this is actually good news if you're in ontario.

i'm kind of cringing at the idea of a "return to keynesianism" (which requires the broken assumption of a closed economy that is dominated by the local petty bourgeoisie and is protected by tariffs), though. we need to look forward in building new theories of economics that are built on currently existing assumptions rather than assumptions that ceased to be true some time in the 80s or 90s. from that perspective, these mathematical arguments between hayek and keynes are largely meaningless: they both assume a closed economy, so no matter how much math you run off the models are never going to accurately predict reality. i'm not aware of any kind of competing theory on the soft left that takes post-globalization as a beginning assumption and that honestly deluded liberals that still believe in capitalism could use as a moderating tool. the only ideas thinking on a global level are multinational corporatism and global communism.

but even if the multipliers don't pan out, even if the money ends up in the hands of lenders and multinationals that invest it on the other side of the world, it should create some short-term employment in construction, as well as a much needed facelift on infrastructure. maybe she got the memo on reinhart and rogoff. maybe the credit rating fascists took their boots off her neck. maybe she needs ndp support. doesn't matter...

but to get to my point: there's going to be a good chunk of cash coming down for infrastructure in the next few years. a lot of it should end up with municipalities. these municipalities are likely going to need a bit of a push to spend the cash on *sustainable* infrastructure, rather than on the carbon economy. in that sense, there's an opportunity here to actually get some input on building shit that needs to be built. yeah, i know, but maybe it's better to put off seizing collective ownership of it until it exists....

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ontarios-economic-plan-to-shift-focus-from-austerity-to-spending-and-growth/article15303331/