In this edition of Progressive Political Economy, Angella MacEwen, senior economist at the Canadian Union for Public Employees (CUPE) talks about the roots of Canada’s affordability crisis, and puts forward policy solutions like maximum caps on consumer prices and excess profit windfall taxes. Capping prices and profits, MacEwen argues, are a necessary package of policies that protect the working-class from conditioned price hikes while taming opportunistic profit reaping during times of crisis.
The Broadbent Institute and Perspectives Journal have launched Progressive Political Economy: a new video series that spotlights progressive economics and political ideas that push for a just and equal society.
Through interviews with Canada’s leading progressive economic thinkers, we lay out alternative approaches to orthodox economic thinking that have lent today’s inequalities and injustices. From broadly envisioned industrial strategy in the fight against climate change to episodic economic phenomena like sellers’ inflation felt by all during the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Progressive Political Economy series brings forward debates and inquiry on today’s major issues while being grounded in working-class, social democratic values. Valuing people over profits, decommodification, and a political economy that works for the 99%, the ideas shared in this Progressive Political Economy series are a much needed counterweight to Canada’s business-backed economic discourse.
