Business must not be as usual, and the "Dalhousie School" of Economics

Business must not be as usual,
and the "Dalhousie School" of Economics

Nipawin - February 27, 2001 - by: Mario deSantis

social
texture
Pundits and politicians are teasing Conservative leader Joe Clark for being on a chronic

fishing expedition on Chrétien's involvement with the Auberge Grand-Mère. I support

him. How in the world we can make any progress if we continue to tolerate the continuous

degradation of our social texture? The degradation of our social texture is eroding our

social well being along with our clinical health, and no wonder that we are experiencing a

crisis in our health care system and how do we respond to this health care crisis?

we have
a problem
Well, our internationally renowned health economists have their answers for us, and they

are telling us we have no problem⁽¹⁾. But we have a problem, we have a problem in health

care, and we have a problem along all the horizon of our economic system. As we have a

Prime Minister serving his criminal friends, so we have his subordinate government serving

their friends. That is, our government is a creating wealth for the vicious circle of friends

of friends of friends.

ACOA
The latest news is that while Jean Chrétien has been cleared from an RCMP investigation,

we have a police investigation probing fourteen cases involving the handling of millions

of dollars in public cash disbursed through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

(ACOA). The news is that ACOA has disbursed $683.2 million for some 4,647 repayable

contributions between 1987 and October 2000. Of this amount, $52.3 million is currently

in default with an additional $74.7 million having been written off for a total of $127

million or 18.4% in defaults and write-offs since inception of the agency⁽²⁾.

GDP
What to do next? It is very embarrassing to realize that while our governments hail their

successes through the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the growth of

our international trade, we are experiencing not only a decadence in our social values, but

a growing inequality among people. We have a problem in health care, we have problem

with crime, we have a problem with poverty, we have a problem in education, and what do

our leaders do? They look at the GDP, and they play with numbers to let us know that we

have been doing so well in the last decade. We have been doing so great that not only we

were able to balance the budgets, but now we are happy to have budgeted surpluses for the

next few years⁽³⁾.

negative
growth
What is a government for? To make a surplus? Since when? Our economic and social

priorities have taken a back seat to the interest of the Few and Privileged. The reality is

that we didn't do well in the last decade! While I am skeptical about comparing apples

with oranges, nevertheless I find compelling that between 1989 and 1996 Canada was the

only country out of thirteen OECD countries to experience a negative growth of per capita

real GDP⁽⁴⁾!

social
index
I am happy that changes in our way of thinking are taking place, and I want to single out the

innovative "Dalhousie School," a group of economists associated with the Department of

Economics at Dalhousie University, Halifax, and their collaborators⁽⁵⁾. This school has

discounted the past monetary policies of the Bank of Canada⁽⁶⁾, has discarded the notion

that the GDP is evidence of our well being, and has challenged the application of

"conservative economics" of our governments. Brian MacLean publishes the electronic

newsletter "CANADA'S ECONOMY IN THE NEWSPAPERS," Lars Osberg has been

proposing since 1985 a new social index⁽⁷⁾ to measure our well being as opposed to per

capita GDP, and they all subscribe to the notion that it is possible to use macroeconomic

policy to stimulate aggregate demand in the Canadian economy, so that total output will

grow faster and the labour market will generate more jobs, less unemployment, less

economic insecurity and less inequality⁽⁸⁾. Business must not be as usual!

------------References/endnotes:

List of relevant political and economics articles http://ensign.ftlcomm.com

1.
-
Dr. Michael Rachlis & Co. have the paper solution to save Medicare: Revitalizing Medicare: Shared Problems, Public Solutions, by Mario deSantis, January 25, 2001

2.
-
-
Police probing federal loans in Atlantic Canada. 14 cases investigated: Briefing for minister reveals millions of dollars involved, Rick Mofina, Southam News, February 26, 2001 http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20010226/485228.html

3.
-
Surplus swells by $4.3B, by Alan Toulin and Jacqueline Thorpe, February 21, 2001, Financial Post http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/20010221/480326.html

4.
-
Canada's Disappointing Economic Performance, The Centre for the Study of Living Standards http://www.csls.ca/pdf/disecper.pdf

5.
-
The Dalhousie School: An emerging force in Canadian political economy, by Brian K. MacLean, http://www.geocities.com/brian79/forum.html

6.
-
Canadian Macroeconomic Policy, by Mike Bradfield http://www.geocities.com/brian79/mbmacro.pdf

7.
-
An Index of Economic Well-being for Canada - with Andrew Sharpe, Lars Osberg, October 1998 http://is.dal.ca/~osberg/cgi-bin/titleserv.cgi?#117

8.
-
Economic Policy Variables and Population Health, by Lars Osberg http://www.geocities.com/brian79/plainhel.html

