Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Henrietta Cook reports on new data as to the number of people dying in hospitals as a result of the spread of COVID-19, while Adam Rowe reports on the CDC's recognition that COVID's human toll is paired with serious economic damage. And Sophie Rosenblum and Michael Bailey ask why we haven't even applied the pandemic's obvious lessons about the importance of air filtration in schools. 

- Meanwhile, Emily Baumgaertner explores how noise exposure can cause substantial harm to public health. And Chris Hatch discusses how oil barons have effectively trapped humanity in a hot car - even as they continue to demand ritual shows of fealty to their power to endanger us all. 

- Niigaan Sinclair discusses the high cost of austerity in the PCs' Manitoba. And Michael Marmot points out the outright decline in child height and other measures of public health and development to demonstrate the wide-ranging effects of austerity in the UK. 

- Steve Morgan and Nav Persaud make the case for a publicly-funded essential medicines program to make needed medications both freely available and less expensive. 

- Finally, Joseph Stiglitz and Tommaso Faccio write about the much-needed steps by some countries to take minimum corporate tax levels into their own hands as a compromised global process appears to have stalled. 

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Joseph Stiglitz discusses the divides which have been exposed and exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. And Anand Giridharidas talks to Varshini Prakash about how a plan to deal with the climate crisis will contribute to solving many of the other issues we're currently facing.

- Terry Sunderland writes about the environmental damage wrought by our poor food choices. And Emma Howard discusses Donald Trump's attempt to push plastic products into Africa through trade deals - though David Roberts notes that any prospect of prolonging oil development through plastics is likely doomed in any event.

- Annina Claesson makes the case for us to follow Finland's lead in examining the prospect of a six-hour work day.

- The Star's editorial board makes the case to reduce class sizes to help limit the spread of COVID-19. But the Canadian Press reports on the effect of Ontario's education funding system in ensuring that class sizes stay high due to "collapsed" classrooms even if fewer students are attending school in person.

- Finally, Jonathan Wang, Saba Vahid, Maria Eberg, Shannon Milroy, John Milkovich, Frances C. Wright, Amber Hunter, Ryan Kalladeen, Claudia Zanchetta, Harindra C. Wijeysundera and Jonathan Irish study the surgical backlog caused by COVID-19 in Ontario - with the conclusion that it will take upwards of a year and a half to get back up to date figuring to apply to other provinces as well.And the Los Angeles Times' editorial board weighs in on the reality that any talk of "herd immunity" means nothing more than facilitating avoidable deaths.

Tuesday Evening Links

This and that for your Tuesday evening.

- Crawford Kilian examines the UN's advice on how to keep school safe from COVID-19, while the Saskatchewan Medical Association and Saskatchewan College of Family Physicians (PDF) both urge the Saskatchewan Party start paying attention to what's needed to keep people safe. And The New York Times' editorial board points out that even the U.S. could get control of the coronavirus by this fall if there was any competence or caring to be found among its decision-makers.

- The Star's editorial board writes that COVID-19 has highlighted the need for an income support system which goes far beyond EI as it stands.

- The Canadian Press reports on the death of Canadian James Hill as a result of the uncontrolled spread of COVID while in ICE custody. And lest anybody think Canada's immigration system is wanting for cruelty, Doug Schmidt reports on the threat of kidnapping and deportation used to prevent a migrant farm worker in Ontario from reporting employer abuse.

- Joseph Stiglitz offers a reminder as to why GDP fails to measure the well-being and sustainability which should be the focus of our public policy choices.

- Finally, PressProgress points out the Saskatchewan Party's outright bragging about relying on massive corporate donations to drown out other voices. And Geoff Leo catches them promising that donations will be personally reviewed to allow donors to get into Scott Moe's good graces.

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Joseph Stiglitz highlights how investing in the green economy provides a viable economic and ecological path forward in recovering from the coronavirus crisis.

