Stephanie Kelton, in her book The Deficit Myth, maintains that government deficits don't matter. She's wrong
By Morris Dorish Research associate Frontier Centre for Public Policy Author Stephanie Kelton’s main point in The Deficit Myth is that federal deficits are not only harmless but highly desirable as devices to accelerate economic activity and resolve economic inequality. She’s wrong. Government finance is not like other finance, she maintains. Governments are issuers of…
A Canadian family helped solve the mystery of a teenage girl’s life and death at Auschwitz
Hana Brady could be another Anne Frank except she did not leave a diary. But the suitcase that 13-year-old left behind when she died in a gas chamber at Auschwitz concentration camp continues to teach millions of children around the world the importance of respect, empathy and compassion. It bears silent witness to the agony…
Scott Eyman’s new biography of Cary Grant starts at the end. On Nov. 29, 1986, Grant – the personification of Hollywood’s Golden Age – died in Davenport, Iowa, just over seven weeks shy of his 83rd birthday. The death certificate ascribed his passing to a “massive intracerebral hemorrhage.” If Davenport seemed like an unusual place…
A controversial new book maintains that the North may have won the war, but the South won the battle of ideas
This month’s holiday celebration, much like the year in general, is one that the annals of history will always remember. For my last column of 2020, let’s explore some historical analysis that few would ever recall. Who won the American Civil War? The correct response would be: the North, Union, Union Army and/or Army of…
The world is going through difficult times. COVID-19 is not only testing us physically, it has created an economic crisis for many. And it’s taking a psychological toll on all of us. When facing challenging times, I’ve found that certain resources always provide hope and a way forward. Viktor Frankl wrote his classic Man’s Search …
The methods of a former KGB operative remain applicable in the modern era, leading to disinformation and outright lies
“I cannot but wonder why are people pushing for socialism and communism?” an elderly friend wrote on Facebook. “Are they that misinformed and believing it?” If we concede the answer is “Yes,” the next question is “Why?” The late Yuri Bezmenov, a former KGB operative with the RIA Novosti press agency, had some answers. One…
If Hitler had declared war on Japan in support of the U.S., he might have kept the U.S. out of the European war. And that would have changed history
Adolf Hitler began 1941 in a commanding position. He had 10 European conquests under his belt and just one active foe – beleaguered Britain and the members of the Commonwealth, like Canada. But by year-end, he’d added the Soviet Union and the United States to his slate of antagonists. And the declaration of war against…
On Remembrance Day, as chance would have it, I was reading Margaret MacMillan’s latest book, War: How Conflict Shaped Us. MacMillan is a Canadian historian most famous for two works connected to the First World War – Paris 1919 and The War That Ended Peace. Her new book builds on a series of lectures she…
The bawdy, brutal outlaw of the original ballads doesn’t fit with the noble figure of popular mid-20th-century presentations
As historical figures go, Robin Hood is a source of perpetual fascination. Mind you, I use the term “historical figure” very loosely because there’s no convincing evidence that he ever existed. Or at least not in anything resembling the legend we’re familiar with. While the earliest written stories date back to ballads printed in the…
Vandalizing public spaces under the delusion that such acts make yesterday a better today is sad-sack politics that fosters democratic weakness
For her book Talking Stones: The Politics of Memorialization in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland, Elisabetta Viggiani mapped 157 publicly visible sites of Troubles commemoration in Belfast. Broken down, the city’s memorials alone offer a ratio of one wall plaque, garden, public tableau or statue for every 25 of the 4,000 or so people killed by the…
By Morris Dorish Research associate Frontier Centre for Public Policy Author Stephanie Kelton’s main point in The Deficit Myth is that federal deficits are not only harmless but highly desirable as devices to accelerate economic activity and resolve economic inequality. She’s wrong. Government finance is not like other finance, she maintains. Governments are issuers of…
