Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- David Macdonald examines (PDF) the continued pay gap which sees CEOs rake in more money the morning of the first day of work than their employees will earn all year. Canadians for Tax Fairness highlights how that signals the need to eliminate tax policy choices which contribute to the concentration and polarization of wealth. And Larry Elliott reports on the Institute for Fiscal Studies' call for steps to rein in the additional inequality resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, while Paul Taylor argues that we should be focusing more on reducing inequality generally.

- Brendan Haley highlights how we need a green industrial policy alongside a higher carbon price to ensure a just transition to a clean economy which doesn't leave current workers behind. And Stanley Reed discusses how large-scale wind turbines represent a clean and affordable alternative to fossil fuels in generating the energy we need. 

- Meanwhile, Janet Silver writes that plans to put off emission reductions for another three decades may result in irreversible damage to Canada's northern region. And Sara Connors reports on a plan for an eleven-figure railroad from Fort McMurray to Alaska as yet another attempt to lock us into costly and dirty fossil fuel infrastructure before a transition can take place.

- Finally, Paul Krugman notes (even in advance of yesterday's anti-democratic insurrection) that the Republican party has gone feral. But Charles Pierce points out how much of what's happened in the past few years has been in the works since the Reagan era, and reflects more a cause than a consequence of Donald Trump's tenure in the presidency.