- Mariana Mazzucato discusses the importance of socializing successes to make sure that new industries don't exacerbate inequalities in wealth and power. And Matt Bruenig notes that the majority of the U.S.' wealth gap by race comes from the obscene concentration of riches among the wealthiest white households.

- Meanwhile, Paul Keil reports on yet another drop in the IRS' auditing of wealthy Americans as a service starved of funding to combat the tax-evading rich has limited itself to going after easier targets.

- The International Centre for Non-Profit Law is tracking the anti-protest laws being imposed in the U.S. Musa Al-Gharbi discusses how police departments punish whistleblowers to ensure their abuses can continue without accountability. And Royson James writes that the meager consequences for the deliberate assault on Dafonte Miller shows how the law isn't intended to protect far too many people. 

- Deb Perelman points out how a stubborn refusal to address the ongoing lack of child care is forcing parents (and predominantly women) to choose between work and parenting.

- Finally, Alissa Quart, Astra Taylor and Brittany Powell suggest that an appropriate act of recognition and gratitude for the workers on the front lines of COVID-19 would be to forgive outstanding student debt. But Bobby Hristova reports that the response of Maple Leaf Foods (among other corporate giants) has instead been to end "hero pay" in the midst of an ongoing pandemic - leaving workers angry about how symbolic support has given way to callous management. 

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Joseph Stiglitz writes about the need to cultivate solidarity as an alternative to neoliberal selfishness. And Chuck Collins reminds us how the very existence of billionaires represents both a profound failure of public policy, and a cause of distortions at the whims of those who have far too much.

- Meanwhile, Pete Evans reports on the failure of a bond system to provide any effective response to the coronavirus. And Patrick Condon discusses how the influence of the financial sector is making housing unaffordable.

- PressProgress highlights the connections between Ford PC insiders and a (thankfully unsuccessful) smear campaign against Ontario teachers.

- Finally, Ralph Surette points out the inevitability that we can't go on subsidizing dirty and inefficient tar sands projects. Scott Gilmore writes that contrary to the spin from the right, the only people betraying Albertans are the fossil fuel fanatics who refuse to tell the truth about the need for a transition to clean energy. And David Climenhaga discusses the laughable Buffalo Declaration as just the latest round of faux victimhood.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Joseph Stiglitz, Todd Tucker and Gabriel Zucman write about the need for governments to bring in sufficient revenue to act in the public interest. And Sophie Alexander points out some of the millionaires who want their class to contribute their fair share.

- Robinson Meyer offers some historical perspective on both the climate breakdown we're already facing, and the continued carbon pollution which only figures to make matters worse. Mitchell Anderson comments on the futility of the Australian government's helicoptering of temporary food supplies to wallabies while it remains determined to destroy their habitat. And Emma McIntosh writes that both global economic forces and public opinion are on the side of a transition away from fossil fuels.

- Meanwhile, John Vidal writes that the solution to our excess of plastic waste involves planning to avoid creating it in the first place, not relying on recycling after the fact.

- Josh Rubin reports on the wage stagnation facing men living in Toronto over the past two decades. And the Economist weighs in on the connection between minimum wage levels and suicide rates.

- Finally, David Climenhaga takes note of the general strikes in France to save pensions under attack by Emmanuel Macron - as well as the media blackout against that type of collective action in Canada.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Joseph Stiglitz points out that a few gross numbers based on top-end wealth can't change the reality that Donald Trump's economy has only squeezed the working class. Jim Stanford highlights Australia's "retail apocalypse" resulting in massive job losses and disruption, while Josh Robin notes that male workers in Toronto have seen their wages stagnate since 2000. And Phillip Inman reports on the IMF's recognition that we're at risk of another crash at any time due to inequality and a precarious financial sector.

- Kelly Cryderman points out that Jason Kenney's supposed plans for jobs in Alberta are doomed as long as he insists on skimping on child care. And PressProgress is duly scathing in response to Doug Ford's desire to pattern Ontario's education system after Alabama's.

