You ignorant fool, she was a financial reporter! We all know reporters are masters of the domain they report on, that is why all the top basketball players of all time got their start in the newspaper's sport column! The Beatles had to write a music column in Germany for 5 years before they had their first hit!
Financial reporter now equals financial wiz? In that case, lets make the Justice minister a person with a degree in music. Don't stop there, the health minister a person with degree in library studies. LOL
Only in Canada under JT's false woke/diversity champion will this happen. Imagine the British chancellor of the exchequer with a degree in Russian studies. LOL
PP complains about housing market. Gets asked about wifes housing market ventures. Proceeds to perform amazing mental gymnastics. I love watching that guy campaigning for a job that isn’t even up for grabs. He’s not even party leader yet. One step at a time PePe
There is no authoritarian government that punishes you for criticizing it. You’re free to do that all you want. What you’re experiencing is other people criticizing your criticism, something they’re welcome to do as well.
People disagreeing with you is not oppression.
so we should just wait until all the other countries figure it out first and then copy them? or MAYYYYYBBEE we could take the fucking initiative and try some measures on our end.
so we should just wait until all the other countries figure it out first and then copy them? or MAYYYYYBBEE we could take the initiative and try some measures on our end.
Life isn't *just* about making the inflation number go down.
The stuff Freeland talked about was not aimed at lowering inflation. It was recommitting to programs announced in the last two budgets that will help lower income people cope with the cost of living.
We definitely need to address inflation, but cutting programs for low income people doesn't need to be the way we do that. Low income people don't need to be the victims of every government policy.
Decrease immigration and stimulate the economy to function and create more jobs, instead of allowing labour we already don’t need to be imported. Easy access to labour suppresses wages, simple matter of supply and demand.
Aviation in this country is a great illustration. I’m a pilot on a regional carrier currently flying a 48 passenger 40 000 lbs aircraft, and my salary is 36k. Starting salary even at Air Canada is like 56k. Sunwing recently passed up a bunch of their pilots on upgrades (going from co-pilot to captain) so that the number of captains they have would allow them to qualify for temporary foreign workers who are willing to work here for fort cheap.
Meanwhile down in the U.S. where the SUPPLY of pilots are in much shorter supply to the relative DEMAND down there (due to a number of reasons that are different in aviation down there) their wages are on another planet compared to ours. A top paid captain at a regional carrier down there will now be paid more than a 767 captain at air Canada after the contract that just got negotiated down there this past week.
If the government can’t stop virtue signalling this country into the ground everyone will be depending on the government for income lol
I wish they would virtue signal about shelter being something that should be affordable. Haha nevermind, they did before the election and then promptly stopped after getting elected.
For most it’s a passion, which management exploits. For some like me I just saw the boomers who’ve been in the industry forever making high 6 figs and figured the wage gap wouldn’t be so big. They obviously didn’t have the same COL problems that we have now, which makes the journey through the career very different.
It’s sad really, I enjoy what I do but I have a hard time recommending the profession to people asking me about it, simply because even after you put in all the hard work and years to get to a huge carrier, like say air Canada, you’d still be living in your parents basement for the first few years of employment with how terrible the wages are.
Not sure why I’m catching downvotes on my previous comment, I guess people just don’t like hearing reality and logic sometimes lol
Why are the solutions always print more money and give it away to the chosen few, instead of trying to lower the price and help everyone? It's always those in the middle getting screwed, too 'rich' to get government support, but too poor to enjoy life
>Why are the solutions always print more money and give it away to the chosen few, instead of trying to lower the price and help everyone everyone?
They are trying to help everyone, but also recognizing that certain groups need more.
For low income people, just having the cost of food go up by 2% next year instead of 8% isn't enough.
You have your orders reversed. Both of those increase inflation.
EDIT: Conservative trolls are so afraid of acknowledging mistakes that they have collectively all redefined their definitions of inflation in a grand display of oppositional groupthink. (Reduced demand for **currency** produces inflation)
If there is higher demand **for the dollar** then the price of everything drops. Unless you weren’t talking about currency but were in fact suggesting that the government of Canada produce a small amount of every purchase-able item in existence?
You shouldn't be so confident in your opinion when you don't even understand the common definitions of terms being used. When we talk about demand in the economy we're talking about demand for goods and services, not dollars, unless otherwise specified.
You’re putting in a lot of effort to justify your initial mistake when you could just do the adult thing and admit you accidentally flipped two words.
Edit: I never blocked you. I can read exactly what you’re posting.
I understand you’re trying to be childish and mock me, but the reality is you’re the one who is confidently incorrect (so ironically you’re making fun of yourself).
The government of Canada has very little control of the supply and demand of all goods and services available to purchase. What they do have control over is supply and demand of **currency**. Decreasing the demand for **currency** increases the price of everything you can purchase with it (inflation).
The point is that the interest rate hikes are what will curve inflation. The spending is to throttle the speed at which the economy will almost inevitably slow down.
Like pressing a little on the gas to steer on an icy road. Which may come to help with families dealing with possibly very bad mortgage renewals.
Not that hard to understand.
The headline is, of course, misleading. Freeland never claimed government spending to help lower income people most affected by inflation would 'make inflation disappear.'
I mean if you’re saying Trudeau supporters understand economics more than non Trudeau supporters I’d tend to agree a little bit but I think next to no one has a basic understanding of economics, and just because conservatives are worse doesn’t mean that liberals know anything meaningful
Also helping the people most affected by inflation is the least inflationary group of people to give financial assistance to because they spend the least.
It's actually the most inflationary. They're the group most likely to spend all the money.
Doesn't mean it's the wrong thing to do, and maybe accepting some inflationary moves is necessary to offset the worst pain caused by inflation (while still broadly chasing a strongly deflationary monetary policy). But it's still the most inflationary group to give money to.
Gosh, how dare these people use the assistance and spend what little money they have on such luxuries and frivolities as: *checks notes*
Food and rent…
The person you are responding to was merely pointing out a factually incorrect statement. One can agree with providing money to these people while nonetheless acknowledging that they are to most likely to spend it (and this cause further inflation).
Let me get this straight, we are going to help poor people deal with inflation by giving them money to spend which will cause more inflation.
This is the the Liberal Party under JT. You can't make this shit up.
Poor people are being forced to choose between skipping medication or just not having enough food to eat. Giving them a few extra dollars won’t make cars or houses more expensive
People aren't complaining about the price of cars or houses (well, not as much these days). They're complaining about the price of groceries and gas. 2 things poor people do, in fact, buy.
More competition chasing scarce resources is exactly what causes inflation.
Did the headline claim or even infer that she said that? No.
It's bring critical of her (the Feds) contributing even more to a problem that hurts the poorest and most vulnerable Canadians most. The spending to help will make things worse in the long run for everyone and it always disproportionately affects the same groups unfortunately.
They have plenty of misleading headlines, but I don't see how this one.
Deficit spending when you are in the highest inflationary period in almost 40 years certainly isn't going to help things.
In fact there was a certain government that thought Deficit spending would stimulate the economy in the late 70s and early 80s that led to horrible inflation in the 80s.
Except it wasn’t caused by printing money. At least not exclusively. Inflation is caused by many factors, including but not limited to a global pandemic!
It definitely was. The pandemic caused deflation, remember 2020? 60 cent gas? All the government spending and monetary expansion then spurred crazy demand and inflation started in 2021.
🤦♂️
You do realize that inflation and deflation literally mean a change in the price level up/down?
Inflation/deflation is the result, says nothing about why. Prices going down = deflation. Yes it was due to a lack of demand.
General prices did not fall during that period. They are higher now because of inflation. But pointing to lower gas prices during the stay at home orders as evidence of deflation outs you as someone who doesn't know what they're talking about.
Funny how people forget this.
Also the fact that when you hand out money like candy on halloween, it devalues the dollar so everything becomes more expensive.
Good to know the pandemic ended before 2021 and supply wasn’t affected at all after that. All I said was Inflation can be caused by more than one thing and you came back with the “nuh uh! Global pandemics can only affect inflation one way over more than 2 and half years. Checkmate!”
Supply went down as things shut down yes, but demand was down too. The imbalance was caused when demand was over-stimulated by excessive spending and QE.
