Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Jeremy Wallace examines China's massive - if messy - renewable energy revolution which stands to make fossil fuels obsolete in the very near future. And Adam Morton notes that Australia is among far too many jurisdictions making a doomed push for increased dirty energy production even while dealing with the disastrous effects of climate change. 

- Carole Calwalladr, Charlie Young and Max Colbert report that Palantir's extension of its tentacles into every possible shady business includes a contract with the UK's nuclear weapons department. David Reevely reports on the Libs' subsidization of JSE Telecom as it provides wiretapping services to ICE. And Miranda Bogen and Ruchika Joshi note that the dangers of surveillance capitalism are all the more severe when AI agents are collecting and linking increasingly sensitive personal information.  

- Lauren Dobson-Hughes rightly questions why Mark Carney is slashing Canada's foreign affairs staff while trumpeting the need for increased international engagement. And Karen Briere reports that Carney is also eliminating 1,370 food inspection workers even as the U.S. has gutted its own regulatory regime. 

-  Finally, Andrew Longhurst highlights how Doug Ford is starving public health care while throwing money at corporate providers. And David Macdonald points out how little most provinces are contributing to child care programs - with Saskatchewan's government once again ranking at the back of the pack by offering up only 13% of child care funding in the province. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Nikki McCann Ramirez examines Mike Duncan's take on how the U.S.' current position fits into the historical collapses of empires. Gary Engler offers a checklist to determine when a country has shifted from authoritarianism to fascism, while Andy Craig writes about the Trump regime's censorship binge in an attempt to squelch all opposing or dissenting voices. And Gil Duran discusses the alternative interpretations of Trump's abuses - which may reflect either dangerous steps toward the end of democracy, or desperate attempts to avoid the real consequences of public disapproval. 

- Alan Elrod rightly notes (with particular reference to the kidnapping of firefighters working to contain dangerous wildfires) that the Trump regime is seeking out virtue for the specific purpose of eradicating it in favour of absolute corruption and violence. And Jonathan Liew asks what the endgame is for politicians of any stripe seeking to use anti-immigrant messaging. 

- Adrienne Matei writes about the role of women in strongman regimes. And Noami Beinart writes about the increasing pressure being placed on U.S. girls to acquiesce in their own subjugation. 

- Alastair Marsh discusses how China has taken what may be an insurmountable lead in developing clean energy and battery technology - as decades of being told we have to focus on dirty energy have left us unable to contribute to the cleaner economy that's developing. Jespen Brun Petersen discusses new research on the interplay between solar panels and crops, even as Bharat Dogra writes about the harm wealthy countries have caused to the world's food production system. 

- Anton Nilsson et al. write about Google's plan to "rent its enemies" in order to ensure nobody regulates its monopoly activities. But Steven Levy points out that tech giants who thought they could avoid the dangers of the Trump regime are rapidly finding out otherwise. 

- Finally, Adam King offers a reminder that unions improve well-being for everybody, not only for their own members. And Adam Gabbatt writes about the elite class solidarity which has billionaires and landlords assembling their riches and influence to avoid even the slightest hint of redistribution of wealth or power. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Elizabeth Kolbert discusses the immense damage and disruption which we can anticipate if Greenland's massive ice sheet melts due to global warming, while Monica Machicao and Daniel Ramos report on the unprecedented wildfires burning through Bolivia. And Brad Johnson points out that repeated hurricanes devastating their strongholds aren't making an iota of difference in getting Republican denialists to recognize the risks of a climate breakdown.  

- Oliver Milman reports on new research showing that the gas exports which are constantly pushed by the fossil fuel sector as a climate benefit are in fact more harmful in the medium term than coal power. Drew Anderson writes about a provincial election campaign featuring an unchallenged assumption that  Saskatchewan's economy should be defined solely in terms of non-renewable resource extraction. And Ross Belot writes that the delay tactic of demanding that China rein in its emissions before the rest of the world is running into the reality that it's succeeding - and setting itself up to dominate the world's renewable energy market - in doing so.

- Chris Hedges discusses the corporate class' core priorities of burning the planet and locking up anybody who would dare to challenge that plan. Joan Westenberg highlights how obscene wealth and power tend to lead to the evaporation of any sense of morality, while Tom Nichols discusses the phony populism wielded as a weapon to further entrench the control of the uber-rich. And Sidney Blumenthal calls out Donald Trump's deliberate adoption of Hitlerian eugenicist rhetoric, while Alex Nguyen reports on Elon Musk's funding of Stephen Miller's dehumanization of immigrants and minorities. 