- Lee Fang exposes the lobbying and disinformation campaigns by pesticide producers to avoid accounting for the dangers of poisons which have been found to devastate bee populations. And Rebecca Cohen writes about a foiled corporate attempt to empty a basin beneath the Mojave Desert to be sold into Los Angeles' suburbs.

- Meanwhile, Sarah Boseley reports on the public health dangers arising out of Big Pharma's complete failure to adequately research new antibiotics (and the concurrent reluctance of governments to fund research designed to produce public benefits rather than private profits).

- Finally, Jennifer Pagliaro writes about the underfunding of libraries which keeps them from serving vital purposes - including as a place to go for people who otherwise lack one.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Joseph Stiglitz discusses how the failure of neoliberalism to provide gains for any but the wealthiest few has led to risks to the democratic systems which have been treated as tied to laissez-faire economics. And Armine Yalnizyan challenges the false assumption that increased inequality can be justified in the name of competitiveness.

- Sarah Lawryniuk writes about the potential for Jason Kenney's wanton destruction of Alberta's public sector to produce massive social unrest along with economic damage. Rethinking Poverty writes about the importance of having policy designed by the people who experience its consequences, rather than being imposed out of ignorance by privileged people who presume anything that doesn't affect them personally must not matter. And Ash Sharkar writes that the UK's election may determine whether citizens see any hope of dealing with collective problems at the ballot box.

- Thomas Walkom puts Kenney's trumped-up complaints in perspective compared to the the enormity and importance of the global climate crisis. And Stephen Buranyi calls out the new form of conservative climate denial, which involves barely acknowledging the danger but refusing to do anything to actually cut greenhouse gas emissions.

- But Noah Smith writes that no matter how firmly oil-backed politicians remain in denial, there's no avoiding the fact that the age of fossil fuels is coming to an end.

- Finally, Jane Philpott and Danyaal Raza write that the time is now to put a national Pharmacare program in place.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Joseph Stiglitz writes about the dangers of measuring economic and social progress solely in terms of GDP:

It is clear that something is fundamentally wrong with the way we assess economic performance and social progress. Even worse, our metrics frequently give the misleading impression that there is a trade-off between the two; that, for instance, changes that enhance people’s economic security, whether through improved pensions or a better welfare state, come at the expense of national economic performance.

Getting the measure right – or at least a lot better – is crucially important, especially in our metrics- and performance-oriented society. If we measure the wrong thing, we will do the wrong thing. If our measures tell us everything is fine when it really isn’t, we will be complacent.

And it should be clear that, in spite of the increases in GDP, in spite of the 2008 crisis being well behind us, everything is not fine. We see this in the political discontent rippling through so many advanced countries; we see it in the widespread support of demagogues, whose successes depend on exploiting economic discontent; and we see it in the environment around us, where fires rage and floods and droughts occur at ever-increasing intervals.

- Michael Roberts examines the need for economic transformation in the UK, while making the case that even Labour's election platform doesn't go far enough in addressing control over key sectors. And Joao Medeiros writes about Mariana Mazzucato's prescription for public involvement in - and benefits from - our future economic path.

- Joanne Seiff discusses the environmental damage done by a throw-away consumer culture. And Andrew Nikiforuk writes about the need for more sustainable economic practices - not only a conversion to new energy sources - in order to combat the climate crisis.

- Finally, Gregory Beatty highlights how the Wexit scam is being used to distract from the real and glaring failures of Scott Moe, Jason Kenney and other right-wing politicians.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Joseph Stiglitz discusses how decades of laissez-faire economics and deference to the rich have undermined any effective democratic decision-making. Bruce Boghosian observes that structural change is needed to avoid a tendency toward the concentration of wealth and concurrent rise of inequality. And Owen Jones comments on the need to break up the billionaires' club rather than catering to it.

- Dale Marshall writes that contrary to the constant spin emanating from the same sources as historic climate change denial, Canada's oil industry is doing more environmental damage than ever. And Alex Lubben points out that the harm done by the recent Keystone spill will be virtually impossible to remediate.