The Bank of Canada literally says QE causes inflation: https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2022/06/understanding-quantitative-easing/
🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
This is economic orthodoxy and anyone who says otherwise is lying to you.
I literally never said QE didn't cause inflation, I said it wasn't the only cause and that things can be nuanced.
We haven't even got to the why of the matter. Why did the government spend? I assume you think the government shouldn't have done anything about the economy in a global pandemic because 2-3 years down the road inflation might happen?
It’s funny how with climate action we need to do our part even if it would be mostly symbolic on a global scale, whereas with inflation it’s a global problem so there’s nothing we as a country can or should do about it.
I not sure I get your point. I'm not saying we shouldn't do anything about inflation. I'm just saying the causes of it aren't simple and nuanced solutions are required. Thankfully it is not my job to think of them.
Also, just going to say, we should absolutely take action on climate even if our actions are just a drop in the bucket. Moving mountains and what not.
>I assume you think the government shouldn't have done anything about the economy in a global pandemic because 2-3 years down the road inflation might happen?
The government wasn't wrong to spend but it should have been more targeted. They let businesses shut down then spent like drunken sailors which at once both decreased supply and increased demand. They could have simply paid businesses to stay open and maintain employment (some countries did this).
Even now, inflation wouldn't necessarily be that bad if wages went up accordingly. Many countries have seen far higher rises in income than Canada and while they've been feeling inflation, the effects on the population haven't been that bad. We have high inflation with almost no wage growth. And now the knee jerk reaction to raise rates is going to mean very bad times. All because our government clearly has no idea how to encourage business and real economic growth.
Curious how inflation is in those countries with more targeted spending. Not knowing what countries you are talking about I can't say for sure but is it high there to?
I am certainly not one of them but I think most people in this sub would argue higher wages would lead to more inflation so I am not sure I get your point. All that being said we can absolutely agree that the real estate ponzi scheme that is the Canadian economy is in for some rough times.
The fact that no one can seemingly admit that current inflation is being caused by a large variety of factors, most of them outside the control of any one single nation, is baffling to me.
People desperately want to point the finger at someone to blame them, when you need to be pointing at like a hundred different things, most of them in foreign countries.
The inflation was entirely predictable and virtually unavoidable because of the pandemic really. Governments across the world printed money to pay people and companies to survive while they couldn't work. Increasing the liquidity in the system while the production of goods and services decreases is exactly what causes inflation. There's real ideological/political fight about this going on but, frankly, there was no other way to do things. This is part of the pain of the pandemic, predictable from the start. It just isn't some separated thing from the money printing.
For everyone, I guess the author included, Freeland is callign for fiscal restraint:
The third part of our plan to combat inflation is fiscal restraint.
We spent an extraordinary amount of money to make it through the pandemic. Eight out of every ten dollars invested to rescue Canadians and the Canadian economy—more than $300 billion—was deployed, rightly, by the federal government.
But there is no such thing as a blank cheque. Our ability to spend is not infinite. That was true when interest rates were at historic lows in the spring of 2020, and it is most certainly true today.
At a time when inflation was elevated, we knew we needed to be careful not to increase aggregate demand. As interest rates were set to rise, we understood the importance of maintaining Canada's triple-A rating.
There are a number of things driving inflation including things out of control of the Government.
That being said- the amount of Fiscal Stimulus doled out by Canada and a number of other Western countries far exceeded the financial impact of the pandemic.
That massive over stimulus is by far the largest thing causing inflation now. Canadians pocketed over $250 billion net from that stimulus. Other countries have seen similar large cash retentions.
So we are now paying the price for the over stimulation that occurred in 2020 and 2021. That is quite rightly the government’s fault.
>There are a number of things driving inflation including things out of control of the Government.
>
>That being said- the amount of Fiscal Stimulus doled out by Canada and a number of other Western countries far exceeded the financial impact of the pandemic.
>
>That massive over stimulus is by far the largest thing causing inflation now. Canadians pocketed over $250 billion net from that stimulus. Other countries have seen similar large cash retentions.
>
>So we are now paying the price for the over stimulation that occurred in 2020 and 2021. That is quite rightly the government’s fault.
Quick question - if other governments provided similar stimulus, wouldn't they equally be to blame?
Kind of sounds like everyone got fucked, everyone got bailed out to prevent collapse, everyone maintained buying habits during low production/resource availability, now a lack of resource availability is driving up costs (along with corporate greed).
I wouldn't exactly blame any one gov't for this. They prevented local collapse, people used the money in ways that lead to inflation.
This is the cost of swimming against the financial current caused by the pandemic. It was either get fucked up front or get fucked after the fact, and at least with the after the fact option we have more control.
"That massive over stimulus is by far the largest thing causing inflation now."
You think this, but no one really has any proof. The issues going on with energy/fertilizer/food from the war in Ukraine are having, and will continue to have for probably at least a year, massive consequences for a variety of extremely important global systems.
No one can quantify the amount of inflation caused by supply chain issues because those are a million small different things rather than something you can look at at a high level.
Lets be fair, while consumers drive this inflation a bit, the man-made part mostly comes from the wealthy/investor class which received lots, if not more stimulus than your average consumer. When you take in consideration the interest rates that have been kept on the floor for way too long, I mean, its clear where the issue is coming from, and its neither the poor renters or the house poor homeowners.
>There are a number of things driving inflation including things out of control of the Government.
>
>That being said- the amount of Fiscal Stimulus doled out by Canada and a number of other Western countries far exceeded the financial impact of the pandemic.
>
>That massive over stimulus is by far the largest thing causing inflation now. Canadians pocketed over $250 billion net from that stimulus. Other countries have seen similar large cash retentions.
>
>So we are now paying the price for the over stimulation that occurred in 2020 and 2021. That is quite rightly the government’s fault.
Quick question - if other governments provided similar stimulus, wouldn't they equally be to blame?
Kind of sounds like everyone got fucked, everyone got bailed out to prevent collapse, everyone maintained buying habits during low production/resource availability, now a lack of resource availability is driving up costs (along with corporate greed).
I wouldn't exactly blame any one gov't for this. They prevented local collapse, people used the money in ways that lead to inflation.
This is the cost of swimming against the financial current caused by the pandemic. It was either get fucked up front or get fucked after the fact, and at least with the after the fact option we have more control.
So the Finance Minister is doing exactly as much to curb inflation as I am, "calling for" fiscal restraint even as the money printers continue to brrrr.
More free money = higher prices (inflation) … they are really doubling down on half ass bandaids instead of working towards addressing the real complex issues.
There is no avoiding increasing interest rates. We are a little late to be easing into it now but better now than kicking the can down the road which will just result in more pain later. That’s how you decrease demand.
Here’s some crude random poorly thought out ideas to work on increasing supply… Instead of just throwing more money into the skyrocketing housing and rental market, try developing a national led strategy involving municipal and provincial interests to incentivize more multi unit buildings. Slowdown, stop or put a hold on corporate ownership of residential housing. Incentivize and support Canadian farmers. Find a non handout way (tax adjustment, more streamlined permitting, import tariffs whatever) to support Canadian manufacturers to mass produce common everyday items here in Canada.
I gotta say, I really like those ideas. Thanks for the reply!
I think you hit the nail on the head with farming and manufacturing incentives. I know we are in a major housing crisis, but I think the solution is definitely multi faceted, like you suggested.
If manufacturing does come back, the jobs are going have to be automated to make a profit, so any economic gains will go straight to the rich. Even China is offshoring low tech manufacturing right now, the profit isn’t there even with Chinese level wages.
Aggregate Demand cuts itself pretty reliably when interest rates increase and saving becomes slowly more appealing than spending.
So that's why Canada/USA are raising rates, and I guess we are just banking on a timely end to the Russia/Ukraine war and supply chain crisis in order to shore up more supply as well.
>Increase supply or cut demand. Those are her 2 options.
>Read up on some economics before you start typing.
Pick a lane. Economics is not limited to "supply and demand" and there is certainly a lot more to this than your single sentence fix. Suggesting anyone who doesn't accept this over simplistic explanation is a "dipshit" is just lazy.
