The Trouble With Austerity: Economics as Ideology
A somewhat abridged version of this post first appeared in The Toronto Star here Governments here and elsewhere are increasingly preoccupied with cutting even as evidence piles up of its harmful consequences on people and the economy. Austerity is not even delivering the balanced budgets its advocates promise. Even the IMF is now preaching balance … Read more
Bargain Basement Citizenship and the Decline of Democracy
We ought to be outraged. Just about every day our media provides a new account of the decline of our democracy: the inadequacies of our electoral system and allegations of electoral fraud; the high-handed treatment of our Parliament through inappropriate prorogations and overuse of omnibus legislation; a government ever more authoritarian and opaque, resistant to evidence and reason, and … Read more
The Price Of Austerity
Austerity, we have been told repeatedly by pundits and political leaders, is the defining issue in these uncertain times, the solution to our economic challenges. We have been given fair warning that the next federal budget will be first about cuts – cuts to government even as we continue to cut taxes. We can expect … Read more
Red Tory: A New Lament For A Nation
Phillip Blond, the main architect of U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s “big society”, is coming to Canada this week. The timing couldn’t be better as our political parties get set to offer up their competing versions of what ails us and how we might go forward together. Blond is gaining a lot of attention with … Read more
Double Movement: the resurgence of neoliberalism and inequality
This is the month for taking stock of the year that passed and imagining what the year before us may hold. For me, two broad and contradictory trends have emerged which just might shape politics and policy in 2011: the extraordinary resilience of neoliberal ideology and the reemergence of inequality as a defining public issue. Recall … Read more