- Geoff Leo reports on the shady immigration scheme associated linking the Saskatchewan Party government, the Global Transportation Hub and Brightenview - then follows up by reporting that it's only the latest public exposure that's forced Scott Moe to stop rubber-stamping questionable "investor" nominees.

- Meanwhile, the Brandon Sun highlights why Manitoba has every reason to question Brad Wall's judgment as he's been handed a political appointment to attack public power distribution.

- Finally, Nathaniel Dove reports on the deaths being caused by overcrowding in Saskatchewan's overburdened emergency rooms. And Murray Mandryk contrasts the Sask Party's obsession with megaprojects against the NDP's recognition that people need to come first.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Justin Fisher laments the fact that we're still talking about first steps toward combating a climate crisis after decades of understanding the problem. Jake Woodier points out that Brexit has been the UK's recent distraction from the most important issue facing humanity. And Joseph Stiglitz is the latest to compare a Green New Deal to avert climate breakdown with the scale and urgency of a wartime mobilization:

When the US was attacked during the second world war no one asked, “Can we afford to fight the war?” It was an existential matter. We could not afford not to fight it. The same goes for the climate crisis. Here, we are already experiencing the direct costs of ignoring the issue – in recent years the country has lost almost 2% of GDP in weather-related disasters, which include floods, hurricanes, and forest fires. The cost to our health from climate-related diseases is just being tabulated, but it, too, will run into the tens of billions of dollars – not to mention the as-yet-uncounted number of lives lost. We will pay for climate breakdown one way or another, so it makes sense to spend money now to reduce emissions rather than wait until later to pay a lot more for the consequences – not just from weather but also from rising sea levels. It’s a cliche, but it’s true: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

The war on the climate emergency, if correctly waged, would actually be good for the economy – just as the second world war set the stage for America’s golden economic era , with the fastest rate of growth in its history amidst shared prosperity. The Green New Deal would stimulate demand, ensuring that all available resources were used; and the transition to the green economy would likely usher in a new boom. Trump’s focus on the industries of the past, like coal, is strangling the much more sensible move to wind and solar power. More jobs by far will be created in renewable energy than will be lost in coal.
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The mobilization efforts of the second world war transformed our society. We went from an agricultural economy and a largely rural society to a manufacturing economy and a largely urban society. The temporary liberation of women as they entered the labor force so the country could meet its war needs had long-term effects. This is the advocates’ ambition, a not unrealistic one, for the Green New Deal.

There is absolutely no reason the innovative and green economy of the 21st century has to follow the economic and social models of the 20th-century manufacturing economy based on fossil fuels, just as there was no reason that that economy had to follow the economic and social models of the agrarian and rural economies of earlier centuries.

- But if we needed a reminder of the ease with which serious dangers to the public get ignored or forgotten, Benjamin Kentish notes that tens of thousands of Britons still live in buildings covered in the same material which caused the spread of the devastating Grenfell Tower fire.

- Rafferty Baker reports on research showing how harm reduction steps are reducing the still-alarming number of deaths caused by opioids. And Barbara Krantz points out that as serious as the opioid crisis is, far more people die due to alcohol - even as Canada's right makes it a core policy to try to push people to drink more.

- Trade Justice Network Canada discusses how the new NAFTA is anything but progressive - no matter what talking points the Trudeau Libs use in trying to push it through.

- And finally, Paul Romer suggests that a tax on targeted advertising could both raise revenue, and reduce the amount of user tracking that contributes to hidden dangers online.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Joseph Stiglitz points out the need to move beyond neoliberalism and offers a useful policy framework to do so - though framing an alternative as "progressive capitalism" cedes far more ground than necessary in continuing to prioritize capital over social well-being.