- Jeremy Appel discusses how the corporate media has accepted and entrenched messages about mental health and drug policy which favour authoritarian responses. 

- Finally, Robert Reich points out the desperate need for health and safety laws and enforcement mechanisms which won't simply be ignored by employers - particularly bad actors who would rather threaten to close up shop than take steps to keep their employees safe.

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Tarique Niazi discusses some of the geopolitical implications of the intensifying climate crisis. Aaron Whetty offers a reminder that the joint effort by the Libs and Cons to treat a consumer carbon tax as the sole point of climate policy worth discussing missed the much bigger picture. And Nick Hedley notes that a rapid and successful transition to renewable energy in China stands to reduce global demand for fossil fuels far faster than previously projected.

- John Lavis and Mathieu Ouimet highlight how decision-makers would be expected to apply scientific knowledge to deal with a global polycrisis if they had any interest in acknowledging and responding to it. And the University of Plymouth takes note of the scientific consensus on the need to tackle the dispersion of microplastics.

- Kiran Stacey reports on a new study showing that a corporate tax giveaway in the UK is costing three times as much in revenue as it stands to produce in investment. And Sharon Graham asks what a Labour party is for if the UK's version is bent on starving the public while serving the interests of the corporate class.

- Wing Li rightly argues that the UCP shouldn't be using Alberta's public money to build private schools - particularly when it's responsible for failing to maintain public educational infrastructure. 

- Finally, Richard Murphy discusses the need to re-re-brand private equity with its previous title of "asset stripping" - and match that more accurate description with public policy aimed at limiting the harm it can do to functional economic vehicles.

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- David Adams examines the evidence that COVID-19 remains infectious far longer than assumed by politicized public health messaging. And Ted Raymond reports that Ottawa has already seen more COVID deaths in 2022 than in 2021, confirming that the end of public health protections has been disastrous even by the painfully low bar of considering fatalities alone. 

- Zak Vescera reports on Dr. Ivar Mendez' warning that diverting public money to private surgical clinics will only exacerbate the staffing shortages caused by the Moe government's disinterest in a functional health care system. And Michael Gorman reports that Nova Scotia's PCs are following the usual right-wing playbook of rank patronage in the service of the destruction of public service capacity, with two personal friends of Premier Tim Houston having been appointed to oversee the gutting of Crown corporations. 

- Noah Smith contrasts China's strategic development of technology which actually serves useful purposes against the U.S.' focus on extracting wealth from people through hype and misdirection. 

- Finally, Umair Haque discusses the need for economies to evolve in order to survive the ecological shocks which are striking with increasing frequency and intensity. And Tom Green and Stephen Thomas highlight how Canada has immense potential to develop an economy powered by zero-emission renewables.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- William Haseltine writes about the long-lasting and severe cognitive effects of long COVID, while Danny Altmann discusses the urgency of developing effective treatment given the reality that vaccines do little to prevent it. Katherine Wu warns that the U.S. is rapidly losing any window to set up a relatively safe summer, while Yasmine Ghania reports on the prospect that Saskatchewan could be in for months of high transmission to come. And Phil Tank rightly criticizes Scott Moe's choice to deprive people of any current information about the spread of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan even as he claims he wants them to manage their own risks. 

- Brigitte Pellerin points out the Libs' failure to live up to their promise of a disability benefit for Canadians even as provincial governments eliminate any pandemic supports or protections. 

- Naveena Sadisavam writes about the IPCC's conclusion that it's not too late to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius if countries live up to their climate commitments immediately. And Mia Rabson discusses the problem with a climate change policy which is designed to allow the largest emitters to pay the least for their carbon pollution. 

- Qi Yang, Mohsen Mosleh, Tauhid Zaman and David Rand study the familiar gripe that Twitter content management is biased against conservatives, and finds instead that content moderation is consistently based on the level of misinformation being shared by users of any political leaning.  

- Meanwhile, Stephen Magusiak discusses how Jason Kenney is trying to import Republican culture wars - including an attack on any recognition of historical or systemic discrimination - into Alberta's curriculum and education system. 

- Finally, David Dayen writes about the risks of making global trade dependent on China's monopoly in shipping container manufacturing. 

New column day

Here, on how the Saskatchewan Party's self-induced aversion to responsible climate policy may producing serious political and economic consequences.