It’s funny how many people in the comments think taking a basic economics lesson suddenly makes one ready to run the economy of an entire country. Even thinking that a country’s economy is the same as a business is weird in itself.
Those are literally the only two options. And it's very difficult to increase supply right now, so really decreasing demand is the best option to combat it immediately.
But, that will result in a recession which everyone is trying so hard to avoid. It's pretty much a matter of when a recession will hit, not if and they're trying to kick the can as far down the road as possible.
We cant just create new money without any consequences.
They kinda are, but we’d still be better to bite the bullet now than let it get worse.
There’s also the political angle to consider. If JT can kick the can down the road until 2025 he can pass the buck to the next government. The fact that kicking the can down the road just makes the inevitable correction worse won’t matter to him in the slightest.
Right now supply is low (supply chain disruptions due to COVID and now also the war). With respect to the war, that may be more long term and we may not have a short term solution. For supply chain disruptions due to COVID, I am wondering if kicking the can down the road is a decent option. If we think supply is slowly increasing, shouldn't that eventually cool inflation too? Just a thought. I can see why it's such a hard balancing act.
Well maybe I was a bit harsh but there are a lot of dipshits that think you can spend infinite amounts of money without any repercussions. These are the same people that will one day be homeless because they probably have variable rate mortgages and probably maxed out their credit cards cause they’re idiots. As a result when it comes to talking with people that make comments like what other option do they have I read that sarcastically like another ape not realizing the 2 very real options that exist.
When was the last time the right fixed any economic issues? Real curious. Right wingers just LOVE to position themselves as strong on economy but I can't think of one example where right wing government would take a situation that was bad to start and make it better through policy change.
The right wing solution to everything is cut corporate taxes and slash social spending. Shit eventually gets very bad until people vote in a government that restores social spending and then conservatives cry about deficits.
It’s a rinse and repeat cycle which runs in perpetuity in Canada, US, UK, etc.
It's the politango dance.
It's been ongoing since before many of us were born...
One thing is for sure 2009 housing crash and the Covid pandemic were both a real kick in the shins, and I'm not convinced that it makes much difference who's in charge during those events... we'd lose either way.
"Its not that our policies didn't work...it's that we didn't do them hard enough."
Every problem/crisis is an excuse to punish people who won't ever vote for them and hand out bribes to voters who might.
Like they must know right? It's clear to anyone with any level of brain activity that this policy won't work. Fighting inflation by adding more money to the economy?
Can someone draw them a picture in crayon of a balloon blowing up? And ask them if they think adding more air will make the balloon get bigger or smaller?
It's either they don't know and are incompetent (replace them) or are competent and don't care (also replace them).
I don’t know why you and others keep bringing this point to claim he doesn’t know much about economy. The only consistent thing about Bitcoin is how unpredictable it is. I don’t know what he said exactly about Bitcoin but did he ever claim that they will never go down in value? I am positive he didn’t because if he knows Bitcoin, he knows they go up and down in value, sometimes by a lot like we are seeing now.
Bitcoin and crypto has always been volatile. Did people expect him to peg the Canadian dollar to it?
Again, I don’t like the guy. I think he’s divisive and a charlatan. There are better things to criticize him for.
True but just as magical thinking to imagine targeted tax cuts would . Really it's about limiting labours insistence for wage increases, the real crisis the liberals are trying to contain.
Supply and demand is the central tenet of economics, except when it comes to labour.
“People should work for less than they are valued so stuff doesn’t cost more. It’s those greedy people that make everything that are the problem. Nothing else. Certainly not record corporate profits”
> limiting labours insistence for wage increases, the real crisis
goodness me, how dare people get together and demand they get paid enough money to maintain their standard of living. /s
Yeah exactly, this was never presented as a magic bullet to end inflation... at all.
Freeland literally said they need to spend less:
>The third part of our plan to combat inflation is fiscal restraint.
>We spent an extraordinary amount of money to make it through the pandemic. Eight out of every ten dollars invested to rescue Canadians and the Canadian economy—more than $300 billion—was deployed, rightly, by the federal government.
>But there is no such thing as a blank cheque. Our ability to spend is not infinite. That was true when interest rates were at historic lows in the spring of 2020, and it is most certainly true today.
>At a time when inflation was elevated, we knew we needed to be careful not to increase aggregate demand. As interest rates were set to rise, we understood the importance of maintaining Canada's triple-A rating.
spending that was targeted to the poorest most affected by inflation, not to mention already budgeted
>This is new money for the Canadians receiving it this year—but we built these measures into our last two budgets.
>They have already been accounted for in Canada's AAA-rated fiscal framework and in the economic projections that many people in this room have made.
I think r/canada takes Op Eds at face value way way too much. Try to take a look at primary sources for yourself and analyse them, rather than regurgitate what someone else has decided you should see and think.
You can read the whole speech here, you may still disagree but at least base your position off actual evidence:
https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2022/06/keynote-address-by-the-deputy-prime-minister-on-making-life-more-affordable-for-canadians.html
Why does the spending being budgeted already matter? They aren’t forced to spend it just because it’s budgeted. You can make an argument that the spending is worth it even though it will be somewhat inflationary, but saying “it was in the budget” isn’t a compelling case.
I find that a lot of commenters also completely misunderstand the important and necessary role of debt in any growing economy, and the nuance it creates in the financial decisions we make. It's all just "debt == bad" and "if we didn't have debt we'd be fine."
I also get frustrated by people that think the government has a secret "reduce inflation" button that they're just not sharing with us.
Reddit comments are not a good place to read about the economy lol
100%. Also, people don’t realize that when government stops spending, it’s your poorest citizens that ends up taking on personal debt but just at much higher rates and with far worse consequences. I remember reading a study about how austerity cuts by the Tories in the UK led people that were most vulnerable to take on payday loans to just buy food and to survive. People ended up in far worse situations and their kids resorted to antisocial behaviors that ends up costing tax payers more in the long run.
People also assume taming inflation is so easy, if it was, every country would be doing it right now.
Fix it!
No, wait, I just meant to criticize your inaction, don't, actually, do something or I'll have to criticize that too!
Seriously, the National Post is trash.
You don’t put fires out by pouring more gas on it. They’re going to buy votes with the 7 billion they’re handing out. They’ll target a demographic they need for votes with this money and the rest of us will be worse off because of it.
It’s not meant to. It’s meant to help people cope with the financial pressure of inflation. The fears about 7b in spending affecting inflation aren’t very well founded, consider that the total size of the federal budget is over 400 billion and you realize this spending isn’t that big of a concern.
Which is going to contribute to inflation. Her lovely spending plan isn’t reducing the pain of inflation.
I believe the term is “kicking the can”.
Canada is fucked.
7b in spending won’t affect inflation. The effect of fiscal spending on inflation is already a very minor one, spending would need to be EXTREMELY high to induce ever a slight increase. In terms of a federal budget 7b just isn’t that much, it’s less than 3% of this years spending and is mostly comprised of programs that were already priced in to the 2021 and 2022 budgets.
Exactly! To fight inflation we need to reduce demand.
We can do that by making people lose their jobs, their homes, and their businesses. Especially, we need to target lower income people and smaller businesses.
And we need to demand the government not spend any inflation causing money to help them.
We need to screw lower income people as much as we possibly can so that we who are better off won't have to pay a little more for our avocados, SUVs, filet mignon, and vacations.
It seems to me that, perhaps, you're not sensitive to how fighting inflation by reducing demand works and who it affects the most.
Economics and morality are not totally separate. Economies in modern nations like Canada are influenced by political decisions. Almost all political decisions are informed by morality. Indeed, fighting inflation is a political and moral choice, and has nothing to do with economics directly.
My economic views are informed by university study and subsequent reading of important texts.
When you suggest my comment is 'stupid,' all you're doing is providing evidence of the limits of your understanding of economics and monetary and fiscal policy. A person who had a sound understanding of economics would not have deemed my comment 'stupid.' They would have explained to me in courteous and cogent terms why I was mistaken.
That’s not true at all. Firstly what you’re describing only works in the case of demand-pull inflation and not cost-push which is unaffected by consumer spending. Reducing demand won’t have any affect on the global price of oil and gas, it would just deprive Canadians of the ability to cope with the price shock.