- The Economist examines how increasing numbers of Americans are acknowledging the climate crisis in the face of extreme weather events. But Heide Pearson reports that right-wing governments are still sticking with denial, as the UCP for one isn't particularly concerned with the people losing their homes and communities to climate disasters. Mitchell Anderson reminds us that Jason Kenney's top priority is only to accelerate the harm done by a substantially-unregulated fossil fuel sector. And George Monbiot highlights how the Trump administration's propaganda campaign is a planetary version of exactly the language used to persuade people to harm their own lungs by smoking.

- Harvey Cashore reports on another secret settlement in which wealthy KPMG clients avoid not only prosecution, but even public awareness of their deceptive tax evasion schemes. PressProgress points out the connections between the Aquilini family, the gross abuse of workers, and the funneling of money to the B.C. Liberals. And Robert Fife and Steven Chase expose an arrangement in which the federal government ensures that Irving Shipbuilding gets notified of any attempt by journalists to investigate its public contracts.

- Finally, Jean Swanson suggests that if Vancouver is willing to proclaim basic freedoms for animals, it should certainly be prepared to do the same (and couple it with action) to ensure a reasonable standard of living for all people.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Daniel Drenzer reviews Joseph Stiglitz' People, Power and Profits, while noting the importance of pairing progressive policy ideas with a plan for implementation. And Laura Davison points out how Donald Trump's massive tax losses which kept him from contributing to the U.S.' public coffers involved some of the same loopholes now being exploited by the likes of Amazon.

- Melanie Marquis reports on the NDP's plans to ensure that tech giants pay their fair share. And the Canadian Press points out the reality that online monopolists are currently thumbing their noses at Canadian laws intended to protect privacy and election integrity.

- Robin Levinson-King weighs in on the use of Vancouver's real estate market for large-scale money-laundering, while Mike Smyth writes about the need for a public inquiry. And Mike Crawley reports that Doug Ford's war on facts includes concealing information about foreign buyers which would enable the public to know about similar issues in Ontario. 

- Meanwhile, Heather Boushey argues that we need to better measure income and wealth across a full population, rather than counting on top-heavy GDP and stock market indicators as a full answer to how an economy is performing.

- Finally, Lizzy Buchan reports that a strong majority of UK voters want to see sharp decreases in greenhouse gas emissions to reach zero net emissions by 2050. And Shawn McCarthy points out that two-thirds of Canadians are opposed to the right-wing provincial governments who are both refusing to implement any substantial climate policies in their provinces, and trying to prevent any action to pick up the slack at the federal level.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Matt McGrath reports on David Attenborough's warning of an impending climate catastrophe. And Moira Fagan and Christine Huang examine the widespread recognition around the world of the importance of averting a climate breakdown.

- Jonathan Watts reports on polling showing half of UK respondents are willing to pay more in order to avoid polluting our oceans with plastic. But Oliver Milman points out Donald Trump's attempt to push poorly-regulated offshore drilling - indicating that the powers that be are far behind the public in recognizing the importance of our natural environment.

- John Stapleton and Yvonne Yuan note that Canada's official poverty line doesn't take into account the higher effective food prices facing lower-income people.

- Joseph Stiglitz offers his diagnosis as to how our economy came to be grossly unbalanced in favour of the wealthy - and his suggestions as to how progressive capitalism might be possible:

Beginning with the Reagan era, economic policy played a key role in this dystopia: Just as forces of globalization and technological change were contributing to growing inequality, we adopted policies that worsened societal inequities. Even as economic theories like information economics (dealing with the ever-present situation where information is imperfect), behavioral economics and game theory arose to explain why markets on their own are often not efficient, fair, stable or seemingly rational, we relied more on markets and scaled back social protections.

The result is an economy with more exploitation — whether it’s abusive practices in the financial sector or the technology sector using our own data to take advantage of us at the cost of our privacy. The weakening of antitrust enforcement, and the failure of regulation to keep up with changes in our economy and the innovations in creating and leveraging market power, meant that markets became more concentrated and less competitive.
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We are now in a vicious cycle: Greater economic inequality is leading, in our money-driven political system, to more political inequality, with weaker rules and deregulation causing still more economic inequality.
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The prescription follows from the diagnosis: It begins by recognizing the vital role that the state plays in making markets serve society. We need regulations that ensure strong competition without abusive exploitation, realigning the relationship between corporations and the workers they employ and the customers they are supposed to serve. We must be as resolute in combating market power as the corporate sector is in increasing it.