Business must not be as usual, and the "Dalhousie School" of Economics

Nipawin - February 27, 2001 - by: Mario deSantis

social texture	Pundits and politicians are teasing Conservative leader Joe Clark for being on a chronic
	fishing expedition on Chrétien's involvement with the Auberge Grand-Mère. I support
	him. How in the world we can make any progress if we continue to tolerate the continuous
	degradation of our social texture? The degradation of our social texture is eroding our
	social well being along with our clinical health, and no wonder that we are experiencing a
	crisis in our health care system and how do we respond to this health care crisis?

we have a problem	Well, our internationally renowned health economists have their answers for us, and they
	are telling us we have no problem⁽¹⁾. But we have a problem, we have a problem in health
	care, and we have a problem along all the horizon of our economic system. As we have a
	Prime Minister serving his criminal friends, so we have his subordinate government serving
	their friends. That is, our government is a creating wealth for the vicious circle of friends
	of friends of friends.

ACOA	The latest news is that while Jean Chrétien has been cleared from an RCMP investigation,
	we have a police investigation probing fourteen cases involving the handling of millions
	of dollars in public cash disbursed through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
	(ACOA). The news is that ACOA has disbursed $683.2 million for some 4,647 repayable
	contributions between 1987 and October 2000. Of this amount, $52.3 million is currently
	in default with an additional $74.7 million having been written off for a total of $127
	million or 18.4% in defaults and write-offs since inception of the agency⁽²⁾.

GDP	What to do next? It is very embarrassing to realize that while our governments hail their
	successes through the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the growth of
	our international trade, we are experiencing not only a decadence in our social values, but
	a growing inequality among people. We have a problem in health care, we have problem
	with crime, we have a problem with poverty, we have a problem in education, and what do
	our leaders do? They look at the GDP, and they play with numbers to let us know that we
	have been doing so well in the last decade. We have been doing so great that not only we
	were able to balance the budgets, but now we are happy to have budgeted surpluses for the
	next few years⁽³⁾.

negative growth	What is a government for? To make a surplus? Since when? Our economic and social
	priorities have taken a back seat to the interest of the Few and Privileged. The reality is
	that we didn't do well in the last decade! While I am skeptical about comparing apples
	with oranges, nevertheless I find compelling that between 1989 and 1996 Canada was the
	only country out of thirteen OECD countries to experience a negative growth of per capita
	real GDP⁽⁴⁾!

social index	I am happy that changes in our way of thinking are taking place, and I want to single out the
	innovative "Dalhousie School," a group of economists associated with the Department of
	Economics at Dalhousie University, Halifax, and their collaborators⁽⁵⁾. This school has
	discounted the past monetary policies of the Bank of Canada⁽⁶⁾, has discarded the notion
	that the GDP is evidence of our well being, and has challenged the application of
	"conservative economics" of our governments. Brian MacLean publishes the electronic
	newsletter "CANADA'S ECONOMY IN THE NEWSPAPERS," Lars Osberg has been
	proposing since 1985 a new social index⁽⁷⁾ to measure our well being as opposed to per
	capita GDP, and they all subscribe to the notion that it is possible to use macroeconomic
	policy to stimulate aggregate demand in the Canadian economy, so that total output will
	grow faster and the labour market will generate more jobs, less unemployment, less
	economic insecurity and less inequality⁽⁸⁾. Business must not be as usual!


------------References/endnotes:

	List of relevant political and economics articles http://ensign.ftlcomm.com
1. -	Dr. Michael Rachlis & Co. have the paper solution to save Medicare: Revitalizing Medicare: Shared Problems, Public Solutions, by Mario deSantis, January 25, 2001

2. - -	Police probing federal loans in Atlantic Canada. 14 cases investigated: Briefing for minister reveals millions of dollars involved, Rick Mofina, Southam News, February 26, 2001 http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20010226/485228.html

3. -	Surplus swells by $4.3B, by Alan Toulin and Jacqueline Thorpe, February 21, 2001, Financial Post http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/20010221/480326.html

4. -	Canada's Disappointing Economic Performance, The Centre for the Study of Living Standards http://www.csls.ca/pdf/disecper.pdf

5. -	The Dalhousie School: An emerging force in Canadian political economy, by Brian K. MacLean, http://www.geocities.com/brian79/forum.html

6. -	Canadian Macroeconomic Policy, by Mike Bradfield http://www.geocities.com/brian79/mbmacro.pdf

7. -	An Index of Economic Well-being for Canada - with Andrew Sharpe, Lars Osberg, October 1998 http://is.dal.ca/~osberg/cgi-bin/titleserv.cgi?#117

8. -	Economic Policy Variables and Population Health, by Lars Osberg http://www.geocities.com/brian79/plainhel.html