Economic Presence
  • Home
  • Paradox found
    • Paradox found

Mercantilism is alive and well in Alberta and Canada

2/7/2014

0 Comments

 
Canadian workers fired, Croatian workers imported to work on Imperial Oil's oilsands project. Not an isolated incident as I reported here.

 "McGowan said, despite the changes, the program is being exploited. And the government isn't doing enough to stop it.

"This is not an isolated case. Increasingly, this is becoming business as usual."

McGowan has heard complaints from two other groups of oilpatch workers in the past month that they have been replaced by cheaper, foreign labour.

"The (government) is allowing employers to use the program as a tool to drive down wages and displace Canadians, despite all the reassurances to the contrary.""

My message to my students. This your country - you can demand that government change or you can do nothing and let the elites of this country politically engineer economic inequality. The choice is yours - but if you take a class from me you can't say you haven't been warned.  Do nothing and you will wake up be 40 years old a mortgage 2 kids and a car payment and they will be coming for your job.

I may come off as at preachy on the topic of inequality. It is because technology, globalization and crony capitalism (tax havens, tax cuts for the rich, regulatory capture) will blow up inequality to unprecedented levels.

From 'The Economist' January 18-24, page 9, Coming To An Office Near You

"Until now the jobs most vulnerable to machines were those that involved routine, repetitive tasks. But thanks to the exponential rise in processing power and the ubiquity of digitised information (“big data”), computers are increasingly able to perform complicated tasks more cheaply and effectively than people. Clever industrial robots can quickly “learn” a set of human actions. Services may be even more vulnerable. Computers can already detect intruders in a closed-circuit camera picture more reliably than a human can. By comparing reams of financial or biometric data, they can often diagnose fraud or illness more accurately than any number of accountants or doctors. One recent study by academics at Oxford University suggests that 47% of today’s jobs could be automated in the next two decades.

If this analysis is halfway correct, the social effects will be huge. Many of the jobs most at risk are lower down the ladder (logistics, haulage), whereas the skills that are least vulnerable to automation (creativity, managerial expertise) tend to be higher up, so median wages are likely to remain stagnant for some time and income gaps are likely to widen.

Anger about rising inequality is bound to grow, but politicians will find it hard to address the problem. Shunning progress would be as futile now as the Luddites’ protests against mechanised looms were in the 1810s, because any country that tried to stop would be left behind by competitors eager to embrace new technology. The freedom to raise taxes on the rich to punitive levels will be similarly constrained by the mobility of capital and highly skilled labour.

The main way in which governments can help their people through this dislocation is through education systems. One of the reasons for the improvement in workers’ fortunes in the latter part of the Industrial Revolution was because schools were built to educate them—a dramatic change at the time. Now those schools themselves need to be changed, to foster the creativity that humans will need to set them apart from computers. There should be less rote-learning and more critical thinking. Technology itself will help, whether through MOOCs (massive open online courses) or even video games that simulate the skills needed for work."

LET ME CLEAR: THE ECONOMIST IS WRONG ON BOTH BOLDED ASSERTIONS. EDUCATED YOUNG PEOPLE ALL OVER THE OECD CANNOT GET JOBS. MORE EFFECTIVE JOBS TRAININGS PROGRAMS WILL HELP BUT WILL NOT BE A PANACEA. IN ORDER TO SUSTAIN LONG RUN GROWTH, RISING INEQUALITY WILL HAVE TO BE FIRST STOPPED AND THEN REVERSED.

 IF COUNTRIES CAN GET TOGETHER AND MULTILATERALLY NEGOTIATE TRADE AGREEMENTS (UNIFORM -HARMONIZED TAXES ON GOODS)  THEN THEY CAN GET TOGETHER AND MULTILATERALLY SET HARMONIZED TAXES ON LABOUR AND CAPITAL.

YES IT WILL BE DIFFICULT, YES THERE WILL BE SIGNIFICANT PUSH BACKS FOR THE ELITES, AND YES THERE WILL BE ATTEMPTS TO CIRCUMVENT THESE LAWS.

 BUT IT THIS IS WHAT IS NECESSARY IF THE NATIONS STATE, AS WE KNOW THEM, HAVE ANY HOPE OF SURVIVIAL
.

Inequality, the Great Recession, and Slow Recovery Barry Z. Cynamon  Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis Steven M. Fazzari Washington University in St. Louis

Abstract:      
Rising inequality reduced income growth for the bottom 95 percent of the income distribution beginning about 1980, but that group’s consumption growth did not fall proportionally. Instead, lower saving led to increasing balance sheet fragility for the bottom 95 percent, eventually triggering the Great Recession. We decompose consumption and saving across income groups. The consumption-income ratio of the bottom 95 percent fell sharply in the recession, consistent with tighter borrowing constraints. The top 5 percent ratio rose, consistent with consumption smoothing. The inability of the bottom 95 percent to generate adequate demand helps explain the slow recovery.


Title: Explaining Slower Productivity Growth: The Role of Weak Demand Growth

presented by Someshwar Rao S Rao Consulting Inc. and Jiang Li University of Victoria

Abstract:
Using panel data on Canadian industries and OECD countries, this article examines empirically the role of growth in domestic and external demand in labour productivity growth. The findings suggest that most of the post-2000 slowdown in business sector labour productivity growth was the result of weak demand growth, which impacts productivity directly by reducing economies of scale and scope and by affecting key productivity drivers such as investment and R&D. With an expected slowdown in both domestic demand growth in Canada and external demand growth for Canadian exports, the medium- to long-term outlook for productivity growth, and hence for real income growth of Canadians, is expected to be weak.





































