Economic decisions are too important to be left to economists. That’s the big lesson I’m taking away the GDP Project as I clean out my desk and prepare to move on.
It’s been a year to remember – documenting the worst economic crisis in our lifetimes as it plays out in communities across Canada. Before I [...]
August 30th 2010 No Comments
Parting shots
Tags: english posts · news
August 4th 2010 2 Comments
Beastly: Wildlife Rehab Hit by Crisis
By all official indicators, the Canadian economy has been in recovery for months now, but the human – and animal – index tells another story.
Barry Rothfuss and Pam Novak, the team that runs New Brunswick’s Atlantic Wildlife Institute, recently got some disappointing news.
Tags: news
June 4th 2010 No Comments
Soccer World Cup Build-Up on GDP
The biggest sports event in the world starts in a couple of days. In fact, the GDP Project is pursuing its documentation of Canadians at a time when a second great international sport happening takes centre-stage. We’ve been able to follow the Vancouver Olympic Games (without documenting them, rest assured). It’s now time to turn [...]
Tags: documentary · english posts
March 29th 2010 1 Comment
The Curious Case of the Missing Recovery
Economist Jim Stanford has fun poking holes in the notion of economic recovery – donning a crumpled trenchcoat, adding an “o” to his last name, and setting forth with a magnifying glass in search of signs of life in Ontario’s manufacturing sector. Check it out.
This follows a report from Sylvain Schetagne, senior economist at [...]
Tags: economy · english posts · news
January 29th 2010 No Comments
Still blaming the victims
“Almost nothing is more enduring than suspicion of the poor as causing their own predicament. It always reaches its zenith when times are bad. No matter how well-known the economic causes of a recession, there is always an impulse to blame the victim.â€
So says John Stapleton, a former senior official with the Ontario government, in [...]
Tags: documentary · webdocumentary
November 30th 2009 3 Comments
Challenge Your World: Finding new ways to do business
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a short conference at the Imperial Theatre in Montreal called Challenge Your World/Rendez-Vous 09.
Challenge Your World believes a new generation of business is upon us, that companies who are guided by sustainable practices can improve our lives and, of course, our world.
The main reason I went was to [...]
Tags: english posts · news
October 15th 2009 1 Comment
The crisis, animated!
The crisis, the financial one, can sometimes be portrayed with a totally different light than that of the evening news. Here’s just a an excerpt of what the crisis can be like when animation film director Cordell Barker gets in the fold.
With his excellent Runaway, Baker embarks us on a crowded train in the middle [...]
Tags: animation · english posts · news
August 17th 2009 2 Comments
‘Crisis’ in Latin America is chronic
A little bit off-mark territorially, I found the following reflection to be quite compelling. It tells a story that puts the “economic crisis” in a larger context. It expresses in what ways “economic crisis” means different things to different people. It strechtes the deep recession internationnaly and time-wise.
Writer James Petras looks at how people react [...]
Tags: economy · english posts · thoughts
July 27th 2009 1 Comment
La tyrannie du PIB
Depuis 5 semaines, Philippe Santerre nous a prêté main forte à la recherche.  À la lecture du texte qui suit, il semble bien que son passage au sein de notre équipe l’ait inspiré. Merci pour ta trop brève et combien précieuse collaboration Philippe!
Mark Carney, gouverneur de la Banque du Canada, a annoncé cette semaine la [...]
Tags: billets français · thoughts
April 15th 2009 No Comments
La fin du commerce du vent
Ah la jolie saison des tulipes! Saviez-vous qu’au milieu du 17e siècle, une spéculation irraisonnée sur le bulbe de tulipe, symbole de richesse et d’opulence de l’époque, a plongé les Pays-Bas dans une crise financière sans précédent? À son apogée en bourse, le cours du précieux végétal représentait vingt fois le salaire annuel d’un artisan [...]
Tags: billets français · photography
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