Why is the federal government obsessed with capital spending?
Reclassifying profit subsidies as capital spending might be fun, but it is not serious policy and it will not result in the investment Canadians need.
Graham Cox
Graham Cox is a labour union researcher at Unifor focusing on economic, bargaining, and policy in the energy, road, rail, and marine sectors.
Previous to Unifor, Graham was a researcher at the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). At CUPE his work focused on economic and policy analysis for the anti-privatization, trade, post-secondary education, utilities, employment insurance, special projects, and organizing files.
Before working at CUPE, Graham served the student movement as National Researcher of the Canadian Federation of Students and chairperson of the National Graduate Caucus.
Graham has worked as a union organizer for the PSAC, CUPE, and the CFS with a focus on graduate student teaching assistant, research assistant and contingent academic staff union drives. This included leading drives to organize academic workers at the University of New Brunswick, UPEI, and Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Please also see articles under the author Editors (What’s left).
Austerity, spending, and budgeting
Canada has some decisions to make when it comes to our federal spending. Are we making the right ones, or are we following the same failed policies that got us into the current mess with the USA? It is the same, of course.
Research tools, Emacs, SQLite, and self-hosting briefing notes
Research notes and data are part of any organisation doing serious work. It is important to have that data easily findable and readily available when people need it. This is not usually when it is produced. Having self-hosted solutions that allow for app installation, forums, notifications, search, and data exploration and collection brings the research to life. Allowing me to do this while using my own workflow, tools, software, and set up is priceless.
Regulations and consequences
Every conversation we are having about regulations and barriers to trade or productivity are complex. That complexity means that following the rhetoric on deregulation has unintended consequences as much as regulations have.
War and the economy
As the world waits to see the full result of the USA's yet another attempt at regime change in the Middle East, NATO in Europe has pledged to increased spending.
AI , automation, and productivity
Increased automation of back office, management, and sales services are not guaranteed to have positive outcomes for companies or society. However, some negative outcomes are rather well known at this point and work should be done so they are avoided.
Their industrial strategy and ours
There are massive differences in the industrial strategies from the left and those promoted by the new conservative movement circling Trump. It is essential for the movement's leadership to articulate the difference for workers. A right wing version industrial policies will only lead to war, domestic conflict, stagnant wages, inflation, and capital profiteering from misery.
Volatility and arriving back at the beginning
There are indications that the mess that occurred since the election of Trump in the USA has returned valuations to where it started. The difference now is that we are living through a much more volatile world, so it is a now not about growth, but downside risk.
War and investment
The political narrative around Trump is that he does not want global conflict and war. However, it is clear Trump has no plan to affect the current conflicts raging that he promised to end within days of being elected.
Productivity, public sector, and Red Tape
Understanding the difference between harmful and useful regulation is essential for the left. But, focusing on supposed inefficiency of government does not get us there.