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An essential but perhaps overlooked way of looking at the economy is a sector financial balance approach. Pioneered by the late UK economist Wynne Godley, this approach starts with National Accounts data (called Financial Flow Accounts) for four broad sectors of the economy: households, corporations, government and non-residents. Here’s how it works: in any given […]
Posted by Marc Lee under balance of payments, Balanced budgets, big business, corporate profits, debt, deficits, economic history, federal budget, financial markets, Financialization, global crisis, heterodox economics, household debt, international trade, investment, recession.
July 5th, 2018
Comments: 1
In a recent CBC blog post, Louis-Philippe Rochon assesses the current state of the Canadian economy. The link to the blog post is here. Follow him on Twitter @Lprochon. Enjoy and share:
Posted by Nick Falvo under Bank of Canada, budgets, China, Conservative government, deficits, economic crisis, economic growth, employment, exchange rates, federal budget, fiscal policy, global crisis, household debt, IMF, interest rates, labour market, macroeconomics, manufacturing, monetary policy, recession, stimulus, unemployment.
February 5th, 2015
Comments: none
Louis-Philippe Rochon has written a provocative blog post for the CBC titled “Top 10 Economic Predictions for 2015.” The post is available here. Enjoy and share:
Posted by Nick Falvo under Bank of Canada, banks, budgets, Conservative government, consumers, deficits, economic growth, economic models, economic thought, employment, Europe, exchange rates, federal budget, fiscal policy, household debt, housing, inflation, interest rates, monetary policy, oil and gas, prices, Role of government, social indicators, tar sands, US.
January 11th, 2015
Comments: 1
This afternoon I gave a presentation to Professor Ted Jackson’s graduate seminar course on higher education, taught in Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration. ??The link to my slide deck, titled “The Political Economy of Post-Secondary Education in Canada,” can be found here. Points I raised in the presentation include the following: -Tuition […]
Posted by Nick Falvo under debt, demographics, economic risk, education, employment, household debt, Indigenous people, inequality, post-secondary education, social policy, student debt, student movement, taxation, unemployment, user fees, young workers.
February 6th, 2014
Comments: 4
This piece was ??published??today in the Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab.?? Two findings stand out in the National Household Survey (NHS) data released Wednesday, both critical in this post-recession era of uncertainty: 1)??A quarter of Canadian households spent 30 per cent or more of their pre-tax income on shelter, the official measure of housing affordability. […]
Posted by Armine Yalnizyan under Conservative government, democracy, household debt, housing, income, income distribution, inequality.
September 12th, 2013
Comments: 1
Canadians are now more indebted than either Americans or the Brits at the peak of their housing bubble.?? Statistics Canada today revised the national accounts.?? The result on the household debt front was that instead of Canadian households having a debt to disposable income ratio of 154, it has now been revised upwards to 166. […]
Posted by David Macdonald under debt, economic risk, financial markets, financial regulation, household debt, housing, interest rates.
October 15th, 2012
Comments: 9
Kudos to Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney for raising the profile of the over $500 billion Canadian corporations are holding in excess cash surpluses and not investing in the economy, which garnered front page coverage (and kudos to the CAW for inviting him to speak.) It’s not the first time he’s raised this ??concern. […]
Posted by Toby Sanger under Bank of Canada, capitalism, corporate income tax, corporate profits, debt, deficits, economic crisis, financial crisis, household debt, income distribution, investment, progressive economic strategies.
August 23rd, 2012
Comments: 13
Seen in isolation,?? Finance Minister Flaherty probably did the right thing yesterday in seeking to safely deflate the housing bubble and lower the dangerous growth of household credit to a record level as a share of household income. But he did it very late in the game, and risks tipping an already very fragile economy […]
Posted by Andrew Jackson under fiscal policy, household debt, housing.
June 22nd, 2012
Comments: 7
The US Federal Reserve today released its triennial examination of incomes and net worth of American households in the Survey of Consumer Finances.?? It shows the crushing effects on net worth of a housing and financial bust unparalleled since the great depression. The shocking results of this study overviewed in the New York Times are […]
Posted by David Macdonald under banks, bubble, debt, economic crisis, financial crisis, household debt, housing, income distribution, inequality, US.