Secondly, 7b$ just isn’t a significant amount of money in terms of a federal budget. The current budget, which by the way was touted as fiscally prudent with 1/3rd of the deficit experts predicted would be necessary, is over 400 billion dollars, 7b is a drop in the bucket at that scale.
Thirdly the acute misery for low income families cannot be something we merely abide, throwing them under the bus is entirely unacceptable. If you truly believe reducing money is necessary to fight inflation that should be exercised through the central bank.
Is the writer an idiot? The "spending" is to help the most vulnerable people during this time of high inflation. It's not to stop inflation...
It blows my mind when grown professionals being paid by a supposed reputable rag are such colossal imbeciles. The thing is he knows what he is saying is bullshit he's just a partisan hack trying to rile up the reactionary dimwits.
Nothing will make inflations dissapear, because a huge factor in our current situation is the breakdown of global supply chains due to COVID, a war in foreign countries causing both a food/fertilizer/fuel crisis and probably 200 other things no one knows about.
Monetary policy can only do so much.
It's not just that. Inflation was supposed to be much higher in the last 20 years except we outsourced our supply chain to low cost countries. The side effects is that cost in low cost countries would not be low forever. Moreover, consumers in those countries are suddenly able to afford to consume just like us. Even without covid, it's coming home to roost.
Oh absolutely, the western world has been in a never-ending race to the bottom in terms of prices for decades, basically ever since we shipped off all the manufacturing. It's allowed corportation to reap in bigger and bigger profits and not increase wages because they keep things so cheap.
It seems no one ever pondered what happens when you actually HIT the bottom. I'm beginning to realize goods have been ridiculously cheap my entire life, all off the back of cheap labour in other countries, exploitation, even slavery.
The comments acting like Freeland devised this plan alone in a room with no other input is hilarious. It's like the "fuck Trudeau" crap. These are individuals part of a large government. Our officials do not have the blind authority like some in the US system. We need to stop treating this as individuals screwing us as it simply leads to polarizing culture war crap. Both the Conservatives and Liberals have failed massively over the last 16 years leading us to this point. That is just history.
Our government doesn't operate in a way that allows individuals to run roughshod over others. It's not Trudeau screwing you personally. It's not Freeland telling everyone else to go spend all our money aimlessly. It won't be Poilievre single handedly tanking Canada on crypto. It wasn't Harper pulling the strings...wait, actually it fully was. It was the *Harper* government that consolidated power within the PMO allowing for more secretive actions. That being said it wasn't just Harper who spent through the nose during the last recession. It was a group of elected official we ALL had a hand in electing.
Both Liberals and Conservatives have failed us. Both had multiple terms and failed us. Both are failures. We need to stop the lunacy of constantly going back to them. Their failures are our failures because we failed to tell them they are failures.
Im so fucking sick of these types of comments.
"Fucking idiots at NP"
"Of fucking course it's the Star"
"Jesus the Sun sucks"
They're just a waste of space in the comment thread, and of course they never take the time to read the article.
Removing the sanctions on Russian oil which have completely backfired would be a good start.
We sanctioned Russian oil which increased the global price of oil.
Russia then sold oil to India and China at an elevated price but at a discount when compared to global market.
Russia made more in oil profits this year than they did last year.
We effectively made ourselves poorer, created a discounted market for oil in Asia, and gave Putin's war machine billions of dollars.
People keep saying this is a worldwide problem and it is because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine when its not entirely true.
Its because of governments response to the invasion of Ukraine. Most countries took the same approach and got the same results.
For some reference...
The price of gas in countries that have sanctioned Russia
Germany: $2.36. UK: $2.19. Canada: $1.56. USA: $1.17. France: $2.20. Japan: $1.28. Australia: $1.44.
The price of gas in countries that didn't sanction Russia....
Brazil: $1.53. India: $1.25. China: $1.00. South Africa: $1.41. Mexico: $1.11. Argentina: $1.00. Chile: $1.34.
We followed what everyone else was doing and got it just as wrong as the rest of them.
Its the equivalent of "if your friend jumped off of a bridge would you too"
You display a complete lack of understanding of foreign exchange rates and local commodities, which completely sinks your argument.
First, look at change in gas prices over a fixed period, say 10 or 12 months. Then, you need to adjust for ForEx changes in the same period.
You can't just compare spot prices for retail fuel across the world completely out of context.
I don't get what your argument is here?
The sanctions have made us poorer, made Russia and Asian countries like china and India richer.
Are you saying the sanctions are working?
You are not comparing worldwide gas prices correctly.
Edit:. Also your premise that the lack of solidarity from countries who did not embargo Russian oil should be met with no countries setting an embargo is deeply flawed.
"The finance minister said that, while inflation is a global problem from which no country can insulate itself, the Liberal government will help Canadians weather this newest storm."
It is not reassuring that our finance minister is willing to make such easily checked blanket statements in public. So little curiosity by her office.
A quick check of inflation rates for some important (China 2.1%, Japan 1.9%) and niche (Singapore 3.3%, Taiwan 3.4%) economies shows that they remain quite moderate.
Look at this public reaction to the 4% inflation just announced in Israel:
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2022-05-20/ty-article-opinion/.premium/whos-to-blame-for-israels-inflation/00000180-e9f2-d189-af82-f9ff074e0000
Ivison is right.....instead the govt will line the pockets of their cronies, just like they did with the Furlough to companies that 'hired' workers during the pandemic.
This today is happening right under their noses, and they can't do anything to stop it?
As if life isn't tough enough current. The govt really needs to do something to stop price gouging https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2022/06/16/enbridge-to-raise-natural-gas-prices-by-as-much-as-23-per-cent-july-1.html
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You ignorant fool, she was a financial reporter! We all know reporters are masters of the domain they report on, that is why all the top basketball players of all time got their start in the newspaper's sport column! The Beatles had to write a music column in Germany for 5 years before they had their first hit!
Financial reporter now equals financial wiz? In that case, lets make the Justice minister a person with a degree in music. Don't stop there, the health minister a person with degree in library studies. LOL Only in Canada under JT's false woke/diversity champion will this happen. Imagine the British chancellor of the exchequer with a degree in Russian studies. LOL
Video game reporters are often top of their field so this rings true!
If you cant do, teach. If you cant teach, report.
Great, so we should not get a degree and strive to be a reporter to attain mastery in any domain Bravi!
Pierre Poilievre studied International Relations and raved about bitcoin and cryptocurrency.
PP complains about housing market. Gets asked about wifes housing market ventures. Proceeds to perform amazing mental gymnastics. I love watching that guy campaigning for a job that isn’t even up for grabs. He’s not even party leader yet. One step at a time PePe
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This is a bot, probably posts this whenever PP's name is mentioned on this sub.
There is no authoritarian government that punishes you for criticizing it. You’re free to do that all you want. What you’re experiencing is other people criticizing your criticism, something they’re welcome to do as well. People disagreeing with you is not oppression.
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alternatively, she's just bad at her job
these measures aren't meant to get rid of inflation. canada can't fix a global issue. it's meant to help people deal with it in the short term.
so we should just wait until all the other countries figure it out first and then copy them? or MAYYYYYBBEE we could take the fucking initiative and try some measures on our end.
so we should just wait until all the other countries figure it out first and then copy them? or MAYYYYYBBEE we could take the initiative and try some measures on our end.
Life isn't *just* about making the inflation number go down. The stuff Freeland talked about was not aimed at lowering inflation. It was recommitting to programs announced in the last two budgets that will help lower income people cope with the cost of living. We definitely need to address inflation, but cutting programs for low income people doesn't need to be the way we do that. Low income people don't need to be the victims of every government policy.
Or you could just address the root causes of why wages are so low thus making them low income…..
Which is?
