The legendary Prof. Harry Glasbeek of Osgoode Hall Law School at York University has penned the following commentary on how the COVID-19 pandemic is revealing and reinforcing the deep flaws in our economic and social order. It ends on a hopeful note: the people will demand better, when the immediate health crisis has passed. Prof. Glasbeek is the author of [...]
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The federal government has announced it is prepared to pay wages subsidies of up to 75% of employee wages for all private businesses and other employers, including non-profits, partnerships and charities that expect a 30% drop in revenues, up to a maximum of $847/worker per week and $11,011 over the three months. The previously announced 10% wage subsidy was only available [...]
With the federal government is increasing its temporary wage subsidy to 75%, other reforms are needed to ensure the public funding goes to maintain workers, and not pad the profits of businesses. In the face of the COVID19 crisis, the Canadian government has done a very good job of both limiting the spread of the virus and putting in place [...]
Today is Day 14, and at 9 a.m. tomorrow I will
feel that it's OK to leave self-isolation quarantine. I haven't had symptoms, I'll be fairly confident
that I'm not a carrier of the coronavirus and so can't infect anyone.
But I certainly can be infected. The epidemic
is still growing in Australia so the danger is actually greater than it was
when I went into isolation. I'm in a high-risk group, and this virus does kill.
So I'm going to step very carefully indeed while the epidemic lasts. As
everyone else should do. No Kaffee-klatsches, no concerts, no court
appearances, no cavorting on the bloody beach...
Friday the thirteenth day, no less... But nothing bad has happened, apart
from an epidemic. Today the news went round that the United States has the
largest number of cases of coronavirus infection in any country, 85 000. Known
cases, that is. At the same time, president Trump's approval rating has gone
up. It's good to know the American electorate can recognize forethought and
intelligence when they see it.
By J.D. ALT It’s ironic that, at this moment, when the truthfulness and utility of modern money theory (MMT) is being publicly realized—(and even potentially implemented!)—that its singular vulnerability must emerge as a real concern: hyper-inflation. The most recent thing … Continue reading
A
grey, damp day, as the last couple of days have been. The garbage collectors,
our unsung heroes, pass by with their truck, working in a light rain. Why does
wet weather depress the spirits? In Australia, the driest continent, land of droughts
and devastating bushfires, we should be singing for joy and dancing in the
streets. (At 1.5 metres' distance, of course.)
Like
so many others, I've been trying to understand the pattern of response to the novel-coronavirus
epidemic by the right-wing governments currently in power through most of the
world. Including the most prominent and most analyzed of all, president Trump.
In
the first week of self-isolation there were simple, though sometimes difficult,
tasks. The first was getting over the jet-lag. This was familiar, and couldn't
be avoided. Energy was low, it was hard to concentrate, and sleepiness came at
the wrong times.
My COVID-19-self-isolation reading for the last
few days has been a terrific new book by Terry Irving, The Fatal Lure of
Politics. It's the biography of a
remarkable intellectual, Vere Gordon Childe, who's definitely one of my heroes.
My networth this month continues to be all over the shop. Money is flowing out as the house renovations are finalising and a trip to Darwin NT. Equities are of course crashing on the back of COVID-19. I’ll keep it short.
Net Earnings
- $3073 (February)
- $30,469.84 …
It's midnight. I'm a terrorist, holding Sydney in fear. I've
blown up a famous building, the Opera House, or the Harbour Bridge. I'm alone,
hiding in the house, with my AK-47 sub-machinegun. The house has been
discovered and surrounded by police and the Army. There are sirens and
helicopters. But I have a way to break out: a black Aston Martin car waiting in
an underground garage with a secret exit! Soon I will zoom away and be free...
At that point I wake up, with my mouth dry. It's 1:30 in the
morning, dark and silent except for a cool wind. It takes a while to get back
to sleep.
Four prisoners escape from the dungeons at King's Landing and head for the Wall; a distance of 700 leagues. The Maester travels 1 league in the first day, then each subsequent day, doubles the distance he travelled the previous day. The Whore travels 50 leagues each day. The Knight travels 80 leagues each day, and 20 leagues each night. The Squire travels 350 leagues the first day, then each subsequent day, travels half the distance he travelled the previous day.
It's the autumn equinox now. Not that we really have
'autumn' in Australia, where the seasons don't follow the European pattern,
though we pretend they do. But we certainly have a time when day and night are
balanced, and this is it.
I'm also at a point of balance in the self-isolation:
seven days done, seven days to go. Some of the tension has eased. I hear that if
symptoms are going to appear, they are most likely to appear in the first five or
six days. But that's only a probability, so I'll stick it out. Cuisine Corona
again tonight: spaghetti and tins. With vodka and orange.
Happy Birthday, J. S. Bach - 335 today!
It's a glorious sunny day in Sydney, not just warm but actually hot, with a breeze. When I hang the washed sheets out, they seem to dry before I turn around. (Just as well, for reasons I'll explain in a later post.)
I haven't settled into a routine, exactly. I do the same things each day: cook, wash, tidy, read, catch up with email, check the news, do a bit of exercise. The last two days I went out walking in the daylight, to generate some Vitamin D and stretch the legs. Tried to pick times when no-one would be on foot in my suburb, but misjudged that - met young women walking dogs, tradesmen repairing houses, and kids coming home from school. So I have been learning the new social skill of swerving 2 metres away from other people without seeming to insult them. The Corona Shuffle.
I’ve written a ‘top 10’ overview of things to know about affordable housing and homelessness, as they relate to Canada’s upcoming federal budget. The overview is based on the affordable housing and homelessness chapter in the just-released Alternative Federal Budget. A link to the ‘top 10’ overview is here.
Some of you have been asking when Tom’s autograph shop will re-open. The answer is that we do not know particularly because of the coronavirus crisis which puts restrictions on our activities and we have
This food timeline started as a way to explore the revolution in Australian food that has occurred during the baby-boomers’ lifetime, but has since expanded to include more about the previous decades (and century) as well. Also included are overseas events and trends that had an impact here. The entries are brief, but there are lots of links if you want more information.
Here are some quick thoughts on the extensive package of emergency measures announced today by Prime Minister Trudeau, Finance Minister Morneau, and Bank of Canada Governor Poloz: The Pros: The government has worked quickly and creatively to find ways to deliver support to Canadians, and fast – using the infrastructure of existing benefits, and developing new channels where needed. The [...]
By J.D. ALT The last two and a half months I’ve been at work on a new book. As it evolved, I found I was approaching MMT from a new direction—one which made an explanation of MMT much less counter-intuitive … Continue reading
Thornton Parker In the first part of this series, we explained why MMT should be seen as a political problem rather than just an educational one. In this concluding part, we will discuss where MMT promotion is most likely … Continue reading
By Thornton Parker The way a problem is seen can determine how or even if it gets solved. When the French engineer, Ferdinand de Lesseps, was picked to build the Panama Canal, he saw it as another excavation … Continue reading
Thanks to Elmore Magazine for a cracking review of 'Hand It Over'. Read it in full here. They also enjoyed our show in New Orleans Folk Alliance, reviewing our show here: "Old favorites Hat Fitz and Cara were deservedly front and center in a big room, to a packed house. With the richest voice since [...]