Income tax is an industrial-era institution that won’t survive globalization and the digital revolution
With all due respect to federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau, if you're going to declare war on tax cheats, do it right. The truth is there’s a deep structural flaw in Canada's (and every other country's) income tax system. It's rooted in the unequal tax treatment of one class of individuals over another. Ever since…
The world desperately needs to change and we can deliver what's needed: a new mindset, flexibility, innovative genius, moral goodness and guts
Hopefully, as disaster looms, Venezuela can start down a road away from both crony capitalism and socialism
Imagine a city where menus don’t print prices because inflation drives them higher daily; where streets are ghostly empty after dark and the murder rate is the world’s highest; where people queue for hours for meagre supplies of medicines and food, leaving many hungry and sick; where farmers don’t bring goods to market because roads…
GM CEO Charles Wilson established a pension plan that would invest in the broader U.S. economy to ensure the protection of his workers' pensions
Around the mid-20th century, Peter Drucker was the go-to business guru. A strategically-placed copy of one of his management books graced many an office credenza, even if its contents weren’t always diligently read or put into operation. Drucker (1909-2005) was born in Austria in the waning days of the Habsburgs. He moved to England in 1933…
The affordable housing crisis is an obvious symptom of a deep-seated disease in modern capitalism
Canada is a modern success story; with a functioning democracy, a tolerant, multi-ethnic society and an economy that’s the envy of the world. So how can it be that so many of our citizens can’t afford to put a roof over their heads? It’s shocking to learn that many working Canadians are unable to gain…
It was Friedman who laid out the monetarist case AGAINST social responsibility for business
We should have seen it coming; in fact, we did see it coming and still ignored the obvious truth. Volkswagen’s infamous “Diesel Dupe” is a self-inflicted (possibly mortal) wound for the iconic German carmaker. At present, VW is recalling 500,000 cars in the U.S. and has set aside 6.5 billion Euros to cover the expected…
Canadians could look to the past for innovative ways of dealing with poverty
Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson wants to eliminate poverty in a generation. You have to admire his vision and ambition, but it won’t be easy to accomplish this lofty goal. The Mayor’s Poverty Task Force studied the problem and has recently made 28 recommendations. It identified the root causes of poverty as a chronic lack of…
To increase productive growth investment, the government has to start with the banks
It’s taken some time to get there, but even the Tories admit (reluctantly) that the Canadian economy is in recession. The big question for the electorate is: can government do anything to improve the situation? All of our party leaders have plans to stimulate the economy; regrettably, they’re offering up the same tired old corporate…
The Canadian economy is vulnerable today because ‘markets’ couldn't care less about Canada's, or anyone’s, standard of living
As Stephen Harper prepares for the real election campaigning to begin after the Labour Day long weekend, he must be praying for some good news on the economic front. The news so far has been pretty miserable. With a year of falling oil prices, month after month of stagnant (or worse) GDP growth and a…
Monetarism’s failings are giving rise to the new economy of wellbeing
The world is changing. And while many of these changes are obvious, such as the revolution in technology or the tectonic shifts in world politics, there are also significant changes taking place in the ideas that underpin the science of economics. Why do these ideas matter? They matter because economics is a foundational science. The…