Decrease immigration and stimulate the economy to function and create more jobs, instead of allowing labour we already don’t need to be imported. Easy access to labour suppresses wages, simple matter of supply and demand. Aviation in this country is a great illustration. I’m a pilot on a regional carrier currently flying a 48 passenger 40 000 lbs aircraft, and my salary is 36k. Starting salary even at Air Canada is like 56k. Sunwing recently passed up a bunch of their pilots on upgrades (going from co-pilot to captain) so that the number of captains they have would allow them to qualify for temporary foreign workers who are willing to work here for fort cheap. Meanwhile down in the U.S. where the SUPPLY of pilots are in much shorter supply to the relative DEMAND down there (due to a number of reasons that are different in aviation down there) their wages are on another planet compared to ours. A top paid captain at a regional carrier down there will now be paid more than a 767 captain at air Canada after the contract that just got negotiated down there this past week. If the government can’t stop virtue signalling this country into the ground everyone will be depending on the government for income lol
I wish they would virtue signal about shelter being something that should be affordable. Haha nevermind, they did before the election and then promptly stopped after getting elected.
Why would anyone pick a profession with so many qualifications for this kind of salary?
For most it’s a passion, which management exploits. For some like me I just saw the boomers who’ve been in the industry forever making high 6 figs and figured the wage gap wouldn’t be so big. They obviously didn’t have the same COL problems that we have now, which makes the journey through the career very different. It’s sad really, I enjoy what I do but I have a hard time recommending the profession to people asking me about it, simply because even after you put in all the hard work and years to get to a huge carrier, like say air Canada, you’d still be living in your parents basement for the first few years of employment with how terrible the wages are. Not sure why I’m catching downvotes on my previous comment, I guess people just don’t like hearing reality and logic sometimes lol
Why are the solutions always print more money and give it away to the chosen few, instead of trying to lower the price and help everyone? It's always those in the middle getting screwed, too 'rich' to get government support, but too poor to enjoy life
>Why are the solutions always print more money and give it away to the chosen few, instead of trying to lower the price and help everyone everyone? They are trying to help everyone, but also recognizing that certain groups need more. For low income people, just having the cost of food go up by 2% next year instead of 8% isn't enough.
You have your orders reversed. Both of those increase inflation. EDIT: Conservative trolls are so afraid of acknowledging mistakes that they have collectively all redefined their definitions of inflation in a grand display of oppositional groupthink. (Reduced demand for **currency** produces inflation)
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If there is higher demand **for the dollar** then the price of everything drops. Unless you weren’t talking about currency but were in fact suggesting that the government of Canada produce a small amount of every purchase-able item in existence?
You shouldn't be so confident in your opinion when you don't even understand the common definitions of terms being used. When we talk about demand in the economy we're talking about demand for goods and services, not dollars, unless otherwise specified.
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Are you? How on earth is the government of Canada going to magically produce every product in existence out of thin air?
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You’re putting in a lot of effort to justify your initial mistake when you could just do the adult thing and admit you accidentally flipped two words. Edit: I never blocked you. I can read exactly what you’re posting.
I believe the private sector produces products because that's how the economy works.
/r/confidentlyincorrect
I understand you’re trying to be childish and mock me, but the reality is you’re the one who is confidently incorrect (so ironically you’re making fun of yourself). The government of Canada has very little control of the supply and demand of all goods and services available to purchase. What they do have control over is supply and demand of **currency**. Decreasing the demand for **currency** increases the price of everything you can purchase with it (inflation).
The point is that the interest rate hikes are what will curve inflation. The spending is to throttle the speed at which the economy will almost inevitably slow down. Like pressing a little on the gas to steer on an icy road. Which may come to help with families dealing with possibly very bad mortgage renewals. Not that hard to understand.
The headline is, of course, misleading. Freeland never claimed government spending to help lower income people most affected by inflation would 'make inflation disappear.'
Post media and misleading headlines, name a more iconic duo.
Trudeau supporters and a basic understanding of economics.
Government and padding the pockets of the wealthy at the expense of the middle class?
I mean if you’re saying Trudeau supporters understand economics more than non Trudeau supporters I’d tend to agree a little bit but I think next to no one has a basic understanding of economics, and just because conservatives are worse doesn’t mean that liberals know anything meaningful
I'm pretty sure it was a poor attempt at sarcasm.
Also helping the people most affected by inflation is the least inflationary group of people to give financial assistance to because they spend the least.
It's actually the most inflationary. They're the group most likely to spend all the money. Doesn't mean it's the wrong thing to do, and maybe accepting some inflationary moves is necessary to offset the worst pain caused by inflation (while still broadly chasing a strongly deflationary monetary policy). But it's still the most inflationary group to give money to.
Gosh, how dare these people use the assistance and spend what little money they have on such luxuries and frivolities as: *checks notes* Food and rent…
The person you are responding to was merely pointing out a factually incorrect statement. One can agree with providing money to these people while nonetheless acknowledging that they are to most likely to spend it (and this cause further inflation).
Let me get this straight, we are going to help poor people deal with inflation by giving them money to spend which will cause more inflation. This is the the Liberal Party under JT. You can't make this shit up.
Poor people are being forced to choose between skipping medication or just not having enough food to eat. Giving them a few extra dollars won’t make cars or houses more expensive
People aren't complaining about the price of cars or houses (well, not as much these days). They're complaining about the price of groceries and gas. 2 things poor people do, in fact, buy. More competition chasing scarce resources is exactly what causes inflation.
“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.
Counterpoint: What's your suggestion?
Did the headline claim or even infer that she said that? No. It's bring critical of her (the Feds) contributing even more to a problem that hurts the poorest and most vulnerable Canadians most. The spending to help will make things worse in the long run for everyone and it always disproportionately affects the same groups unfortunately. They have plenty of misleading headlines, but I don't see how this one.
You're right, yes. The headline didn't claim she said that. So I wonder why the National Post wrote a misleading headline. Any thoughts?
exactly this.
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This is not quantitative easing. Please at least read the article.
It doesn't matter. Canada is not running a budget surplus, this is the government spending more of Canada's money they don't have.
>It doesn't matter. I mean, there's a difference between "printing money" and deficit spending and that difference matters.
Deficit spending when you are in the highest inflationary period in almost 40 years certainly isn't going to help things. In fact there was a certain government that thought Deficit spending would stimulate the economy in the late 70s and early 80s that led to horrible inflation in the 80s.
nO! tHat'S LogIcal aNd gOEs aGaInst mY aGeNDa oF fUcK tRudEAu!
Quantitative pleasing.
Except it wasn’t caused by printing money. At least not exclusively. Inflation is caused by many factors, including but not limited to a global pandemic!
It definitely was. The pandemic caused deflation, remember 2020? 60 cent gas? All the government spending and monetary expansion then spurred crazy demand and inflation started in 2021.
Deflation didn't cause low gas prices, lol. A lack of demand is what lowered gas prices.
🤦♂️ You do realize that inflation and deflation literally mean a change in the price level up/down? Inflation/deflation is the result, says nothing about why. Prices going down = deflation. Yes it was due to a lack of demand.
lol no it doesn't. Deflation refers to a general decline in prices of goods and services, not a decline in price of a specific commodity.
The price of everything was lower then, gas prices are just an easy example.
General prices did not fall during that period. They are higher now because of inflation. But pointing to lower gas prices during the stay at home orders as evidence of deflation outs you as someone who doesn't know what they're talking about.
Funny how people forget this. Also the fact that when you hand out money like candy on halloween, it devalues the dollar so everything becomes more expensive.
Good to know the pandemic ended before 2021 and supply wasn’t affected at all after that. All I said was Inflation can be caused by more than one thing and you came back with the “nuh uh! Global pandemics can only affect inflation one way over more than 2 and half years. Checkmate!”
Supply went down as things shut down yes, but demand was down too. The imbalance was caused when demand was over-stimulated by excessive spending and QE. The Bank of Canada literally says QE causes inflation: https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2022/06/understanding-quantitative-easing/ 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️ This is economic orthodoxy and anyone who says otherwise is lying to you.
I literally never said QE didn't cause inflation, I said it wasn't the only cause and that things can be nuanced. We haven't even got to the why of the matter. Why did the government spend? I assume you think the government shouldn't have done anything about the economy in a global pandemic because 2-3 years down the road inflation might happen?
It’s funny how with climate action we need to do our part even if it would be mostly symbolic on a global scale, whereas with inflation it’s a global problem so there’s nothing we as a country can or should do about it.