0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Karl Pinno

    Categories

    All
    60 Minutes
    Abnormal Returns
    Academic Publishing
    Advice For Econ Students
    Age
    Aid
    Algo Trading
    Aluminum
    Argentina
    Assortive Matching
    Austerity
    Bank Of England
    Behavioural Economics
    Bio Weapons
    Bis
    Bloomberg
    Bonds
    Bono
    Book Of Mormon
    Brain
    Brazil
    Brics
    Bridgewater Associates
    Buffet
    Calgary
    Canada
    Capital Flight
    Carola Binder
    Cds
    Central Banks
    Chainmail Bikinis
    Chanos
    Child Rearing
    China
    Chris Martenson
    Christmas Wishlist
    Climate Change
    College Humor
    Commercial Banks
    Commodities
    Community
    Computer Programming
    Confirmation Bias
    Conservatism
    Conservative
    Constructive Ambiquity
    Consumer Confidence
    Copper
    Corporate Lending
    Counterparty Risk
    Creativity
    Credit
    Culture
    Cwb
    David Einhorn
    David Rosenberg
    Debate
    Debt Crisis
    Deflation
    Demographics
    Depression
    Development
    Dragons
    Dr. Ed's Blog
    Econ Blogs
    Economics
    Ecri
    Education
    Electricity
    Eurasia Group
    Eurozone
    Excercise
    Externalities
    Falkenblog
    Ferguson
    Fertility
    Filtering
    Financial Crisis 2008
    Financial Engineering
    Financial Reform
    Financial Repression
    Financial Research
    Fiscal Policy
    Fiscal Stimulus
    Fisher
    Fixed Income
    Flood
    Food Prices
    Frank And Cook
    Fraud
    Freidman
    Ft
    Game Theory
    Gender
    Generalist
    George Soros
    Get Smart
    Giffen Good
    Global Banking
    Global Economy
    Gmo
    Godfather
    Gold
    Goldman Sachs
    Great Careers
    Greece
    Greenlight Capital
    Happiness
    Hayman Capital Management Lp
    Hbo
    Health
    Hedge Funds
    Homosexuality
    Housing Market
    Hubbard
    Hugh Hendry
    Hussman
    Ian Bremmer
    Imf
    Inception
    Income Smoothing
    India
    Inequality
    Inflation
    Inflationary Expectations
    Inside Job
    Interest Rates
    Interfluidity
    Intuition
    Inventories
    Iran
    Iraq
    Italy
    Janusian Thinking
    Japan
    Jordan Peterson
    Jp Morgan
    Judgement
    Kalecki Equation
    Krugman
    Kyle Bass
    Larry Smith
    Larry Summers
    Lehman Brothers
    Levitt
    Liberal
    Lonely Island
    Luck
    Macro
    Macro Intro
    Macro Predictions
    Management Consulting
    Marginal Revolution
    Market Design
    Market Monetarism
    Marx
    Matt Taibbi
    Mercantilism
    Michael Portillo
    Milton Friedman
    Mircea Eliade
    Mish
    Mishkin
    Monetary Policy
    Monetary Stimulus
    Multipliers
    Mundell
    Music
    Nanex
    Nfl
    Noahpinion
    Nobel Price In Economics
    Oil Price Volatility
    Oil Production
    Omitted Variable Bias
    Optimism Bias
    Overcomingbias
    Palantir
    Pettis
    Phillips Curve
    Placebo
    Podcasts
    Poker
    Poland
    Politico
    Politics
    Portfolio Management
    Prisoner's Dilemma
    Productivity
    Psychology
    Publishing
    Quality
    Quantitative Easing
    Race
    Rand Paul
    Ray Dalio
    Rbc Theory
    Real Interest Rates
    Reality Tv
    Recession
    Redistributionist Reform
    Regulators
    Regulatory Capture
    Remembrance Day
    Research
    Richard Wilkinson
    Riots
    Risk
    Risk Taking
    Robots
    Roubini
    Russia
    Ryan
    Sachs
    Salt
    Saudi Arabia
    Sec
    Seth Klarman
    Shadowbanking
    Shiller
    Signaling
    Smes
    Snap
    Social Policy
    Social Unrest
    Society
    Sorkin
    Soros
    S&P
    Spain
    Specialization
    Speculation
    State Sponsored Terrorism
    Status
    Steve Jobs
    Steven Keen
    Stress
    Structural Unemployment
    Structure Finance
    Sugar
    Suicide
    Svars
    Systemic Risk
    Tax
    Taylor Rule
    Technology
    Ted
    Television
    The Clash
    The Economist
    The Wire
    Thinking
    Thoureau
    Trade
    Trilemma
    Turkey
    Tyler Cowen
    U2
    Unemployment
    Us 2012 Election
    Us Economy
    Us Foreign Policy
    Velocity
    Volatility
    Welfare
    Williams
    Words
    Work
    Writing
    Zerohedge
    Zig Ziglar

    Archives

    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.