Jim Stanford

Trump's proven that free trade deals can be rewritten. So let's write better ones.

rabble staff — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 15:21:17 +0000

Thursday, January 12, 2017

For years, we've been told the dictates of globalization, and the intrusive and prescriptive terms of free trade agreements in particular, are immutable, natural, and unquestionable. When workers were displaced by the migration of multinational capital toward more profitable jurisdictions, we were told there's nothing we can do about it except join the race to the bottom in a desperate attempt to hang onto our jobs. When investment and employment were undermined by lopsided trade and capital flows, and employers and financiers utilized the leverage afforded them by unrestrained international mobility to ratchet the distributional structure of the economy ever-more-blatantly in their own favour, we were informed this was just the logic of markets. And anyone who questioned

If Trump can rewrite international economic treaties on the strength of a few tweets, then we can do the same thing -- but only if we build a political movement with the same confidence and power.

Denying globalization's downside won't stop right-wing populism

rabble staff — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 13:22:03 +0000

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

I was somewhat surprised to see Stephen Poloz recently urging economists to do more work identifying and disseminating research on the supposed benefits of free trade. That's slightly beyond his job description (perhaps more fitting with his last position as head of Export Development Canada). But like economic leaders elsewhere in the world, Mr. Poloz is obviously concerned with the disintegration of popular support for neoliberal free trade deals. That disintegration will have tectonic economic and political consequences.

True believers may think that merely educating citizens about how trade deals really are good for everyone will save the day for globalization. But there's a much deeper problem.

Canada's highly lopsided economic relationship with China

rabble staff — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 13:58:10 +0000

Friday, September 2, 2016

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Prime Minister Trudeau leads a big entourage to China this week, in hopes of expanding Canada's foothold in that huge economy. Here are the main features of our current, unbalanced relationship.

New thinking needed on Bank of Canada's approach to monetary policy

rabble staff — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 14:52:17 +0000

Thursday, August 18, 2016

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Every five years the federal finance minister updates the "marching orders" that guide the Bank of Canada and its conduct of monetary policy. This process is the one opportunity for democratic oversight of the Bank, which otherwise is deemed to be operating "independently" of government -- all the better to ensure that it has the authority to take away the punchbowl whenever the economic party gets going too energetically.

Every five years the federal finance minister updates the "marching orders" that guide the Bank of Canada and its conduct of monetary policy. The time is right for some new thinking.

Is slow 'growth' inevitable? A progressive response to sustained stagnation

rabble staff — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 14:48:47 +0000

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

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Most of the world economy (including Canada's) has performed sluggishly since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09. And many economic and fiscal projections now accept this pattern of slow growth as more or less inevitable, as a "new normal." This argument is typically invoked to justify a ratcheting down of expectations regarding job prospects, incomes and public services.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, many economic projections now accept a pattern of slow growth as inevitable. Jim Stanford explains why it's important for progressives to dig beneath this argument.

Signing trade deals does not amount to promoting trade

rabble staff — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 14:41:40 +0000

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

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If trade deals are the key to trade success, why is it that the more of them we implement, the worse our trade becomes? Perhaps the deals are doing more harm than good.

Comparing fiscal federalism and revenue distribution in Canada and Australia

rabble staff — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 20:13:09 +0000

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

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One interesting topic for a Canadian living in Australia is the manner in which fiscal and social responsibilities are divided between the levels of government.

Why I still worry about auto job losses under a TPP

rabble staff — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 14:28:42 +0000

Thursday, February 4, 2016

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There is little conceivable upside to Canada's auto industry in this trade deal. The TPP as currently written would eventually stimulate a significant offshoring of North American auto production.

How value-added exports are boosting Canada's economy

rabble staff — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 13:42:50 +0000

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

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There is evidence that the economy is starting to pivot away from over-reliance on energy extraction. Instead, our high-technology industrial base is starting to flex its muscles once again.

Progress and the battle of economic ideas in election 2015

rabble staff — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 15:02:51 +0000

Thursday, November 5, 2015

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Did the median voter's views on economic issues change during the 2015 federal campaign? Or did the parties just carve up that terrain differently?

It gets worse: Economy continues decline under Harper government

rabble staff — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 19:47:58 +0000

Thursday, October 15, 2015

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Not only has Canada's economy performed worse under Stephen Harper's leadership than under any other government in our post-war history, but things are getting worse, not better.

It's too early to call the recession over

rabble staff — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 18:02:55 +0000

Thursday, October 1, 2015

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Statistics Canada is reporting a 0.3 per cent increase in monthly GDP for July, on top of a (downward revised) 0.4 per cent increase in June. This will no doubt spark Conservative politicians, and many economists, to declare that the shallow recession which Canada experienced in the first half of 2015 is already over.

Claiming "victory" because GDP is growing again after a recession is a bit like commenting on how good it feels to stop beating your head against the wall.

Trans-Pacific Partnership: Renegotiating NAFTA by the back door

rabble staff — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 14:43:00 +0000

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

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Trans-Pacific Partnership talks have jumped right into the deep end of NAFTA: undertaking a wholesale renegotiation of what is by far Canada's most important trade relationship. Why?

Is the federal surplus really a 'triumph of good fiscal management'

rabble staff — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 20:37:50 +0000

Harper's Conservatives are reporting a federal "surplus" for 2014-15. Let's dig a little deeper on that shall we?

Digging deeper into the federal 'surplus'

rabble staff — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 17:31:29 +0000

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

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This week Stephen Harper's Conservatives are trumpeting the announcement of a small surplus for fiscal year 2014-15. Here's why it doesn't represent a "triumph of good fiscal management."