Items of Interest - 16 July 2023

[dewline]

1. Scientific American: Moral Injury Is an Invisible Epidemic That Affects Millions - published in 2022. This is a thing that politicians with kind intentions might be dealing with, too...

2. Canadian Press via CBC News: Foreign interference means Canada should get serious on media literacy, advocate says - published in 2023. A concern of every nation at this point, yes?

3. CBC News - Is the Bank of Canada making things worse? - published in 2023. Central bank bosses seem to be missing the points of much of the wider public right now, don't they?

4. CBC News - Construction labour crunch leaves Canada in need of boosting ranks of home builders - published in 2023.

5. Post News - COVID-19 Update for July 2023: Risks Are Low But Rising, and Too Many Are Ignoring Longer-Term Risks by Augie Ray

Comments

[agoodwinsmith]

#3 - up goes the bank rate again ... sigh

So. I am not convinced that whaling away on the axle of the Canadian economy with the hammer of bank interest rates is the best way to influence global inflation. But, I don't know enough. So, I wanted to read what Tiff Macklem[1] has written about it, to see whether I think he knows his stuff or just knows how to use a hammer.

He has published zilch. Although he is the Dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, he has no publications with the University of Toronto's press. Although he is an Alumnus of Queens University (where they are delighted to note that 3 of the last 4 governors of the Bank of Canada are Alumni of Queens) he has published nothing at McGill-Queens University Press. Chasing down articles he has written is futile because, enticing as the google leader might be, it usually turns out to be a journalist synopsizing yet another press conference.

So. That leaves us with two meagre sources:
The full text of his announcement speech:
https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2023/07/opening-statement-2023-07-12/
and the Governor's Foreword of the Bank of Canada's Annual Report 2022
https://www.bankofcanada.ca/publications/annual-reports-quarterly-financial-reports/annual-report-2022/
https://www.bankofcanada.ca/publications/annual-reports-quarterly-financial-reports/annual-report-2022/governors-foreword/

His biggest moan seems to be that people keep dipping into their savings to continue to afford housing.

And I just want to smack him with a big whack-a-mole sponge.

Every time interest rates go up, the cost of housing goes up either through increased mortgage payments, or increased rent payments to landlords with increased mortgage payments. Duh. If people *don't* keep dipping into their savings (or lines of credit, or credit cards, or whatever), then they are out on the street. Do we measure how much of a percentage of the population is currently address-free? Is there a percentage goal where enough people are homeless that we can stop fooling with the interest rates?

After reading what meagre writing there is, I am convince the only reason the Bank of Canada toys with the interest rates is because that is the only tool they have. They have no other mechanism for sticking a slat into the spokes of the economy bicycle.

[1] - and yes, it's Tiffany (my other choice was Plaintiff, ahha), Richard Tiffany Macklem

[agoodwinsmith]

PS - I am going to put this on my Dreamwidth also.

[dewline]

What worries me is that there may well be such a percentage goal. At all times, in all countries.

And if people like Macklem and Yellen are determined to argue for a "duty to be unemployed", then we need universal/unconditional basic income to compensate for being compelled to such "duty".

[agoodwinsmith]

I think your suspicion is right; and yes.

[warriorsavant]

We've spent so much time, effort, and cold cash on pushing people into university. Many of them don't belong there, and many of them graduate with actually useful, or even nominally useful skills. At the same time, we are shorter and shorter on skilled labor (plumbers, HVAC, welders, plasterers, repair technicians, etc).

[mellowtigger]

#1 Solastalgia and pre-traumatic stress. Interesting.

#5 I especially like the parenthetical comment, "(and deaths from accidents, heart disease and strokes--which could be related to prior COVID infections--have risen rapidly since 2019.)" That's what I predicted almost a year ago. Someday, I'll have to track down hard numbers for those parenthetical claims.

[mtbc]

True, thank you for sharing #5 and thanks to mellowtigger for publishing links too!

[malada]

Thank you for number 1 - after reading it 'moral injury' makes a lot of sense.

[dewline]

I can think of several of my friendlisters actively trying to cope with that situation right now from what they're sharing of their lives here.