- Finally, Murray Mandryk rightly questions Scott Moe's willingness to serve as Jason Kenney's lapdog rather than paying attention to the needs of Saskatchewan's residents.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Jay Shambaugh, Ryan Nunn and Stacy Anderson write about the lasting effects of racial and regional inequality.

- Samuel Stein discusses the lessons activists can take from New York's successful pushback against Amazon's demands for billions in public giveaways. And Joseph Stiglitz writes about the available means to ensure that multinational corporations pay their fair share.

- Von Mattias Punz points out Portugal's success after rejecting austerity in favour of social development. And Ian Hussey takes note of Alberta's increase in service-sector employment after it boosted its minimum wage (contrary to the spin of the corporate lobby).

- Finally, Christo Aivalis discusses the continued importance of unions, including their role in building democracy both in workplaces and in general:

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Joseph Stiglitz writes that history has proven wrong the theory that the weak recovery from the 2008 economic crash was the result of "secular stagnation" rather than a woefully insufficient public policy response. And Sam Pizzigati points out how the U.S. public is picking up the bill for obscene executive pay rather than seeing public money used for beneficial purposes.

- Thomas Walkom points out the futility of signing trade deals with unreliable partners. And Theophilis Argitis observes that there's been no reality to past threats about the consequences of failing to follow Donald Trump's regressive economic policies.

- Oliver Milman reports on California's move toward 100% clean electricity, signalling how forward-looking jurisdictions are planning their energy futures.

- Rick Smith discusses how the defence of democratic decision-making has become a genuinely controversial issue in the face of right-wing politicians increasingly determined to warp electoral systems and public institutions to exclude any other voices. And Linda McQuaig notes that Doug Ford has picked up a class war on behalf of the rich where Mike Harris left off.

- Finally, Luke Savage highlights the need to properly define and apply the concept of populism, rather than using it as a shorthand which simultaneously dismisses legitimate criticisms of the status quo and reinforces misleading messages:

(T)he label’s almost uniformly negative connotation has created a parochial shorthand by which any serious critic of the status quo can be summarily dismissed regardless of their actual analysis or their ultimate political demands (whether you favour them or not, calls for tuition-free universities or universal social programs are categorically not equivalent to closed borders or fear-mongering about immigration). For another, it often has a way of needlessly glamorizing political behaviour that is, in fact, quite traditional. Is Doug Ford, for example, really a populist or is he just the scion of an entrenched political dynasty who’s cavalier with the truth and likes to say “folks” so much that people forget he’s a multimillionaire? Let’s avoid ascribing some ethereal mystique to good old-fashioned political posturing or demagogy. But finally, and most straightforwardly, incoherence is generally harmful for democracy—when people go to vote, we presumably would like them to have some idea of what they’re actually voting for, and not all populisms are created equal.
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(I)n its contemporary usage, populism seems to be more of a floating signifier than something that usefully connotes a specific ideology, tendency, or political project. True, antiestablishment posture seems a common thread in these examples. But establishment and elites are themselves quite mutable terms and refer to completely different groups and institutions depending on who you ask. Are “elites” and members of the “establishment” state bureaucrats? Academics? The media? Corporate CEOs? People who prefer a glass of sherry to a pint of beer or happen to live in a major metropolitan area near the coast? The various individuals, parties, and movements cited above would likely offer very different answers.
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As fashionable as it has become, then, the populist label may only be useful in a broad, aesthetic sense, and even then its value may be limited. Unhelpfully, it often grafts an aura of novelty on to well-worn ideological divides and, in the process, puts completely disparate politicians and movements into the same box. In trying to interpret various movements of the left and right, let us stop conflating a political style with a distinctive ideology.