For further reading...
- D.C. Fraser reported on the NDP's Regina Northeast by-election win. And Jennifer Quesnel reported on Moe's response to a meeting with his federal counterparts which signals a refusal to adapt.
- Meanwhile, John Ivison's column on the Canadians for Clean Prosperity's study into the foreseeable effects of a carbon tax and rebate offers reason to think the public debate outside the Saskatchewan Party's base could be in for a substantial turn - even if it would make for less than ideal policy from an emission reduction standpoint.
- David Roberts reported here on the polling results of the Edison Electric Institute. And Eric Levitz discussed the U.S. electorate's appetite for action against climate change.
- Ari Phillips reported on the new climate change agreement between China and California. And for background, China has previously taken steps to reduce both the number and climate impact of planned coal plants, while taking a global lead in solar power.
- Carl Meyer reports on the counterproductive assumption that climate action and economic development are in opposition to each other rather than complementary pieces of any reasonable long-term plan. And Sean Holman recognizes that far too many important questions about climate change are largely ignored in most Canadian media.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Mariana Mazzucato discusses the dangers of confusing market prices with intrinsic values:

Value has gone from being a category at the core of economic theory, tied to the dynamics of production (the division of labour, changing costs of production), to a subjective category tied to the ‘preferences’ of economic agents. Many ills, such as stagnant real wages, are interpreted in terms of the ‘choices’ that particular agents in the system make, for example unemployment is seen as related to the choice that workers make between working and leisure. And entrepreneurship – the praised motor of capitalism – is seen as a result of such individualized choices rather than of the productive system surrounding entrepreneurs – or, to put it another way, the fruit of a collective effort. At the same time, price has become the indicator of value: as long as a good is bought and sold in the market, it must have value. So rather than a theory of value determining price, it is the theory of price that determines value.

Along with this fundamental shift in the idea of value, a different narrative has taken hold. Focused on wealth creators, risk taking and entrepreneurship, this narrative has seeped into political and public discourse. It is now so rampant that even ‘progressives’ critiquing the system sometimes unintentionally espouse it.
...

Such assumptions about the generation of wealth have become entrenched, and have gone unchallenged. As a result, those who claim to be wealth creators have monopolised the attention of governments with the now well-worn mantra of: give us less tax, less regulation, less state and more market. By losing our ability to recognize the difference between value creation and value extraction, we have made it easier for some to call themselves value creators and in the process extract value. Understanding how the stories about value creation are around us everywhere – even though the category itself is not – is essential for the future viability of capitalism.

To offer real change we must go beyond fixing isolated problems, and develop a framework that allows us to shape a new type of economy: one that will work for the common good. The change has to be profound. It is not enough to redefine GDP to encompass quality-of-life indicators, including measures of happiness, the imputed value of unpaid ‘caring’ labour and free information, education and communication via the Internet. It is also not enough to tax wealth. While such measures are important in themselves, they do not address the greatest challenge: defining and measuring the collective contribution to wealth creation, so that value extraction is less able to pass for value creation.

- Ben Parfitt notes that British Columbia is being severely shortchanged when it comes to deriving public revenue from natural resources. And Simon Enoch and Emily Eaton examine how an oil boom tends to offer little benefit to public coffers and services even in the areas which are supposed to be prospering.

- Meanwhile, Bruce Livesey wonders whether the Libs' Trans Mountain bailout is based on a perception that Canada has signed away any ability to limit the prospect of an oil pipeline to serve Chinese investors. Michael Harris weighs on on the foolishness of paying far above market price for a project which creates massive public risks, while David Climenhaga wonders whether Trudeau plans to be bound by Kinder Morgan's side deal with the anti-worker CLAC. And Mike De Souza reports that two Kinder Morgan executives are being rewarded with $1.5 million bonuses for extracting the deal the company was able to wring out of the federal government.

- Finally, Denise Balkissoon rightly argues that Canada needs to take responsibility for the continued pattern of children being removed from their families - particularly in Indigenous and minority communities.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- The Guardian's editorial board weighs in on the undue gains going to the 1% while everybody else faces stagnation or worse:

While the rest of society have shared in an equality of misery following the crash, the top 1% – households with incomes of £275,000 – have now recovered all the ground they lost during the world’s worst post-second world war slump. The share of income going to the very richest is now 8.5%. That’s double their share in 1985. The question has to be asked: has the value of the 1% in society doubled in the last 20 years? What have all these higher earners – in the City or in the boardrooms – done that has been so socially useful to see their share of total wages go up so much?

