Category: Economy

"Important government spending". Like those snowmobile machines. Or tennis courts.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty released the semi-annual fiscal and economic update in which, among other things, he announced that his government would not be able to return to a balanced budget during the life of the current Parliament. Six months ago, when he released Budget 2012, he said the budget would be balanced in this Parliament’s last year. In facing up to the fact that, by the election of 2015, the Conservatives therefore will have run deficits in eight of their 10 budgets, Flaherty offered this:

Nevertheless, we remain on track to meet our goal to return to balanced budgets over the medium term. Continue reading "Important government spending". Like those snowmobile machines. Or tennis courts.

Where is the line between good debt and bad debt?

A wonk-post, I’m afraid, but there are some important questions, I think, for politicians and voters at the end of it all.

In 2000-2001, the debt-to-GDP ratio was 48.3 per cent. By the time of the final Liberal budget, the one for the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2006, the debt-to-GDP ratio was at 35%. (All the ratios and figures in this post come from the federal Finance Department’s Fiscal Reference Tables) Continue reading Where is the line between good debt and bad debt?

There is no such thing as a conservative in Canadian federal politics

Or at least that’s the verdict of Postmedia’s Michael Den Tandt after looking at the fiscal and economic update released by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. Among the headlines from that update, the government is putting off by a year its target date to return to balances budgets:

To call the deficit retrenchment a betrayal of the governing party’s fiscal-conservative wing would be an exaggeration — but only just. Continue reading There is no such thing as a conservative in Canadian federal politics

Latest job numbers: BC is number one — in job losses

“I’m going to run on (being) number one in job creation,” BC Premier Christy Clark told the Liberal Party of BC convention last Saturday, boasting at one point that BC had created 57,000 jobs and that that was more than any province in Canada.

At the time, as I pointed out in a blog post, that claim was not true based on the most recent 12 consecutive months of jobs data for BC (and the country) as provided by Statistics Canada.

On Saturday, the most recent numbers available were for September, 2012.

Today, Statistics Canada released the numbers for October, 2012 and they were awful for British Columbia.

Continue reading Latest job numbers: BC is number one — in job losses

Do Christy Clark's boasts on job creation hold up? Nope. Nada. Not even close.

On Saturday, BC Premier Christy Clark spoke to her party’s convention in Whistler, B.C. During the speech, she mentioned several times that B.C. was leading the country when it came to job creation.

For example, as the Vancouver Sun‘s Jonathan Fowlie reported, Clark said, “I’m going to run on (being) number one in job creation.” The Globe‘s Gary Mason, reporting on the speech,wrote, “As expected, there was lots of talk about recent job-creation numbers that ranked B.C. first in the country.” Dirk Meissner of the Canadian Press wrote: “She [Clark] said B.C. has created 57,000 jobs over the last year, more than any other province in Canada.”

That last claim is demonstrably false and the others are pretty wobbly too. Continue reading Do Christy Clark's boasts on job creation hold up? Nope. Nada. Not even close.

Carney on debt, Dutch Disease and AC/DC: Full transcript and video

My interview with Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, recorded Wednesday in the Governor’s Private Dining Room at the Bank’s Ottawa headquarters, broken up into four video chunks, with transcript at the bottom.

What’s in your pocket, Mark Carney?


Continue reading Carney on debt, Dutch Disease and AC/DC: Full transcript and video

IMF chief Lagarde praises Canada. Mentions Wayne Gretzky!

Christine Lagarde

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde (above), the former French finance minister (and first female, one might note, to hold the position of finance minister in any G8 country, including Canada), was in Toronto this evening where, among other things, she thanked Canadians for lending the world the “wise counsel” of Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney (he is doing double duty as bank governor and as chair of the G20’s Financial Stability Board) and then almost certainly put herself on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Christmas Card list by not only praising the country’s financial record but using a hockey analogy to do so! Continue reading IMF chief Lagarde praises Canada. Mentions Wayne Gretzky!

How do you feel about the economy? Canadians are ok. Yanks, Brits "despondent"

Pollster Angus Reid is out with a comparative survey of consumer confidence in Canada, the U.S. and Britain.

In the online survey of representative national samples, most Canadians 63% rate the current economic conditions in their country as “very good” or “good.”In the United States, only one-in-five respondents 20% feel the country’s economic conditions are positive. In Britain, the level of confidence is in the single digits 9%. Continue reading How do you feel about the economy? Canadians are ok. Yanks, Brits "despondent"

Why Conservatives crow about Harper's economic stewardship

Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any Canadian prime minister who had it as good as Stephen Harper did on their first day in office when it came to the state of the federal government’s finances. In the winter of 2006, the Canadian economy was doing well and the government’s coffers were overflowing with surpluses.

The world has considerably changed since 2006, of course, and now, the opposition narrative is something along the lines of “Harper has squandered the good fortune given him and run up the country’s biggest ever deficits.”

Selected Advanced Economies Real OutputAnd yet, by accident or design, Continue reading Why Conservatives crow about Harper's economic stewardship