[Edit: fixed typo.]

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Joseph Stiglitz discusses the apparent destructive belief among Davos' elites that irrational exuberance and top-heavy economic gains are remotely sustainable:

The world is plagued by almost intractable problems. Inequality is surging, especially in the advanced economies. The digital revolution, despite its potential, also carries serious risks for privacy, security, jobs, and democracy – challenges that are compounded by the rising monopoly power of a few American and Chinese data giants, including Facebook and Google. Climate change amounts to an existential threat to the entire global economy as we know it.

Perhaps more disheartening than such problems, however, are the responses. To be sure, here at Davos, CEOs from around the world begin most of their speeches by affirming the importance of values. Their activities, they proclaim, are aimed not just at maximizing profits for shareholders, but also at creating a better future for their workers, the communities in which they work, and the world more generally. They may even pay lip service to the risks posed by climate change and inequality.

But, by the end of their speeches this year, any remaining illusion about the values motivating Davos CEOs was shattered. The risk that these CEOs seemed most concerned about is the populist backlash against the kind of globalization that they have shaped – and from which they have benefited immensely.
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For the CEOs of Davos, it seems that tax cuts for the rich and their corporations, along with deregulation, is the answer to every country’s problems. Trickle-down economics, they claim, will ensure that, ultimately, the entire population benefits economically. And the CEOs’ good hearts are apparently all that is needed to ensure that the environment is protected, even without relevant regulations.

Yet the lessons of history are clear. Trickle-down economics doesn’t work. And one of the key reasons why our environment is in such a precarious condition is that corporations have not, on their own, lived up to their social responsibilities. Without effective regulations and a real price to pay for polluting, there is no reason whatsoever to believe that they will behave differently than they have.

- And Arwa Mahdawi comments on the "class-passing" needed for anybody to try to break through increasingly rigid class barriers.

- Polly Toynbee writes about the link between privatization, pollution and poor health in the UK. And Julia Conley discusses how Donald Trump's latest giveaway to polluters will put water quality at risk for Americans.

- Finally, Hayley Peterson reports on Whole Foods' use of stringent "scorecards" to control and punish employees, while Ellen Tannam reports on Amazon's plans to take constant monitoring to new extremes with bracelets to track warehouse employees' whereabouts at all times. And Sara Mojtehedzadeh points out how Ontario is continuing to allow employers to use temporary workers as a means of avoiding responsibility for health and safety.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Joseph Stiglitz discusses how the Republicans' tax scam is designed for the sole purpose of further enriching their already-wealthy donors, while Theodoric Meyer notes that it also stands to make loads of money for lobbyists.

- Jagmeet Singh makes the case for Canada to work on a tax system which is more fair to citizens - making for a far more constructive contribution than Susan Delacourt's effort to stoke anti-tax sentiment for little apparent reason. And Patrick Collinson comments on the need for a tax system which ensures that inheritances don't exacerbate existing inequality:

Firstly, let’s call a halt to the nonsense that the money goes to kids, or to young adults needing a hand up the property ladder. The average age at which someone receives an inheritance is 61. These people are certainly not “kids” – indeed, many of the recipients of unearned inheritances (largely created by property inflation, not personal endeavour) will be grandparents themselves.

Now let’s look at who receives the money. The report reveals how it doesn’t really go to those who need a leg-up – it goes to those who already have assets. Resolution looked at the millennial generation – generally those seen as reaching their late teens and early 20s after 2000 – and found that the ones who haven’t got on the property ladder are likely to be those whose parents also never made it. In contrast, 83% of millennials who have bought their homes have parents who also bought their own homes.

You can see where inheritance is going. What it does is simply entrench inequality and make the divide between the housing haves and have-nots wider.
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Social mobility risks grinding to a near halt, making it much more difficult to become wealthy from one’s own endeavours. Society will, more than ever, be run for the benefit of a trustafarian gerontocracy of the 60-plus who inherited property, not a society where entrepreneurial vigour counts.

