The Globe and Mail - Jim Stanford Columns

The economics ... and politics ... of auto workers' wages

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:00 EDT

Economist with the Canadian Auto Workers unionThe auto industry is in crisis around the world, due to an unprecedented collapse in sales. And governments around the world (from Europe to Asia to the Americas) have moved quickly to keep the industry in business.

Airlines, autos: You can't cut your way out of crisis

Mon, 6 Apr 2009 00:00 EDT

Economist with the Canadian Auto Workers union***From autos to airlines, desperate executives are wielding a mighty axe in an effort to survive the devastating consequences of the global recession. The common assumption is that ''getting viable'' is synonymous with ''getting much smaller.'' In wildly swinging the axe as a solution to corporate woe, the downsizers are felling many trees - but missing the forest.

That letter from your broker ...

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 00:00 EST

Gone is the optimistic dream. Let's try Freedom 75

That letter from your broker ...

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 00:00 EST

Economist with the Canadian Auto Workers unionThe curtain has dropped on another RRSP season, the most dismal in recent memory. What is usually a chirpy celebration of national frugality has descended into a bottomless pit of misery.

The p-word isn't killing world trade

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:30 EST

Forget 'protectionism.' Imagine a managed-trade approach, instead.

What's stimulus, anyway? A simple user's guide

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:00 EST

Separating the stimulus from the spin

What's stimulus, anyway? A simple user's guide

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:00 EST

In 1971, Richard Nixon famously declared, ''We are all Keynesians now.'' Yet, even as he spoke those words, the economics profession (led by Milton Friedman) was turning sour on government intervention - celebrating, instead, the self-correcting virtues of the free market.

Dollars and sense

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00 EST

Republican senators in the U.S., playing politics with the future of the North American auto industry, tried to scapegoat the United Auto Workers for the apparent failure of the U.S. auto rescue package (Bailout To Top $17-Billion - front, Dec. 13). While an interim lifeline to help the industry survive now seems imminent, many misconceptions remain about how much auto workers are paid. Many have falsely claimed that auto workers make $70 or more per hour and hence are to blame for the industry's woes.

The Tories will play the economic card once again – don't fall for it

Mon, 1 Dec 2008 23:31 EST

Being consistently wrong doesn't make things better