On November 20, 2011, MLI Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley appeared on CPAC’s Goldhawk Live to discuss Canada’s trading relationships with Professor Michael Hart, Carleton University. Click here to watch this episode of Goldhawk Live. This interview was based on MLI’s recently released Commentary by Crowley on how North America is a deeply integrated, cross-border economy where we make things together. The Commentary also highlighted the current challenges threatening the very future and economic competitiveness of our shared economy.
On November 21, 2011, Reuters quoted Crowley in an article on Canada’s fiscal reforms of the 1990s and the lessons for the U.S. The article highlighted a number of lessons including using “spending cuts rather than tax hikes” to balance budgets and that you can “impose painful spending cuts and still win elections”. The article also quoted then-prime minister Jean Chretien in a rare interview. Click here to read the article.
Also on November 21st, MLI Director of Research Jason Clemens appeared on Charles Adler’s radio show to discuss Canada’s fiscal reforms of the 1990s. Listen to the full interview below:
[podcast]https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/podcasts/Charles-Adler-Nov-21-11-Jason-Clemens.mp3[/podcast]
Finally, on November 17th, an article in Canadian Business highlighted MLI’s recent study, Canada’s Looming Fiscal Squeeze, by author Christopher Ragan. In his study, Ragan argues that the aging and eventual retirement of baby boomers will present Canadian governments with a two-part fiscal challenge. First, both national income growth and tax revenues will slow. Second, public programs such as health care and income support for seniors will become more costly. He estimates that “total government spending as a share of the economy will gradually rise well above tax revenues so that by 2040 the deficit would be 4.2 percent of GDP.” He concludes, “Given the magnitude of the problem, governments will either act proactively and methodically now, or reactively, in crisis later.” Click here to read the entire article.