It’s not that we are richer as a nation. The economy is about £300bn smaller than would be expected if the crash had not happened. Remember the recession was caused by the financial sector’s innovations – the excessive leverage; the perverse incentives; the fraudulent promotion of risky products as safe – and its promotion that greed was the ultimate good. While public spending as a proportion of GDP might be roughly constant since the crash, the country’s needs are higher, so there’s a feeling of less to go round. This has happened while there’s been a quiet secession of the successful.

All the rise in inequality is due to this group racing away with the goodies from the economy, while the rest of us are being squeezed closer together. For the very wealthy, rules are bent to suit their needs. When a dividend tax was readied for 2016-17, the very wealthy took their payments early and avoided £800m, money that could have been used for schools and hospitals. More than £100m of that tax saving was enjoyed by 100 people. Can you imagine a supermarket worker asking to bring forward his pay to avoid a tax charge? The richest in our society are not worth the rewards they give themselves. It’s because they have captured ideologically the political process that these absurdities continue.

- Meanwhile, Katie Forster discusses new research showing a severe spike in anxiety and depression among UK residents facing austerian welfare cuts.  

- David Crouch reports on Sweden's renewed effort to rein in inequality - though it too has decades of corporatist damage to repair.

- CBC reports on Calgary's closure of social housing units due to a lack of means to repair them. And Rebecca Marroquin reports that Saskatchewan's domestic abuse shelters are operating at capacity (and thus having to turn away or waitlist spouses in need of a safe place to stay).

- Maura Forrest highlights the dysfunction behind the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women. And Gloria Galloway points out that First Nations are trying to address the child suicide crisis which has seen so little national attention - but need stable funding to make real progress.

- Finally, Terry Glavin criticizes the Libs' chumminess with an abusive Chinese regime - which is put in stark relief by the death of human rights activist and Nobel laureate Liu Ziaobo.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- The Economist observes that the effects of climate change fall disproportionately on poorer people, rather than the wealthier ones who have caused more of the damage:

The costs of global climate change will again be unevenly (and uncertainly) distributed, but harm will often be smaller for richer, temperate countries. As a result the estimated economic loss from warming is almost certainly understated, because the nastiest effects are concentrated in places where incomes are lowest: and, correspondingly, where tumbling incomes have the smallest effect on global GDP.
...
The rich are disproportionate contributors to the carbon emissions that power climate change. It is cruel and perverse, therefore, that the costs of warming should be disproportionately borne by the poor. And it is both insult and injury that the wealthy are more mobile in the face of climate-induced hardship, and more effective at limiting the mobility of others. The strains this injustice places on the social fabric might well lead to woes more damaging than rising temperatures themselves.

- Meanwhile, Richard Florida writes that inequality only exacerbates the dangers of economic downturns. And UNICEF makes the case to finally put and end to child poverty (and reduce inequality) in Canada.

- Noah Smith points out that no matter how much wealth gets linked to intangibles, economic stability and prosperity ultimately depend on actually producing goods. And Cameron Murray notes that longer-term development depends on industrial policy - which governments presently seem all too eager to leave to the few wealthy enough to shape it personally.

- Canadians for Tax Fairness calls for Canada's provinces to work on ensuring corporate transparency.

- But Jeremy Nuttall reports on Christy Clark's PR-focused response to the Mount Polley environmental disaster as an example of how governments are all too often focused only on minimizing corporate wrongdoing. And Brent Patterson points out the Trudeau Libs' decision to allow the dumping of mine waste in fish-bearing creeks as just another example of profits being put before the planet.

- Finally, Ken Neumann worries about the consequences of the Libs' obsession with courting Chinese capital regardless of its effect on Canada.

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Martin Lukacs writes that the world should able to draw plenty of positive examples from Canada's politics - though not from the corporate-focused federal Libs:

As Donald Trump rips up the Paris climate accords, it may seem easy to despair. But these provincial victories show us there is a reason to hope: the huge potential in uniting urgent environmental action with an unapologetically left-wing agenda.

The agreement signed by the B.C. Greens and NDP — the boldest declaration of an incoming government in recent Canadian history — gives a taste of what this might look like.

Consider just a few of their plans. A ban on big money donations and the introduction of proportional voting: this alone would transform an enclave of corporate power into a more functional democracy. Honouring the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: this would start to heal the colonial wounds that tear apart the province. And “employing every tool” to block the Kinder Morgan tar sands pipeline: this would be a message that economic development need not torch our climate commitments, which would reverberate across the country.

