If Rudd is to be believed, all the present problems can be traced back to the “neo-liberal orthodoxy” that dominates economic policymaking. And the solution is a return to social democratic Keynesian policies that existed prior to the mid-70s.
Role of Government
Is Government Spending Too Easy an Answer?
WHEN the Obama administration finally unveils its proposal to get the economy on the road to recovery, the centerpiece is likely to be a huge increase in government spending. But there are ample reasons to doubt whether this is what the economy needs.
Let My Free Market Go: Alternate Recession Strategy
In these free-spending times there’s a growing movement among economists who say the best way out of this recession is to do nothing, nothing at all.
Anchors To Secure The Future
A broad consensus has formed around the idea that a plunge into the red is a frightening but unavoidable consequence of the economic downturn, and the fiscal laxity that preceded it. This would be much easier if new fiscal anchors, notably a specific debt-to-GDP ratio, had been firmly established after the books were balanced. An additional anchor, limiting program spending to a percentage of GDP, would further prevent Canada from sliding into a long-term pattern of deficits.
Featured News
Celebrating Manitoba’s Fisher River First Nation
Indigenous communities in Manitoba face some of the greatest obstacles. Over the years, when the UN Human Development Index was applied to First Nation communities across Canada, Manitoba First Nations often ranked lowest. So, it’s important to highlight some of the...
UK-Canada Nuclear Fusion Project Could Generate Jobs, Unite Climate Alarmists and Skeptics
For a long time, nuclear fusion has been a sci-fi fantasy; the holy grail of energy production that involves the combination of multiple atomic nuclei to generate energy. It’s the same process used by the sun to create energy, and the opposite of nuclear fission,...
Solving the Stagnation Puzzle
One of the world’s leading economists discusses policy issues that lie at the root of Manitoba’s relative economic stagnation.
Janice MacKinnon, Romanow’s Finance Minister
Frontier interviews Janice MacKinnon, Saskatchewan’s finance minister during 1993-97 who presided over one of the steepest reductions in size of government in Canadian history.
Fiscal Lessons from “Combat Barbie”
A book review of Janice MacKinnon’s book “Minding the Public Purse”, which chronicles her battle to create fiscal sanity in Saskatchewan’s government.
Dirty little secrets: Canadian politics
On Canada’s policy stagnation.. the parties are much the same
Government job creation a $1 trillion waste
Failed efforts to develop Atlantic Canada’s economy provides key lessons for Canada and for Saskatchewan.
Third Way can’t survive Tony Blair
Tony Blair’s politics shows how skewed Canadian politics have become
Get Ottawa out of daycare
Government policy restricts the supply of daycare – that’s why we have a “crisis”
Manitoba’s Low Business Investment
Manitoba has the lowest rate of capital investment per capita in western Canada and the third lowest in the country, after two Maritime provinces. Over the last ten years, the accumulated new investment amounts to only 40% of the Canadian average.
Fiscal Restraint in the States
One fiscal-discipline measure that enjoyed some success in limiting the growth of government during the 1990s is that of the Tax and Expenditure Limitation, or TEL. TELs restrain government growth by limiting the amount that expenditures or revenues can increase in any given fiscal year.