the practical challenges of disposing of it.
The historical significance of this coincident wasn’t lost on those commenting on boingboing’s, nor the LATimes’ coverage. Two of the internet’s greatest memes had happened upon one another. Continue reading
Harper’s approach to the foreign take-over of Nexen is incoherent at best, a recipe for corruption and patronage at worst.
Yesterday, Steven Harper announced that the government of Canada would allow the selling of Canadian privately owned Nexen to Chinese state-owned CNOOC. 15.4 billion dollars will exchange hands.
Harper is aware that the move will be unpopular, even among his base in Alberta. So, the Prime Minister took a reluctant tone.
But I’m not concerned by the politics of the decision. I’m concerned by how the decision was made, and, ultimately, the precedent it sets for how decisions will be made in the future. Continue reading
In the process of looking for an image of Bill Bye Lake for yesterday’s post I stumbled across Mount Bill Nye, located in the south eastern corner of BC,
British Columbia officials have no knowledge as to who this person was. The name was officially adopted in 1954 but had been in use before that date. So it’s likely not “Bill Nye the Science Guy.”
Or, could it just be that Chief Bill Nye traveled widely?
This weekend a new interview with Bill Nye the Science Guy was making the rounds,
I particularly like this one, even more than a previous one, because of the way it turns what seems like an abstract sciency concern into an everyday life thing. Sure, the world might be 6000 years old, but if so, then the internetz shouldn’t work. Shoot.
Bill Nye has been getting more attention lately as he speaks out against various anti-science movements making headlines south of the boarder.
Every time Bill Nye the Science Guy comes up in my newsfeed I’m reminded of a little lake I discovered on a map while treeplanting in the Houston region of British Columbia a few years ago. Continue reading
Today the CBC reported that, based on a recent online survey carried about by Leger Marketing for the Association for Canadian Studies (ASC), as many as two-thirds of Quebecers view a flag hanging in the provincial legislature as a source of pride.*
The article goes on to claim,
The findings shine a light on public opinion in a province that has been sending mixed political messages lately: Quebec recently elected the pro-independence PQ — but only with a minority, and at a time when polls suggest support for independence is low, while the PQ’s sister-party in Ottawa, the Bloc, was nearly wiped off the map barely a year earlier.
Setting aside what I think about whether the polling and voting habits of Quebecers actually send mixed messages,** my first instinct upon reading this bold statement and “online survey” in the same article was righteous indignation: “This study shines no such light!” Continue reading
Yesterday the Huffington Post published an article by CCPA Senior Economist David Macdonald on whether Generation Y is more hard done by than the generations that came before it. According to Macdonald, while some things have changed for better or worse, one shift has overwhelmed all of them: Millennials will confront greater risks over their life times than any living generation before them.
And yet, what is risk? Macdonald lists a handful of instances—unemployment insurance is less likely to cover you; students have to go into more debt; pensions are more vulnerable to market fluctuations; housing markets are more volatile—but doesn’t take care to define a general concept.
While risk is an idea with intuitive appeal, if you ask most folks what exactly it means, most would have a hard time giving a concise answer. In fact, it wouldn’t be easy for me either, and I study risk everyday. Continue reading
I got stats on the mind. The first thing I thought when I passed this graffiti this morning en route to my favourite daily coffee spot was, “R-Squared!” It does not help that right now I’m working on a paper in which the main hypothesis test consists of a comparison between 
Sometimes when I read news stories out of China, the numbers reported make me think of the Big levels from the old Super Mario games. Continue reading
While there appears to be little to no evidence that tax cuts stimulate economic growth, they do seem to make rich people richer relative to everyone else (in The Atlantic).
Analysis of six decades of data found that top tax rates “have had little association with saving, investment, or productivity growth.” However, the study found that reductions of capital gains taxes and top marginal rate taxes have led to greater income inequality.
One of these days, I, or someone else, is going to have to get around to showing how inequality hurts economic growth. Continue reading
I spend a lot of time studying economic indicators and reading what various analysts have to say about them. I’m a PhD student in economic sociology and a paid policy analyst. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to reference all these years upon years of study and reflection every time I open my mouth to make a point.
So it’s always nice when the New York Times assembles a pithy infograph that communicates something that I and everyone else that spends all their time thinking and reading about this stuff takes for granted. Continue reading
This evening, I’m skimming theories of rent. For fun.
Rent is a bad thing. It’s econospeak for “undeserved profit.” Rent is a fun concept because it slips power back into neoclassical economics. Rents do not exist in perfect markets. They only exist where institutional contexts favour one group or individual at the expense of others.
While skimming the net, a few things stood out. Continue reading
Your mind blown. More than once. Actually, this video is about 7 minutes long, and it will happen between 10 and 12 times. That is your mind blown at a rate of nearly 1.7 times a minute. Behold, the tardigrad, a.k.a the “water bear.” Via boinboing.net.
Election results are in. What happened? The PQ got lucky. The Liberals got lucky too.*
The Liberals got lucky because the PQ dropped the ball—they weren’t obliterated.
The PQ got lucky, because just enough people despised the Liberals enough to overlook the fact that the PQ dropped the ball—they won a weak minority government. Continue reading
BC Liberal MLA offers a psychoanalysis of NDP MLA’s Marxist tendencies, Continue reading
Pretty much by the definition of the universe, risk is something that affects all of us. Still, not all risk is the same.
Most notably, there is individual risk and there is systematic risk. Risk that effects the individual is risk that impacts each of us differently. Systematic risk effects our community or society as a whole, and so each of us in the same way.
A lot of people get worked up about various systematic risks. This includes things like climate change, nuclear holocaust and genetically modified foods.
While these systematic risks are important, practically speaking, we should also concern ourselves with individual risk, at least because they are tractable. Continue reading
Next time you’re at a party and someone starts beating up on unions, claiming that they hurt the economy, quote Mark Carney (and in the Financial Post),
“Over the past decade, our poor export performance [in the auto sector] has been explained two-thirds by market structure and one-third by competitiveness,” Carney continued. “Of the latter about two-thirds is the currency while the rest is labour costs and productivity.”
“So, net, our strong currency explains only about 20 per cent of our poor export performance.”
That is, 10% is left to labour costs and or productivity.
Given how the Canadian industrial relations system works, productivity is jointly determined by employers and unions. So, less than 10% of poor export performance is due to the unions. Continue reading
In theory, a booming economy that supports higher incomes can increase lifetime well-being, but only if people are smart. In my work comparing poverty outcomes among the provinces, Alberta and Quebec stand out as having a couple of the healthiest poverty profiles. However, for very different reasons.
While Quebec has a fairly robust social security system (the kind that many Canadians think they have, and used to have, but don’t really anymore), Alberta does not.
Alberta, however, has a booming economy and a small population. The result is a labour market that favours sellers—i.e. one that provides a job and high wages for just about every able body.
This state of affairs is good news for most Albertans. In fact, Albertans are much wealthier than Quebecers today. But, what will happen if the Alberta economy tanks? Continue reading
cutandplante 