- Owen Jones points out the combination of skyrocketing prices and declining service in the UK's rail industry as just another example of the consequences of ideological privatization.

- Aditya Chakrabortty discusses how the UK's social programs have been cut and rendered impossible to navigate in order to divert money to the Conservatives' tax slashing.

- Finally, Elizabeth Schulze examines Finland's basic income experiment after a year, and finds that the main question being raised is whether to go further in extending income security.

Saturday Evening Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Brian Bethune interviews Joseph Stiglitz about his longstanding recognition that an international economic system biased toward capital could lay the groundwork for Trump-style demagoguery.

- Kristin Annable reports on the Manitoba PCs' steps toward for-profit health care as an alternative to properly funding and managing the public system. But Keith Gerein notes that the Alberta NDP is instead developing public-sector senior care alternatives where the private sector is falling short of meeting people's needs.

- David Hardman defends the concept of a basic income by noting that our sleep cycles are at best an awkward fit with even standard full-time work. David Rosen discusses the end of the true 40-hour work week due a combination of undercounting work time and the need for multiple incomes to stay afloat. And Colin Gordon notes that U.S. laws have been undercutting the labour movement's ability to defend workers' rights for the past 70 years. 

- Angela Wright points out that a serious effort to combat offshore tax evasion needs to deal with prominent developed countries which choose to act as tax havens.

- Finally, Brent Richter offers a good-news story as to how a single tax return gave one marginalized citizen a chance for a genuine fresh state - while noting that many people would benefit similarly from a concerted effort to prepare returns for people who aren't currently submitting them.

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Joseph Stiglitz writes about the need to learn from past mistakes in order to build a sustainable economy for the future:

To someone like me, who has watched trade negotiations closely for more than a quarter-century, it is clear that US trade negotiators got most of what they wanted. The problem was with what they wanted. Their agenda was set, behind closed doors, by corporations. It was an agenda written by, and for, large multinational companies, at the expense of workers and ordinary citizens everywhere.

Indeed, it often seems that workers, who have seen their wages fall and jobs disappear, are just collateral damage – innocent but unavoidable victims in the inexorable march of economic progress. But there is another interpretation of what has happened: one of the objectives of globalisation was to weaken workers’ bargaining power. What corporations wanted was cheaper labour, however they could get it.

This interpretation helps explain some puzzling aspects of trade agreements. Why is it, for example, that advanced countries gave away one of their biggest advantages, the rule of law? Indeed, provisions embedded in most recent trade agreements give foreign investors more rights than are provided to investors in the US. They are compensated, for example, should the government adopt a regulation that hurts their bottom line, no matter how desirable the regulation or how great the harm caused by the corporation in its absence.
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American capitalism in recent years has been marked by unbridled greed – the 2008 financial crisis provides ample confirmation of that. But, as some countries have shown, a market economy can take forms that temper the excesses of both capitalism and globalisation, and deliver more sustainable growth and higher standards of living for most citizens.

We can learn from such successes what to do, just as we can learn from past mistakes what not to do. As has become evident, if we do not manage globalisation so that it benefits all, the backlash – from the New Discontents in the north and the Old Discontents in the south – is at risk of intensifying.

- Meanwhile, Martin Wolf comments on the Republican tax plan which is built to benefit nobody besides plutocrats. And Michelle Goldberg notes that there's every reason for millenials to hate a capitalist system which is creating nothing but obstacles to basic security and personal progress.

- Heidi Shierholz discusses the Trump administration's latest move to reward the worst of the worst exploiters, this time by allowing employers to pocket employees' tips.

- Brian Doucet and David Hulchanski both write that the Libs' much-ballyhooed "housing strategy" falls far short of earning that title.

- Finally, Mike Crawley reports on the massive amounts of consumer money going to Ontario's private power generators for inappropriate expenses. And Don Pittis discusses how Canada's electrical system is already far over the amount of generating capacity it needs - with the public purse bearing the cost of old and inefficient generation through corporate-friendly fixed contracts.