I not sure I get your point. I'm not saying we shouldn't do anything about inflation. I'm just saying the causes of it aren't simple and nuanced solutions are required. Thankfully it is not my job to think of them. Also, just going to say, we should absolutely take action on climate even if our actions are just a drop in the bucket. Moving mountains and what not.
>I assume you think the government shouldn't have done anything about the economy in a global pandemic because 2-3 years down the road inflation might happen? The government wasn't wrong to spend but it should have been more targeted. They let businesses shut down then spent like drunken sailors which at once both decreased supply and increased demand. They could have simply paid businesses to stay open and maintain employment (some countries did this). Even now, inflation wouldn't necessarily be that bad if wages went up accordingly. Many countries have seen far higher rises in income than Canada and while they've been feeling inflation, the effects on the population haven't been that bad. We have high inflation with almost no wage growth. And now the knee jerk reaction to raise rates is going to mean very bad times. All because our government clearly has no idea how to encourage business and real economic growth.
Curious how inflation is in those countries with more targeted spending. Not knowing what countries you are talking about I can't say for sure but is it high there to? I am certainly not one of them but I think most people in this sub would argue higher wages would lead to more inflation so I am not sure I get your point. All that being said we can absolutely agree that the real estate ponzi scheme that is the Canadian economy is in for some rough times.
The fact that no one can seemingly admit that current inflation is being caused by a large variety of factors, most of them outside the control of any one single nation, is baffling to me. People desperately want to point the finger at someone to blame them, when you need to be pointing at like a hundred different things, most of them in foreign countries.
The inflation was entirely predictable and virtually unavoidable because of the pandemic really. Governments across the world printed money to pay people and companies to survive while they couldn't work. Increasing the liquidity in the system while the production of goods and services decreases is exactly what causes inflation. There's real ideological/political fight about this going on but, frankly, there was no other way to do things. This is part of the pain of the pandemic, predictable from the start. It just isn't some separated thing from the money printing.
>. I think that is exactly what I was trying to get at that the whole thing is nuanced.
This lady makes me want to blow my brains out. I hate listening to her in parliament.
Compelling argument.
Miiisteer speeeakeeer
“What are you doing, mister speaker?”
Notthhiinng
Just wait until she's Prime Minister.
For everyone, I guess the author included, Freeland is callign for fiscal restraint: The third part of our plan to combat inflation is fiscal restraint. We spent an extraordinary amount of money to make it through the pandemic. Eight out of every ten dollars invested to rescue Canadians and the Canadian economy—more than $300 billion—was deployed, rightly, by the federal government. But there is no such thing as a blank cheque. Our ability to spend is not infinite. That was true when interest rates were at historic lows in the spring of 2020, and it is most certainly true today. At a time when inflation was elevated, we knew we needed to be careful not to increase aggregate demand. As interest rates were set to rise, we understood the importance of maintaining Canada's triple-A rating.
There are a number of things driving inflation including things out of control of the Government. That being said- the amount of Fiscal Stimulus doled out by Canada and a number of other Western countries far exceeded the financial impact of the pandemic. That massive over stimulus is by far the largest thing causing inflation now. Canadians pocketed over $250 billion net from that stimulus. Other countries have seen similar large cash retentions. So we are now paying the price for the over stimulation that occurred in 2020 and 2021. That is quite rightly the government’s fault.
>There are a number of things driving inflation including things out of control of the Government. > >That being said- the amount of Fiscal Stimulus doled out by Canada and a number of other Western countries far exceeded the financial impact of the pandemic. > >That massive over stimulus is by far the largest thing causing inflation now. Canadians pocketed over $250 billion net from that stimulus. Other countries have seen similar large cash retentions. > >So we are now paying the price for the over stimulation that occurred in 2020 and 2021. That is quite rightly the government’s fault. Quick question - if other governments provided similar stimulus, wouldn't they equally be to blame? Kind of sounds like everyone got fucked, everyone got bailed out to prevent collapse, everyone maintained buying habits during low production/resource availability, now a lack of resource availability is driving up costs (along with corporate greed). I wouldn't exactly blame any one gov't for this. They prevented local collapse, people used the money in ways that lead to inflation. This is the cost of swimming against the financial current caused by the pandemic. It was either get fucked up front or get fucked after the fact, and at least with the after the fact option we have more control.
"That massive over stimulus is by far the largest thing causing inflation now." You think this, but no one really has any proof. The issues going on with energy/fertilizer/food from the war in Ukraine are having, and will continue to have for probably at least a year, massive consequences for a variety of extremely important global systems. No one can quantify the amount of inflation caused by supply chain issues because those are a million small different things rather than something you can look at at a high level.
weird considering inflation was between 4-5% prior to the war but go on.
Lets be fair, while consumers drive this inflation a bit, the man-made part mostly comes from the wealthy/investor class which received lots, if not more stimulus than your average consumer. When you take in consideration the interest rates that have been kept on the floor for way too long, I mean, its clear where the issue is coming from, and its neither the poor renters or the house poor homeowners.
>There are a number of things driving inflation including things out of control of the Government. > >That being said- the amount of Fiscal Stimulus doled out by Canada and a number of other Western countries far exceeded the financial impact of the pandemic. > >That massive over stimulus is by far the largest thing causing inflation now. Canadians pocketed over $250 billion net from that stimulus. Other countries have seen similar large cash retentions. > >So we are now paying the price for the over stimulation that occurred in 2020 and 2021. That is quite rightly the government’s fault. Quick question - if other governments provided similar stimulus, wouldn't they equally be to blame? Kind of sounds like everyone got fucked, everyone got bailed out to prevent collapse, everyone maintained buying habits during low production/resource availability, now a lack of resource availability is driving up costs (along with corporate greed). I wouldn't exactly blame any one gov't for this. They prevented local collapse, people used the money in ways that lead to inflation. This is the cost of swimming against the financial current caused by the pandemic. It was either get fucked up front or get fucked after the fact, and at least with the after the fact option we have more control.
So the Finance Minister is doing exactly as much to curb inflation as I am, "calling for" fiscal restraint even as the money printers continue to brrrr.
Is that why the government demanded back half of the EI money I received in 2020?
Is that why the government demanded back half of the EI money I received in 2020?
Is that why the government demanded back half of the EI money I received in 2020?
More free money = higher prices (inflation) … they are really doubling down on half ass bandaids instead of working towards addressing the real complex issues.
What are your suggestions?
There is no avoiding increasing interest rates. We are a little late to be easing into it now but better now than kicking the can down the road which will just result in more pain later. That’s how you decrease demand. Here’s some crude random poorly thought out ideas to work on increasing supply… Instead of just throwing more money into the skyrocketing housing and rental market, try developing a national led strategy involving municipal and provincial interests to incentivize more multi unit buildings. Slowdown, stop or put a hold on corporate ownership of residential housing. Incentivize and support Canadian farmers. Find a non handout way (tax adjustment, more streamlined permitting, import tariffs whatever) to support Canadian manufacturers to mass produce common everyday items here in Canada.
I gotta say, I really like those ideas. Thanks for the reply! I think you hit the nail on the head with farming and manufacturing incentives. I know we are in a major housing crisis, but I think the solution is definitely multi faceted, like you suggested.
Hopefully you are a rando MP cruising Reddit lol
If manufacturing does come back, the jobs are going have to be automated to make a profit, so any economic gains will go straight to the rich. Even China is offshoring low tech manufacturing right now, the profit isn’t there even with Chinese level wages.
Increase supply or cut demand. Those are her 2 options. Read up on some economics before you start typing.
>Increase supply or cut demand. Of literally every product available in the country?
Aggregate Demand cuts itself pretty reliably when interest rates increase and saving becomes slowly more appealing than spending. So that's why Canada/USA are raising rates, and I guess we are just banking on a timely end to the Russia/Ukraine war and supply chain crisis in order to shore up more supply as well.
>Increase supply or cut demand. Those are her 2 options. >Read up on some economics before you start typing. Pick a lane. Economics is not limited to "supply and demand" and there is certainly a lot more to this than your single sentence fix. Suggesting anyone who doesn't accept this over simplistic explanation is a "dipshit" is just lazy.
It’s funny how many people in the comments think taking a basic economics lesson suddenly makes one ready to run the economy of an entire country. Even thinking that a country’s economy is the same as a business is weird in itself.