It’s not quite a left-wing agenda: after all, the NDP has pledged only the most modest tax hikes to redistribute the obscene hoarded wealth in Canada’s most unequal province. But in its fusion of environmental and economic action, it is historic. In coalition, the fiscally-conservative Greens and environmentally-timid NDP have expressed the best of their platforms, and canceled out the worst.
...
For those who believe such ambition is impossible, look to those who fought for a $15 minimum wage in Ontario. They too were scoffed at for being “unrealistic.” They were ignored at first by major labour unions and the Ontario NDP. But grassroots campaigners, led by women of colour, built a campaign that forced the hand of a weakened Liberal government. They showed that, now more than ever, people are right to nurture higher expectations.
...
Quebec Solidaire comes closest to expressing this transformative vision. Its prospects in Quebec – a significant jump in the polls, an influx of thousands of new members — have now been boosted by Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. Before he won a by-election this week by a record margin, he made his name working alongside movements forging common cause: by fighting for free university tuition and strengthened public services, as well as against the Energy East tar sands pipeline, he has helped to articulate the holistic core of a new progressive politics. With the Parti Quebecois faltering, there is every reason to believe that such politics can win a much greater share of Quebec’s electorate — and even to hold the balance of power.

- Meanwhile, Rick Salutin argues that we should draw our national identity from genuine achievements such as our national medicare system, rather than worrying unduly about symbols for their own sake. But Tom Parkin laments the fact that far too much of our political media is easily distracted by shiny baubles such as Justin Trudeau's socks, rather than paying any meaningful attention to the choices which affect Canadians' lives.

- Campbell Clark discusses the elitism behind the Libs' push for a corporate trade agreement with China. And Robert Fife and Steven Chase report that the public doesn't share the Libs' blithe disregard for the security implications of handing technology firms to Chinese capital.  

- Carl Meyer exposes how the Libs reversed an evidence-based decision to ban
dangerous cosmetics based on corporate lobbying.

- Finally, Dean Baker examines the possible effects of a financial transactions tax - and notes that the elimination of extreme inequality based on top-end incomes linked to financial-sector rent-seeking is one of the major benefits.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Christopher Hoy reminds us that as much as people are already outraged by inequality, we tend to underestimate its severity. And Faiza Shaheen writes about the dangers of unchecked inequality which erodes social bonds.

- Meanwhile, Andrea Hopkins discusses how Canadians are taking significant financial risks in borrowing against home values in order to paper over a continued lack of wage gains.

- Daniel Leblanc and Steven Chase report on the Libs' plans to burn tens of billions of dollars on military equipment in the name of "hard power". And Marie-Danielle Smith reports on Justin Trudeau's preference to leave nuclear threats in place rather than lifting a finger toward disarmament.

- But Chase and Robert Fife note that even as they try to push an every-country-for-itself defence policy, the Libs are simultaneously greasing the skids for Chinese capital to take over a sensitive satellite communication network.

- Julie Know reports on the provincial auditor's criticism of the Saskatchewan Party's continued refusal to regulate pipelines. And D.C. Fraser points out that privatized health services predictably haven't led to any promised reduction in wait times.

- Finally, Julia Belluz comments on the unfairness of fee-for-service medicine, with a particular focus on price gouging in U.S. emergency rooms.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Michal Rozworski highlights how UK Labour's platform provides for a needed move toward the democratization of economic activity along with an end to gratuitous austerity. And a distinguished group of economists has signed on to support the plan.

- Charlie Skelton examines how this year's Bilderberg conference is making a mockery of issues of inclusion and fairness. And Scott Sinclair and Stuart Trew point out why there's no reason to think a free trade deal between a capital-focused Justin Trudeau and an authoritarian Chinese regime will do anything but serve corporate interests at the expense of the public.

- Meanwhile, G. Elijah Dann comments that Trudeau's legacy looks to be one of empty political theatre.

- Dean Beeby reports on the Canada Revenue Agency's calculation that the federal government lost $13.6 billion in uncollected domestic revenue in 2014 alone.

- Finally, Murray Mandryk writes that the Wall government's decision to shut down the Saskatchewan Transportation Company (among other budget cuts) looks to have caused a sea change in rural support. And the fact that the Saskatchewan Party is more focused on trying to justify continued cash-for-access fund-raisin than doing anything to benefit Saskatchewan's citizens figures to make it all the more difficult to reverse that trend.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- David Olive offers his take on what a basic income should look like - and is optimistic that Ontario's ongoing experiment should hit the mark:

A UBI would be pointless in the absence of existing supports. In the Ontario pilot projects, the payout for a single person will be $1,689 per month. That’s still short of living costs. Average Toronto rent for a two-bedroom apartment ($1,450 per month) and a Metropass ($134 per month) leaves just $116 per month for food, clothing, prescriptions and other costs.

