I am a fiscal conservative, but not when it comes at the price of ruining an economy.
Nobel Prize-winning journalist Paul Krugman has been saying for months that the U.S. and European nations are not stimulating their economies enough and in fact are either on the cusp or already practising fiscal austerity.
That’s not what you do when your economy is weak and that’s what Baltic Dry Index figures show for world trade as my recent blog post illustrates. So now rather than stimulating the economy enough (as in the U.S. example) or practising austerity (as in the European examples), world governments are pulling back on spending in the face of a weak economy.
Now that phenomenon has moved to Canada as the Citizen‘s Mohammed Adam shows in his weekend story on “affected letters” 19,200 Ottawa and other Canadian public servants are receiving.
It’s understandable that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is concerned about the federal deficit, but now is not the time to eliminate it quickly. The Canadian economy and its international exporting customers are still on a very weak footing. Not only is Flaherty and the Stephen Harper government not stimulating, but they are practising European-style austerity. They are also causing unnecessary trauma for public servants receiving “affected letters.”
As Adam quoted one such federal worker:
“I have two kids in college, we are in debt because I just bought a car, and now I may not have a job. It has caused me a lot of stress and anxiety, and it is going to have a huge impact on my family. I am in a fight of my life.”
As I said, I’m a fiscal conservative in my own life and a proponent of it in public policy. But you don’t inflict austerity on a weak economy.
The toxic letters create unnecessary trauma for people who are unlikely to find other jobs in a struggling economy.
Governments should cut back spending during good times and spend in bad times. The federal Conservatives are cutting off their own noses to spite their faces. Through austerity, the Tories will put the Canadian economy back into recession and lose tax revenue.
Austerity is not the answer to a slow economy. The appalling consequences of the “affected letters” are causing unnecessary heartache for good, honest federal employees.
Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: Ken Gray
Nobel Prize-winning journalist Paul Krugman has been saying for months that the U.S. and European nations are not stimulating their economies enough and in fact are either on the cusp or already practising fiscal austerity.
That’s not what you do when your economy is weak and that’s what Baltic Dry Index figures show for world trade as my recent blog post illustrates. So now rather than stimulating the economy enough (as in the U.S. example) or practising austerity (as in the European examples), world governments are pulling back on spending in the face of a weak economy.
Now that phenomenon has moved to Canada as the Citizen‘s Mohammed Adam shows in his weekend story on “affected letters” 19,200 Ottawa and other Canadian public servants are receiving.
It’s understandable that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is concerned about the federal deficit, but now is not the time to eliminate it quickly. The Canadian economy and its international exporting customers are still on a very weak footing. Not only is Flaherty and the Stephen Harper government not stimulating, but they are practising European-style austerity. They are also causing unnecessary trauma for public servants receiving “affected letters.”
As Adam quoted one such federal worker:
“I have two kids in college, we are in debt because I just bought a car, and now I may not have a job. It has caused me a lot of stress and anxiety, and it is going to have a huge impact on my family. I am in a fight of my life.”
As I said, I’m a fiscal conservative in my own life and a proponent of it in public policy. But you don’t inflict austerity on a weak economy.
The toxic letters create unnecessary trauma for people who are unlikely to find other jobs in a struggling economy.
Governments should cut back spending during good times and spend in bad times. The federal Conservatives are cutting off their own noses to spite their faces. Through austerity, the Tories will put the Canadian economy back into recession and lose tax revenue.
Austerity is not the answer to a slow economy. The appalling consequences of the “affected letters” are causing unnecessary heartache for good, honest federal employees.
Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: Ken Gray
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