June 11th, 2012
Comments: 7
On June 7, I gave a keynote address to the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees Education Sector Conference.?? My PowerPoint presentation (with full references) can be found at this link. Points I raised in the address include the following: -Canada’s economy has been growing quite steadily over the past three decades, even when one adjusts […]
Posted by Nick Falvo under BC, competition, Conservative government, corporate income tax, debt, demographics, education, fiscal federalism, fiscal policy, household debt, income distribution, income tax, inequality, macroeconomics, Newfoundland and Labrador, P3s, part time work, post-secondary education, privatization, productivity, public infrastructure, Quebec, rankings, regulation, Role of government, social policy, student debt, student movement, taxation, user fees, working time, young workers.
June 7th, 2012
Comments: 4
Last Friday, I blogged here about the Quebec student protests. ??Subsequently, I was invited to appear on 580 CFRA News Talk Radio, with hosts Rob Snow and Lowell Green. I should note that Mr. Green is the author of several books, including: -How the Granola Crunching, Tree Hugging Thug Huggers are Wrecking our Country; –Mayday […]
Posted by Nick Falvo under debt, education, fiscal federalism, household debt, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, part time work, post-secondary education, privatization, Quebec, social policy, student debt, student movement, user fees, young workers.
April 26th, 2012
Comments: 1
On Wednesday, William Watson wrote a comment piece in the Financial Post in which he was critical of Armine Yalnizyan’s recent essay on inequality. In his piece, Mr. Watson alleges that Armine “is guilty of fantastical reminiscence,” particularly with respect to her take on post-secondary education (PSE). Among other things, Mr. Watson points to the […]
Posted by Nick Falvo under economic history, education, fiscal federalism, household debt, human rights, inequality, labour market, post-secondary education, social policy, student debt, student movement, user fees, young workers.
September 24th, 2011
Comments: 2
Last week, the CCPA released a paper by David Macdonald and Erika Shaker entitled Under Pressure:??The Impact of Rising Tuition Fees on Ontario Families. The paper does a good job of explaining which households have been most impacted by rising tuition fees in Ontario. Points made in the paper include the following: -In light of […]
Posted by Nick Falvo under debt, education, household debt, inequality, Ontario, post-secondary education, poverty, social policy, student debt, student movement, user fees, young workers.
September 3rd, 2011
Comments: 1
A recent article in The Atlantic??looks at student debt in the United States and suggests there may be a student debt??bubble.??Written by the authors of the recent book, Higher Education?,??the article points out that “college loans are nearing the $1 trillion mark, more than what all households owe on their credit cards.” The article also […]
Posted by Nick Falvo under bubble, debt, education, household debt, labour market, post-secondary education, social policy, student debt, student movement, unemployment, US.
August 23rd, 2011
Comments: 4
TD Economics yesterday released a rather gloomy report, putting the odds of a US recession at 40%, and arguing that that Canadian economy is more vulnerable to recession than it was in 2008.?? It highlights reduced capacity for governments to respond given that interest rates are already very low, and given that household and government […]
Posted by Andrew Jackson under deficits, economic growth, fiscal policy, household debt, housing.
August 23rd, 2011
Comments: 11
Today (June 15th) the Toronto Star broke news that the NDP was planning to drop the term a€?socialisma€? from its partya€?s platform. This was a mere formality of what had been in existence for decades: the party hasna€?t been a€?socialista€? in any shape or form for a very long time. On the very same day, […]
Posted by Bruce Livesey under capitalism, democracy, economic crisis, economic growth, household debt, poverty, Uncategorized.
June 15th, 2011
Comments: 19
At this year’s Annual Conference of the Canadian Economics Association, Armine Yalnizyan gave a presentation entitled “Surviving the Recovery:?? The Distribution of Canadian??Household Debt.” The panel was co-sponsored by the Canadian Association for Business Economics and the Progressive Economics Forum. As Armine made clear in her presentation, household debt in Canada has steadily risen??over the […]
Posted by Nick Falvo under debt, household debt, PEF, post-secondary education, social policy, student debt, student movement, user fees.
June 5th, 2011
Comments: 5
The Progressive Economics Forum has the following line-up of sessions for this yeara€?s Canadian Economics Association conference on June 3-5 at the University of Ottawa. Thanks very much to Nick Falvo for coordinating our conference activities and putting this schedule together. We are also hosting a summer school the day before and announcing our essay […]
Posted by Erin Weir under banks, budgets, Europe, financial literacy, household debt, monetary policy, PEF.
April 10th, 2011
Comments: none
At long last, the federal government has decided to seriously address the housing price bubble that has increasingly concerned Canadians. On the heels of multiple warnings from the Bank of Canada that Canadians have taken on too much household debt for comfort (we hold the dubious distinction of having the worst consumer debt to financial […]
Posted by David Macdonald under bubble, cities, economic risk, household debt, housing, interest rates.