The model devised by Segal, a longtime advocate of UBI, is a sound and cautious one. Its payout is not that much higher than current welfare support under Ontario Works, whose payouts equal about 45 per cent of the Low Income Measure.

But the Segal payout, combined with existing welfare, is enough to lift recipients above the poverty line, ensuring substantial income for workers in precarious jobs and for those in the unpaid workforce. The latter includes tens of thousands of volunteers, whose social contribution is of immense value but doesn’t show up in GDP stats.

A well-designed UBI equates to freedom. Freedom from exploitative employers. Freedom to launch a small business or develop an invention despite a lack of employment income. Liberation from the “poverty trap,” where taking a paying job means surrendering welfare and other benefits. And freedom to escape an abusive partner relied upon for room and board.
...
We’re coming back to UBI now because the “social contract” between employers and workers lies in ruins. The decline of unions has consigned powerless workers to exploitative workplaces. And the tax system has been perverted to liberate the wealthiest 1 per cent from paying their fair share.

Income inequality is a widespread crisis. How we handle it will be a defining factor in shaping the 21st century.

- Meanwhile, Emily Mathieu notes that rising rents and other costs are driving the working poor away from Toronto. And Dennis Raphael discusses the importance of political choices in ensuring physical and mental health.

- Angus Deaton discusses how extreme inequality leads to unstable and unrepresentative governance. Peter Waldman highlights the importance of in ensuring that any jobs provide both stability and a reasonable standard of living - as political spin about auto industry jobs in the southern U.S. states has led to little but exploitation in the face of minimal unionization and corporate-owned governments. And Harold Meyerson calls out the corporate media's bias against a fair minimum wage (among other basic protections for workers).

- Daniel Tencer writes that the next stage of trade negotiations with China is likely to include demands that Chinese employers be able to import workers on their own terms, while seeking to eliminate any talk of human rights or national security. 

- Finally, David Rider examines the Ontario Libs' secrecy around their Hydro One selloff - which includes hiding information about who has been involved in the privatization and at what cost. And we should expect similar secrecy - and reason for suspicion - if Bill Morneau follows through on the federal Libs' continued musings about privatizing airports and other public assets.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Peter Martin reports on the Australia Institute's recent study showing that corporate tax levels have little to do with foreign investment:

New research ridicules the Prime Minister's claim that cutting the company tax rate will boost foreign investment, pointing out that almost all of Australia's foreign investment applications already come from countries with much lower tax rates.

The analysis by the Australia Institute finds that 97 per cent of the applications to Australia's foreign investment review board come from countries with lower company tax rates. By value, 71 per cent of applications come from countries with lower rates.

"All of this raises the question – if Australia is already successful at attracting foreign investment why would we give tax cuts to foreigners?" said the report's author David Richardson, a senior research fellow at the self-described progressive think tank.

"History shows that when Australia's company tax rates were adjusted in the past, foreign investment did not go the way expected. When the rate climbed to 49 per cent in the 1980s there was a rise, not a drop in investment."

- Dennis Gruending challenges Chrystia Freeland's unquestioning devotion to free trade agreements which haven't benefited anybody other than the wealthy few in practice. Patrick McDonnell writes about the effects of NAFTA and its possible repeal on Mexico - featuring the observation that the pattern of workers seeing little benefit from a corporate-driven trade deal applies just as much to the country which started with the lowest wages. And the ITF highlights how a trade deal with China may lock in ongoing abuses against workers.

- Rank and File provides a handy mythbusting guide to the effects of a more fair minimum wage.

- Finally, Jordon Cooper offers a reminder that more strict rules against panhandling don't do anything to change the social factors which drive it.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Scott Sinclair, Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood and Stuart Trew study the contents of the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. Sinclair and Trew also highlight why Canadian progressives should oppose the deal, while Howard Mann notes that the same criticisms, including a gross transfer of power to the corporate sector and the absence of any concern for developmental and environmental issues, apply to all of the new generation of corporate rights agreements. But the Council of Canadians notes that not only are the Trudeau Libs pushing ahead with every single trade agreement currently on the table, they're also trying to lay the groundwork for a similar deal with China - even if it comes with both a blind eye to human rights violations, and an obligation to approve a tar sands pipeline.

