>Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 07:46:08 -0400 >From: "Michael Gurstein" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Canada's Economy in the Newspapers >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Mime-Version: 1.0 >Precedence: Bulk >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Status: > >For those ill-favoured folks who have never lived East of the "Magnetic >Mountain", Parker Barss Donham writes regular columns for several Eastern >Canadian newspapers and is a regular political commentator on CBC Halifax, >and is certainly among the most insightful and thoughtful journalists >writing in Canada at the moment. > >Notably he posts his columns to an email list [EMAIL PROTECTED] >where he >engages in on-going discussions with subscribers. > >MG > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Parker Donham" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2001 7:43 AM >Subject: [Parker-L] [PBD 8-19-01] Canada's Economy in the Newspapers > > >> 29 August 2001 >> Halifax Daily News >> Parker Barss Donham >> >> The dismal science of economics lies at the heart of many public >> policy debates, but the range and quality of economic opinion >> appearing in Canada's news media has never been more dismal. >> >> Not that long ago, editors seeking expert advice on economic policy >> would canvass a wide range of opinion in the nation's universities. >> Their sources would be scholarly economists whose research appeared in >> peer-reviewed economics journals. >> >> Today, news coverage of economic issues ignores academic voices in >> favour of business-supported study mills flogging neo-conservative >> nostrums for the nation's economic ills. >> >> Cloaked in pseudo-academic garb by virtue of their self-designation >> as "institutes," the Fraser Institute, the C.D. Howe Institute, the >> Atlantic Institute of Market Studies seek to influence news coverage >> and public policy toward a consistent agenda: less government, lower >> and less progressive taxes, fewer social programs, more freedom for >> the owners of capital, and less power for the purveyors of labour. >> >> Their "studies," often penned by junior varsity economists, are >> assiduously promoted to key journalists and influential bureaucrats >> with news releases and executive summaries that distil complex topics >> into easily digested simplicities. >> >> Lars Osberg, a distinguished emeritus professor of economics at >> Dalhousie, recently compared his relationship to the Atlantic >> Institute for Market Studies as that of a geographer to the Flat Earth >> Society. Economist Michael Bradfield refers to AIMS's Ontario >> counterpart as the "Seedy" Howe Institute. >> >> Such criticism hasn't blunted the success of these organizations, >> which has been astonishing. Newspapers eat them up. A host of policy >> issues -- the shift from income taxes to consumption taxes, the >> crippling of Canada's generic drug industry and the consequent >> stratospheric rise in drug prices, the pursuit of international trade >> unhampered by environmental safeguards or worker rights -- were all >> promoted heavily by these study mills. >> >> The left has responded haltingly, with counter-institutions like the >> Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, publisher of the Alternative >> Budget, but its effectiveness has been hindered by the stigma of union >> financing in a way that business-financing has not impeded the right >> wing institutes. >> >> Readers with Internet access can find a useful antidote to the >> tendentiousness of media economic coverage in the work of Brian >> MacLean, an economist at Laurentian University. >> >> Every few weeks, MacLean distributes an e-mail newsletter called >> Canada's Economy in the Newspapers. Each issue reviews several recent >> articles on economics, pointing out questionable assumptions, faulty >> interpretations, and logical contradictions. His style is engaging >> and easy to follow without sacrificing academic credibility. >> >> In one recent example, a pair of AIMS papers portrayed Canada's >> system of equalization as a millstone that, far from assisting >> have-not provinces, had imprisoned them in a welfare trap. The gist of >> the argument is that increased provincial revenues from economic >> development, particularly resource-based developments, are largely >> offset by reductions in equalization payments, with the result that >> provincial government's have little or no incentive to promote >> economic development. >> >> Readers probably don't need MacLean's help to detect the real world >> absurdity of this conclusion. Since World War II, and likely for >> decades before that, economic development has been a nearly universal >> obsession for provincial and federal governments alike. >> >> In the logic of AIMS's researchers, attempts by provincial >> governments to wheedle better royalty deals out of oil companies and >> mining corporations are misguided policies that could be eliminated if >> only the equalization program were gutted. >> >> MacLean points out other distortions in the AIMS analysis, such as >> the fundamental misconception that equalization is somehow supposed to >> be a tool for economic development, and Atlantic Canada's continued >> lack of prosperity is proof of its failure. But equalization has >> nothing to do with economic development; its purpose is to ensure >> reasonable comparable levels of critical government services like >> health, education, and welfare, without wildly different levels of >> taxation. >> >> It has been very successful at that achieving goal, at least until >> the recent attack on the program by Alberta and Ontario. >> >> Readers can subscribe to Canada's Economy in the Newspapers by >> writing Brian MacLean at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Archived issues >> are available at <http://www.geocities.com/brian79/macecon.html>. >> >> <I> Copyright (C) 2001 by Parker Barss Donham ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). All >> rights reserved. <N> >> >> -- >> Parker Barss Donham >> 8190 Kempt Head Road, Kempt Head, Nova Scotia, B1X-1R8 >> Phone: (902) 674-2953; Halifax: (902) 423-7714 >> _______________________________________________ >> Parker-l mailing list >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> http://mix.twistedpair.ca/mailman/listinfo/parker-l >> >