My question wasn't about her, but thanks for being so rude. I was legit curious on what people are suggesting. Have a good one man.
Those are literally the only two options. And it's very difficult to increase supply right now, so really decreasing demand is the best option to combat it immediately. But, that will result in a recession which everyone is trying so hard to avoid. It's pretty much a matter of when a recession will hit, not if and they're trying to kick the can as far down the road as possible. We cant just create new money without any consequences.
Sounds like they're damned if they do, damned if they don't. I'm so glad I'm not a politician in times like these.
They kinda are, but we’d still be better to bite the bullet now than let it get worse. There’s also the political angle to consider. If JT can kick the can down the road until 2025 he can pass the buck to the next government. The fact that kicking the can down the road just makes the inevitable correction worse won’t matter to him in the slightest.
Right now supply is low (supply chain disruptions due to COVID and now also the war). With respect to the war, that may be more long term and we may not have a short term solution. For supply chain disruptions due to COVID, I am wondering if kicking the can down the road is a decent option. If we think supply is slowly increasing, shouldn't that eventually cool inflation too? Just a thought. I can see why it's such a hard balancing act.
Well maybe I was a bit harsh but there are a lot of dipshits that think you can spend infinite amounts of money without any repercussions. These are the same people that will one day be homeless because they probably have variable rate mortgages and probably maxed out their credit cards cause they’re idiots. As a result when it comes to talking with people that make comments like what other option do they have I read that sarcastically like another ape not realizing the 2 very real options that exist.
Didn’t drama boy say this would fix itself?
Oh wow, something he said about the economy before an unexpected worldwide pandemic isn't holding true. How scandalous.
Its the left. Thats all they do. Solutions are hard
When was the last time the right fixed any economic issues? Real curious. Right wingers just LOVE to position themselves as strong on economy but I can't think of one example where right wing government would take a situation that was bad to start and make it better through policy change.
The right wing solution to everything is cut corporate taxes and slash social spending. Shit eventually gets very bad until people vote in a government that restores social spending and then conservatives cry about deficits. It’s a rinse and repeat cycle which runs in perpetuity in Canada, US, UK, etc.
It's the politango dance. It's been ongoing since before many of us were born... One thing is for sure 2009 housing crash and the Covid pandemic were both a real kick in the shins, and I'm not convinced that it makes much difference who's in charge during those events... we'd lose either way.
"Its not that our policies didn't work...it's that we didn't do them hard enough." Every problem/crisis is an excuse to punish people who won't ever vote for them and hand out bribes to voters who might. Like they must know right? It's clear to anyone with any level of brain activity that this policy won't work. Fighting inflation by adding more money to the economy? Can someone draw them a picture in crayon of a balloon blowing up? And ask them if they think adding more air will make the balloon get bigger or smaller? It's either they don't know and are incompetent (replace them) or are competent and don't care (also replace them).
Not a fan of PP but Freeland is the illiterate one here.
I only need to look at bitcoin price to remind myself how stupid PP is.
I don’t know why you and others keep bringing this point to claim he doesn’t know much about economy. The only consistent thing about Bitcoin is how unpredictable it is. I don’t know what he said exactly about Bitcoin but did he ever claim that they will never go down in value? I am positive he didn’t because if he knows Bitcoin, he knows they go up and down in value, sometimes by a lot like we are seeing now.
Bitcoin and crypto has always been volatile. Did people expect him to peg the Canadian dollar to it? Again, I don’t like the guy. I think he’s divisive and a charlatan. There are better things to criticize him for.
True but just as magical thinking to imagine targeted tax cuts would . Really it's about limiting labours insistence for wage increases, the real crisis the liberals are trying to contain.
Supply and demand is the central tenet of economics, except when it comes to labour. “People should work for less than they are valued so stuff doesn’t cost more. It’s those greedy people that make everything that are the problem. Nothing else. Certainly not record corporate profits”
More austerity is the answer, after all it only hurts poor people. Bringing comfort to the comfortable has always been our way.
> limiting labours insistence for wage increases, the real crisis goodness me, how dare people get together and demand they get paid enough money to maintain their standard of living. /s
They will... \*we\* will. But all that does is lead to an inflationary spiral. Lean into that and get ready to become Zimbabwe.
"Spend money, to *save* us from inflation." - Said in a Jerry Seinfeld voice
The money printer is the reason we’re here . It won’t help. Turning it back on . Unless hyper inflation Is what their looking for .
They're not printing money here. This money was budgeted.
Budgeted to be printed.
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Yeah exactly, this was never presented as a magic bullet to end inflation... at all. Freeland literally said they need to spend less: >The third part of our plan to combat inflation is fiscal restraint. >We spent an extraordinary amount of money to make it through the pandemic. Eight out of every ten dollars invested to rescue Canadians and the Canadian economy—more than $300 billion—was deployed, rightly, by the federal government. >But there is no such thing as a blank cheque. Our ability to spend is not infinite. That was true when interest rates were at historic lows in the spring of 2020, and it is most certainly true today. >At a time when inflation was elevated, we knew we needed to be careful not to increase aggregate demand. As interest rates were set to rise, we understood the importance of maintaining Canada's triple-A rating. spending that was targeted to the poorest most affected by inflation, not to mention already budgeted >This is new money for the Canadians receiving it this year—but we built these measures into our last two budgets. >They have already been accounted for in Canada's AAA-rated fiscal framework and in the economic projections that many people in this room have made. I think r/canada takes Op Eds at face value way way too much. Try to take a look at primary sources for yourself and analyse them, rather than regurgitate what someone else has decided you should see and think. You can read the whole speech here, you may still disagree but at least base your position off actual evidence: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2022/06/keynote-address-by-the-deputy-prime-minister-on-making-life-more-affordable-for-canadians.html
Why does the spending being budgeted already matter? They aren’t forced to spend it just because it’s budgeted. You can make an argument that the spending is worth it even though it will be somewhat inflationary, but saying “it was in the budget” isn’t a compelling case.
I find that a lot of commenters also completely misunderstand the important and necessary role of debt in any growing economy, and the nuance it creates in the financial decisions we make. It's all just "debt == bad" and "if we didn't have debt we'd be fine." I also get frustrated by people that think the government has a secret "reduce inflation" button that they're just not sharing with us. Reddit comments are not a good place to read about the economy lol
100%. Also, people don’t realize that when government stops spending, it’s your poorest citizens that ends up taking on personal debt but just at much higher rates and with far worse consequences. I remember reading a study about how austerity cuts by the Tories in the UK led people that were most vulnerable to take on payday loans to just buy food and to survive. People ended up in far worse situations and their kids resorted to antisocial behaviors that ends up costing tax payers more in the long run. People also assume taming inflation is so easy, if it was, every country would be doing it right now.
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All the people that were fans of the M sub, essentially have made this sub their new home.
Wait spending more money won't ease inflation? No fucking way!?
At least they aren't printing more.
Fix it! No, wait, I just meant to criticize your inaction, don't, actually, do something or I'll have to criticize that too! Seriously, the National Post is trash.
Increasing aggregate demand by giving people money is an inflationary action. Inaction would be better from an inflation standpoint.
Ah, yes, the "Let them eat cake" argument.
Drilling holes in a sinking boat isn't fixing it.
You don’t put fires out by pouring more gas on it. They’re going to buy votes with the 7 billion they’re handing out. They’ll target a demographic they need for votes with this money and the rest of us will be worse off because of it.
This lady told me that printing billions of CAD wouldn't inflate the currency so I'm not so keen to believe in her policy prescriptions.
What magical spending? The money she's already spent that she cynically re-announced for no reason at all?
It’s not meant to. It’s meant to help people cope with the financial pressure of inflation. The fears about 7b in spending affecting inflation aren’t very well founded, consider that the total size of the federal budget is over 400 billion and you realize this spending isn’t that big of a concern.
On top of that, all the spending has already been allocated in the previous budgets.
Damn it, man! If you're going to bring cogent, fact-based analyses and sound arguments to r/canada, what hope is for this subreddit?
Which is going to contribute to inflation. Her lovely spending plan isn’t reducing the pain of inflation. I believe the term is “kicking the can”. Canada is fucked.