- Bill McKibben examines how new climate data shows that we need a nearly immediate transition away from dirty energy in order to meet the Paris conference commitment to rein in global warming. And Seth Klein and Shannon Daub call out the new form of climate denialism - which pays lip service to the science of climate change, but attempts to detach it from any policy steps to improve matters.

- Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson argue that there's no reason to keep hewing to neoliberal orthodoxy when decades of evidence show how it exacerbates inequality and harms health:

Even before the 2008 global financial crisis, neoliberalism was causing what the University of Durham’s Ted Schrecker and Clare Bambra have called “neoliberal epidemics.” As Schrecker and Bambra and many others have shown, income inequality has profoundly damaging and far-reaching effects on everything from trust and social cohesion to rates of violent crime and imprisonment, educational achievement, and social mobility. Inequality seems to worsen health outcomes, reduce life expectancy, boost rates of mental illness and obesity, and even increase the prevalence of HIV.

Deep income inequality means that society is organized as a wealth-based hierarchy. Such a system confers economic as well as political power to those at the top and contributes to a sense of powerlessness for the rest of the population. Ultimately, this causes problems not only for the poor, but for the affluent as well. 

...

Careful analysis of statistical data debunked the idea that stressed executives are at a higher risk for heart attacks. Now, it has debunked the 1980s myth that “greed is good,” and has revealed the extensive damage inequality causes. It was one thing to believe these myths decades ago, but when experience and all the available evidence show them to be mistaken, it is time to make a change. 

“Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error,” said the Roman philosopher Cicero. Now that we know how inequality harms the health of societies, individuals, and economies, reducing it should be our top priority. Anyone advocating policies that increase inequality and threaten the wellbeing of our societies is taking us for fools.

- And Ashley Quan points out how a basic income could alleviate many of the harms caused by precarious financial situations.

- Finally, Thomas Walkom rightly notes that a federal crackdown on extra-billing under the Canada Health Act is long overdue.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Alan Freeman is duly appalled by Apple's attempt to throw itself a pity party with the money it's hoarding rather than paying in fair corporate taxes. And James Mackintosh reports on Jeroen Dijsselbloem's response to Apple's utterly tone-deaf position that it's entitled to its entitlements, while the Globe and Mail weighs in with the view that nobody is above paying their fair share.

- George Monbiot reminds us that successful action against one corporate-biased trade deal only accomplishes so much when another is always just around the corner. And Jim Stanford questions whether it's in Canada's interest to make major concessions to expand a trading relationship with China which already involves massive trade deficits.

- Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini conclude that excessive management is costing the U.S. economy upwards of $3 trillion per year. And Steven Musil discusses how management as it stands continues to impose unequal pay regardless of whether women attempt to negotiate a fair deal.

- The Globe and Mail argues that charities should enjoy the same freedom of speech as other organizations, rather than facing strict and arbitrary restrictions on their ability to advocate for the worthy causes they're founded to promote.

- Finally, Paul Wells comments on the urgent need for funding for basic research in Canada - even as the Libs seek headlines for building shiny new research centres.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Stephen Marche discusses the Cons' ongoing efforts to make Canada a more closed and ignorant country:

Mr. Harper’s campaign for re-election has so far been utterly consistent with the personality trait that has defined his tenure as prime minister: his peculiar hatred for sharing information.

Americans have traditionally looked to Canada as a liberal haven, with gun control, universal health care and good public education.

But the nine and half years of Mr. Harper’s tenure have seen the slow-motion erosion of that reputation for open, responsible government. His stance has been a know-nothing conservatism, applied broadly and effectively. He has consistently limited the capacity of the public to understand what its government is doing, cloaking himself and his Conservative Party in an entitled secrecy, and the country in ignorance.
…
His active promotion of ignorance extends into the functions of government itself. Most shockingly, he ended the mandatory long-form census, a decision protested by nearly 500 organizations in Canada, including the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Catholic Council of Bishops. In the age of information, he has stripped Canada of its capacity to gather information about itself. The Harper years have seen a subtle darkening of Canadian life.

The darkness has resulted, organically, in one of the most scandal-plagued administrations in Canadian history.

- Jeremy Nuttall writes that the experience of reporting on the Harper Cons' actions bears a striking resemblance to the life of state-controlled media in China. And the Vancouver Sun interviews Gus Van Harten about Harper's efforts to hand power to Chinese businesses at the expense of Canadian citizens and governments.

- Brian Milner and Jeff Lewis are the latest writers to compare Norway's success in preserving its resource wealth to Alberta's minimal reserves.

