Economics

Energy firm competition and profit dynamics

Energy firm competition and profit dynamics

While there is an increase in profits from the energy infrastructure in Canada, it is from running the system harder, increased efficiency of output, a little from financial hedging wins, and some from hedging with the physical assets of the fully integrated companies. The profits are high without the effect of price and the price increase has had little impact on that profit growth. This is because the strategy of companies in Canada is cost/asset/capital discipline. Instead of investing in new infrastructure or even maintenance, it is about squeezing the assets and the workers they have for every penny of profits to return to shareholders.

Resilience?

Resilience?

The word 'resiliency' is one of the more overused words in the wake of the pandemic. Things that were disrupted because of lack of proper investment include our supply chains that move goods around the world. It is not just global pandemics that cause major crises along these supply chains.

Taxes and production

Taxes and production

An issue arises when we look at taxes inevitably raised to pay the debt or for the increased spending. There is some strange thing that happens where people expect not to have to pay for things that the government does. Many think every tax dollar they pay is extra spending, even if they suddenly do not have to pay the directly out of pocket higher price in the private market any more. Math is hard and net savings are not obvious to people. The left should start talking about state revenue generation as an alternative.

10 things for socialists to keep in mind on climate change policies

10 things for socialists to keep in mind on climate change policies

Some areas of debate exist even within progressive circles of how best to deal with climate change. Investing in and reorganizing current production processes to drastically reduce carbon emissions and build mitigation programs all takes time, energy, overlapping processes, and a heck of a lot of money. But, when we bring all this together, the programs announced are insufficient to get us where we need to be. Here are 10 areas we need to work on.