January 18th, 2011
Comments: 2
Finance Minister Flaherty’s announcement of restrictions on mortgage lending deserves some credit (pun intended.)?? But there is a bit more to this than is immediately apparent. The government has decided that, to qualify for government-backed mortgage insurance, the amortization period of a mortgage should be no more than 30 years (down from 35 years now, […]
Posted by Andrew Jackson under household debt, housing.
January 18th, 2011
Comments: 4
The December 2010 issue of the quarterly Economic Climate for Bargaining publication that??I produce is now on CUPE’s website in both English and French. In each issue I summarize developments and trends for the economy, labour markets, inflation and wages, and also include short??pieces??of 1-2 pages on related topical issues.?? In this issue, the focus […]
Posted by Toby Sanger under corporate income tax, household debt, inflation, labour market, monetary policy, public services, taxation, wages.
December 23rd, 2010
Comments: none
Further to my earlier post on how to respond to record household debt, I wrote a longer piece for a wider audience at The Mark. Thanks for the great comments on the post! Enjoy and share:
Posted by Andrew Jackson under household debt, inequality, wages.
December 17th, 2010
Comments: none
It’s a funny old economy we live in. The release of today’s national balance sheet accounts has aroused great concern about the rise of the ratio of household debt to personal disposable income to a new record of 148%. Mark Carney and our banks want – quite rightly – to discourage further borrowing to prevent […]
Posted by Andrew Jackson under banks, debt, household debt, housing, income tax, interest rates, wealth.
December 13th, 2010
Comments: 13
What are banks for??? Typically, banks are described as intermediaries that take deposits and lend them out, earning what is called net interest margin on the gap between what is paid on the savings and what is earned on loans.?? From where I stand, this description is wrong on three counts. First, it suggests that […]
Posted by Arun DuBois under banks, debt, economic risk, financial markets, financial regulation, household debt, housing, interest rates.
November 25th, 2010
Comments: 6
The cover of last weeka€?s Economist magazine boasted the headline a€?Grow, dammit, grow!a€? above a picture of a bald man looking up at a tiny sprout of hair on his pate. As the Great Recession continues to grind on with no end in sight a€“ with growth remaining anemic and unemployment stubbornly high in North […]
Posted by Bruce Livesey under big business, global crisis, household debt, inequality, recession.
October 16th, 2010
Comments: 27
Here’s my take on Canada’s jobs recovery, written for the Economy Lab. The Economy Lab is a new on-line feature of the on-line business section of the Globe and Mail, part the newspaper’s extensive print and electronic make-over launched on October 1. Editor Rob Gilroy has made it a lively spot. The Daily Mix is […]
Posted by Armine Yalnizyan under deficits, economic risk, Employment Insurance, household debt, labour market, recession, Role of government, unemployment.
October 16th, 2010
Comments: 2
Further to my recent post on the last Monetary Policy Report??/ded/2010/05/11/the-bank-of-canada-and-the-recovery/ I cannot claim to be surprised that the the Bank of Canada has decided to begin to raise interest rates, albeit by an initial quarter point from?? extraordinarily low levels. They are also returning to normal overnight money market operations which will tighten […]
Posted by Andrew Jackson under household debt, housing, monetary policy.
June 1st, 2010
Comments: 1
This morning federal finance minister Flaherty announced??a number of measures ostensibly aimed at reining in speculation in the housing market.?? His announcement was typically well-timed to coincide with the Vanier Institute’s annual report on the state of Canadian family finances, which reports record high levels of household debt, growing inequality and housing prices increasingly out […]
Posted by Toby Sanger under bubble, household debt, housing, income tax, productivity, taxation.
February 16th, 2010
Comments: 5
Ah plastic. What’s not to love? Convenient? Check. Light in the pocket? Check. Monthly bill summaries? Check. Free short-term credit? Check (provided you pay your bills in full, on time). Benefits (free car rental insurance, points, cash back etc): Check AND… Take from the poor and give to the rich? err… wait a minute. Unfortunately, […]
Posted by Arun DuBois under banks, economic crisis, economic literacy, financial regulation, household debt, inequality, poverty, prices.
March 21st, 2009
Comments: 7
has just been published and is avalaible here. It largely confirms research conducted by PEF members on household wealth, indebtedness and income.?? The report highlights the state of financial precarity of many households, the gap between income and spending, the growing debtload and the important impact the “recession” (if we still want to call it […]
Posted by Eric Pineault under consumers, economic crisis, household debt, recession, wages.
January 22nd, 2009
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