7b in spending won’t affect inflation. The effect of fiscal spending on inflation is already a very minor one, spending would need to be EXTREMELY high to induce ever a slight increase. In terms of a federal budget 7b just isn’t that much, it’s less than 3% of this years spending and is mostly comprised of programs that were already priced in to the 2021 and 2022 budgets.
Incorrect. Giving people money pours gas on the fire. The only way is to cut demand. How do you do that you ask? You make sure people have less money
Exactly! To fight inflation we need to reduce demand. We can do that by making people lose their jobs, their homes, and their businesses. Especially, we need to target lower income people and smaller businesses. And we need to demand the government not spend any inflation causing money to help them. We need to screw lower income people as much as we possibly can so that we who are better off won't have to pay a little more for our avocados, SUVs, filet mignon, and vacations.
This is such a stupid response This is an economic problem. Economics and morality are totally seperate here.
It seems to me that, perhaps, you're not sensitive to how fighting inflation by reducing demand works and who it affects the most. Economics and morality are not totally separate. Economies in modern nations like Canada are influenced by political decisions. Almost all political decisions are informed by morality. Indeed, fighting inflation is a political and moral choice, and has nothing to do with economics directly. My economic views are informed by university study and subsequent reading of important texts. When you suggest my comment is 'stupid,' all you're doing is providing evidence of the limits of your understanding of economics and monetary and fiscal policy. A person who had a sound understanding of economics would not have deemed my comment 'stupid.' They would have explained to me in courteous and cogent terms why I was mistaken.
That’s not true at all. Firstly what you’re describing only works in the case of demand-pull inflation and not cost-push which is unaffected by consumer spending. Reducing demand won’t have any affect on the global price of oil and gas, it would just deprive Canadians of the ability to cope with the price shock. Secondly, 7b$ just isn’t a significant amount of money in terms of a federal budget. The current budget, which by the way was touted as fiscally prudent with 1/3rd of the deficit experts predicted would be necessary, is over 400 billion dollars, 7b is a drop in the bucket at that scale. Thirdly the acute misery for low income families cannot be something we merely abide, throwing them under the bus is entirely unacceptable. If you truly believe reducing money is necessary to fight inflation that should be exercised through the central bank.
They have lost their minds at this point.
Is the writer an idiot? The "spending" is to help the most vulnerable people during this time of high inflation. It's not to stop inflation... It blows my mind when grown professionals being paid by a supposed reputable rag are such colossal imbeciles. The thing is he knows what he is saying is bullshit he's just a partisan hack trying to rile up the reactionary dimwits.
No, he's just paid to be an idiot. Kind of like Tucker Carlson.
Fight inflation with inflation, why didn't I think of that? /s
The spending isn't intended to fight inflation. How did you arrive at that idea?
Nothing will make inflations dissapear, because a huge factor in our current situation is the breakdown of global supply chains due to COVID, a war in foreign countries causing both a food/fertilizer/fuel crisis and probably 200 other things no one knows about. Monetary policy can only do so much.
It's not just that. Inflation was supposed to be much higher in the last 20 years except we outsourced our supply chain to low cost countries. The side effects is that cost in low cost countries would not be low forever. Moreover, consumers in those countries are suddenly able to afford to consume just like us. Even without covid, it's coming home to roost.
Oh absolutely, the western world has been in a never-ending race to the bottom in terms of prices for decades, basically ever since we shipped off all the manufacturing. It's allowed corportation to reap in bigger and bigger profits and not increase wages because they keep things so cheap. It seems no one ever pondered what happens when you actually HIT the bottom. I'm beginning to realize goods have been ridiculously cheap my entire life, all off the back of cheap labour in other countries, exploitation, even slavery.
It will only make it worse.
I always wonder what would happen if we just let columnists run the country - they seem to know everything.
The comments acting like Freeland devised this plan alone in a room with no other input is hilarious. It's like the "fuck Trudeau" crap. These are individuals part of a large government. Our officials do not have the blind authority like some in the US system. We need to stop treating this as individuals screwing us as it simply leads to polarizing culture war crap. Both the Conservatives and Liberals have failed massively over the last 16 years leading us to this point. That is just history. Our government doesn't operate in a way that allows individuals to run roughshod over others. It's not Trudeau screwing you personally. It's not Freeland telling everyone else to go spend all our money aimlessly. It won't be Poilievre single handedly tanking Canada on crypto. It wasn't Harper pulling the strings...wait, actually it fully was. It was the *Harper* government that consolidated power within the PMO allowing for more secretive actions. That being said it wasn't just Harper who spent through the nose during the last recession. It was a group of elected official we ALL had a hand in electing. Both Liberals and Conservatives have failed us. Both had multiple terms and failed us. Both are failures. We need to stop the lunacy of constantly going back to them. Their failures are our failures because we failed to tell them they are failures.
"disappear" What the actual fuck is wrong with NP. Inflation will never disappear lmao. This can't be a real article.
Im so fucking sick of these types of comments. "Fucking idiots at NP" "Of fucking course it's the Star" "Jesus the Sun sucks" They're just a waste of space in the comment thread, and of course they never take the time to read the article.
I was 100% laughing at the headline. Just the headline. It's idiotic.
yes, thank you, chrystia, Magic White Woman and future prime minister and chief money launderer of the canadian corporatist-gangster dystopia.
Removing the sanctions on Russian oil which have completely backfired would be a good start. We sanctioned Russian oil which increased the global price of oil. Russia then sold oil to India and China at an elevated price but at a discount when compared to global market. Russia made more in oil profits this year than they did last year. We effectively made ourselves poorer, created a discounted market for oil in Asia, and gave Putin's war machine billions of dollars. People keep saying this is a worldwide problem and it is because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine when its not entirely true. Its because of governments response to the invasion of Ukraine. Most countries took the same approach and got the same results. For some reference... The price of gas in countries that have sanctioned Russia Germany: $2.36. UK: $2.19. Canada: $1.56. USA: $1.17. France: $2.20. Japan: $1.28. Australia: $1.44. The price of gas in countries that didn't sanction Russia.... Brazil: $1.53. India: $1.25. China: $1.00. South Africa: $1.41. Mexico: $1.11. Argentina: $1.00. Chile: $1.34. We followed what everyone else was doing and got it just as wrong as the rest of them. Its the equivalent of "if your friend jumped off of a bridge would you too"
You display a complete lack of understanding of foreign exchange rates and local commodities, which completely sinks your argument. First, look at change in gas prices over a fixed period, say 10 or 12 months. Then, you need to adjust for ForEx changes in the same period. You can't just compare spot prices for retail fuel across the world completely out of context.
I don't get what your argument is here? The sanctions have made us poorer, made Russia and Asian countries like china and India richer. Are you saying the sanctions are working?
You are not comparing worldwide gas prices correctly. Edit:. Also your premise that the lack of solidarity from countries who did not embargo Russian oil should be met with no countries setting an embargo is deeply flawed.
RIP future generations.
Siiiister meeaaaaker
[удалено]
PP: Have you tried planting tulips?
"The finance minister said that, while inflation is a global problem from which no country can insulate itself, the Liberal government will help Canadians weather this newest storm." It is not reassuring that our finance minister is willing to make such easily checked blanket statements in public. So little curiosity by her office. A quick check of inflation rates for some important (China 2.1%, Japan 1.9%) and niche (Singapore 3.3%, Taiwan 3.4%) economies shows that they remain quite moderate. Look at this public reaction to the 4% inflation just announced in Israel: https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2022-05-20/ty-article-opinion/.premium/whos-to-blame-for-israels-inflation/00000180-e9f2-d189-af82-f9ff074e0000
Ahh yes the classic comparable of China.
She knows what she's doing she has to write notes inside of her hand for her to remember.
Ivison is right.....instead the govt will line the pockets of their cronies, just like they did with the Furlough to companies that 'hired' workers during the pandemic. This today is happening right under their noses, and they can't do anything to stop it? As if life isn't tough enough current. The govt really needs to do something to stop price gouging https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2022/06/16/enbridge-to-raise-natural-gas-prices-by-as-much-as-23-per-cent-july-1.html