- Glen McGregor reports that the Cons' Unfair Elections Act - which of course was rammed through Parliament with insufficient review because of the urgency of putting rules in place for this fall's election - was designed to ensure that voters can't trace the source of robocalls until after this fall's election.

- The CP reports that the Cons are looking to resurrect the concept of participating in Star Wars missile defence based on their own efforts to scare the Canadian public. And Amanda Connolly points out just another example of a Con MP - in this case John Williamson - callously using a dead Canadian soldier as a political prop.

- Finally, Robyn Benson examines the status of women in Canada, while highlighting the need to elect a government which isn't out to undermine it. 

Juxtaposition

Sure, it might be tempting to say there's no difference at all between this...

The federal government touted a number of initiatives Wednesday for improving First Nations’ well-being but could not explain why a new report showed the prosperity gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people was widening in some cases.

The report, released by the federally appointed National Aboriginal Economic Development Board, found that First Nations living on reserves had shown the least improvement.

Relying on 2006 and 2011 census data, the report found the non-aboriginal employment rate went from 62.7 per cent to 61.2 per cent. For First Nations living on reserves, it dropped from 39 per cent to 35.4 per cent.

Large disparities in income levels remained. In 2010, average income was $18,586 among aboriginals on reserves and $30,266 off reserves. For non-aboriginals, the average was $41,052.

...and this:

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has told villagers in one of the most deprived areas of the country, where four children killed themselves last week by swallowing pesticide, that poverty is nothing to fear.

He made the comments in Huamao, a village in the south-western province of Guizhou, according to China’s official news agency.
...
Speaking to Caixin, a current affairs magazine, in the wake of the children’s deaths, Ye Jingzhong, a scholar from the China Agricultural University in Beijing, said: “Rural society is withering.”

Xi’s trip to Guizhou appeared partly designed to address such concerns. The ruling Communist party of China “cares a lot about farmers, particularly those in poverty, and has enacted various policies to boost rural development”, the president reportedly told villagers.

But there's certainly one distinction worth drawing. Unlike Stephen Harper, China's leaders at least deigned to show up in the general vicinity of the people they're telling to keep suffering through avoidable poverty.

Saturday Morning Links

This and that for your weekend reading.

- James Meek observes that decades of privatization in the UK have eliminated public control over housing and other essential services - and that privatization takes far more forms than we're accustomed to taking into consideration. And Rick Salutin offers his take on the latter point:

Economist Mariana Mazzucato's new book, The Entrepreneurial State, takes a bold step in "debunking" this fake construct. (Steve Paikin interviewed her on TVO this week.) She doesn't just argue that public spending (on defence) was crucial in basic advances like computers and the Internet. That's well-known. She also shows how U.S. public money funded product innovation way down the line, including some of the smallest details of the iPhone! She says the necessity of venture capital is highly exaggerated. Private investors are now far too focused on short-term profit to take real risks. It's governments that do it. The private sector then steps in when results are assured, to take the credit and the profits.

You could read her book as a blow on behalf of the public sector in the debate. But it works even better as a rejection of the debate's terms. There's no neat private-public division, that's just spin. There's actually society, a complex hybrid. Take the process of fixing potholes. Is that public or private? Or busing students to public schools. Even at those levels, it's all entwined. You cannot unscramble this omelet or neatly separate its ingredients back out.

- Meanwhile, Robert Benzie examines the Ontario Libs' plan to hand over the province's public resources based on marching orders from Bay Street, while Rob Ferguson reports on Andrea Horwath's anti-privatization push.

- Daniel Tencer examines expert reactions to the Cons' latest plan to suppress jobs and wages, and finds precisely nobody other than the CFIB with anything positive to say about it.

- Sharon Murphy writes that directing our attention toward poverty and other social determinants of health is both more humane then funding merely reactive systems, and more likely to result in an improved return on our public investments. And Andre Picard discusses the health consequences of insufficient access to dental care (particularly among Canadians with low incomes).

- Dene Moore reports on the obscene amount of political intervention the Cons are imposing in scientific discussions, finding that 16 separate communications operatives interfered in a single request to interview a single scientist about his work. And the Star calls for Health Canada to stop suppressing its findings about defective and dangerous prescription drugs.

- Finally, Jeremy Nuttall notes that the Cons' backroom dealings on the FIPA trade and investment agreement with China resulted in their completely caving when it came to Canadian interests, while the NDP is leading the charge to stop the sell-out. And Katie Valentine reports that while Stephen Harper can't rush through giveaways to Chinese business fast enough, he also can't be bothered to show up for the U.N.'s climate summit.