Our trade situation was a serious problem long before the election of Donald Trump and new realities will demand a serious re-thinking of the liberal trade and industrial policies of the “free trade” era and not just more of the same.
At this moment of deep political convulsion throughout the West, the fight against privatization is part of a broader struggle against the economic logic that has led to corrosive inequality and underpinned the bankrupt neoliberal economic paradigm.
Acquisitions by foreign corporations of Canadian companies may be in the interests of shareholders and corporate executives, but harmful from the perspective of workers and local communities.
History is replete with examples of botched public-private projects which left governments on the hook for high costs and for losses, and public agencies do have the capacity to make good decisions.
This is the kind of bold leadership needed in the rest of Canada to make headway on combatting inequality, poverty and to create the conditions for a growing economy that benefits everyone.
Despite ultra loose monetary policy, business investment is very low due to inadequate overall demand.
It is to be hoped that political forces across Europe are up to the challenge of making the EU a force for economic and social progress as seemed to be the case in the 1980s.
A well-designed system of income tested benefits for low income workers, including disability benefits, is needed to set a basic income floor for all Canadians and to replace our inadequate and punitive social assistance system.
In the current rush to experiment with guaranteed livable incomes, let’s not forget the hard won battles to decommodify certain things we value like health care.
