Imagine youre a German asked to pay for the lifestyle of a Greek through ever-more transfers to the European Union or through bailouts for Greek debt. Imagine you, as a German, know the average age for a German retiree is 62 while the average Greek is in his retirement villa at age 60. That knowledge explains why northern Europeans may not wish to indulge Greek lifestyles much longer.
government spending
Août 11, 2012
2:00AM
Back in the mid-1990s, British Columbias New Democratic government published a pre-election budget that forecast a balanced ledger for the then-ending fiscal year. The Glen Clark government quickly dropped the writ and narrowly won re-election.
But soon after the election, the government revised its forecast. A deficit of almost $400-million was predicted, about what some private forecasters predicted back when the original budget was released.
Août 4, 2012
2:00AM
For those fortunate enough to travel to Europe this summer, or even some of North Americas older cities, take a good look at the train stations. They reveal much about architecture and cities, but also provide a clue to historic regional economies and the preferences of past travellers.
On a purely visual level, some stations are works of art. For those familiar with New York City, consider Grand Central Station, built in the golden age of rail travel and decorated with Tiffany glass and French sculptures.
Juin 28, 2012
2:00AM
The High Priests of the Green Religion in Vancouver City Hall are about to please their supporters with another innovation that will save Mother Earth from the users of automobiles who poison the atmosphere with carbon emissions and cause traffic congestion and deaths.
Juin 24, 2012
2:00AM
Back when my paternal grandparents were alive, they lived with thrift as their constant companion and spent little more than necessary, splurging only on others.
Every spring, my grandmother would can a plethora of fruits and vegetables from her Okanagan garden. In anticipation, she saved every plastic bag for use in canning. As a kid, I thought it odd behaviour. But of course, I had no knowledge then of the shortages she, her siblings and parents endured in the Soviet Union in the 1920s before they emigrated to Canada.
Juin 11, 2012
2:00AM
The unions must use a template every time a government announces that it will ax one public service and replace it with one that saves labour and money. We see his again with the debate in Vancouver about closing the Kitsilano Coast Guard station in favour of more modern rescue vessels based in another station nearby. The arguments used against the change are exactly the same heard in the 1980s when small fire-fighting ships were introduced to replace a large vessel and again when a driver-less railroad called Sky-train was to replace some public buses.
Juin 3, 2012
2:00AM
For anyone who has paid attention to the student protests/riots in Quebec over the past few months and knows anything about the vast sums of money transferred between governments in this country, there has been no shortage of ridiculous demands from the Quebec students who are on strike. Demands include free tuition and an end to functioning free markets. But their sillinessnot shared by most students nor by all Quebecoishas been compounded by mythmaking from Quebec politicians about who ultimately foots the bill for so much of Quebecs existing poor economic policy.
Mai 30, 2012
9:00AM
Mai 6, 2012
2:00AM
Pay and pensions are always no-win minefields for politicians but heres the problem when anyone thinks about that issue in isolation: it misses the massive price tag that exists for the entire public sector, of which political compensation, transition allowances and retirement benefits are only one component.
Politicians are part of a much larger public sector and the debate should always focus on this: what governments should or should not do (and from which the size of the public sector then flows); what is affordable for taxpayers; and private and public sector comparisons.
Avril 15, 2012
2:00AM
All politics is local, said Tip ONeill, the 1980s-era leader in the U.S. House of Representatives.
That may be true, but government budgetsespecially in Albertaare increasingly anything but local. International events and economic developments regularly affect economies and government finances on the other side of the planet.
One century ago, few would have wondered how a sovereign debt default by a Greek government might affect British, American and Canadian economies.