NAFTA, Investiture and Redistribution. The Power Underpinnings of Trade and Investment Liberalization in Canada

Criticism of trade and investment liberalization (TAIL) in North America has drawn attention to weak economic performance, wage-profit redistribution, social dumping and fiscal pressure on government programs as evidence that the TAIL regime has failed to deliver on some of its key promises. This criticism has been unable, however, to establish satisfactory conceptual and empirical connections between the dramatic distributional changes witnessed in the TAIL era and the reorganization of power that the TAIL regime entrenched. This paper will undertake a quantitative assessment of the Canadian political economy to see who the main beneficiaries of the TAIL era have been, contrasting returns to labor and to capital in the pre-TAIL and TAIL eras. Employing tools from radical institutionalism, two pictures are painted: the first picture examines broad changes in the distribution of income and the second picture examines differential business performance. The evidence from this inquiry suggests that although the official purpose of TAIL was to enhance the prosperity of all Canadians, this trade deal actually represented—both in its intentions and consequences—a political-economic transformation written by dominant capital, for dominant capital

The Power Underpinnings, and Some Distributional Consequences, of Trade and Investment Liberalisation in Canada (Preprint)

Criticism of trade and investment liberalisation (TAIL) in North America has drawn attention to weak economic performance, wage-profit redistribution, social dumping and fiscal pressure on government programmes as evidence that the TAIL regime has failed to deliver on some of its key promises. This criticism has been unable, however, to establish satisfactory conceptual and empirical connections between the dramatic distributional changes witnessed in the TAIL era and the institutional reorganisation of power that the TAIL regime entrenched. This article will undertake a quantitative assessment of the Canadian political economy to see who the main beneficiaries of the TAIL era have been, contrasting returns to labour and to capital in the pre-TAIL and TAIL eras. Employing tools from the capital as power framework, two pictures are painted: the first picture examines broad changes in the distribution of income and the second examines differential business performance. The evidence from this inquiry suggests that although the official purpose of TAIL was to enhance the prosperity of all Canadians, this trade deal actually represented – both in its intentions and consequences – a political-economic transformation written by dominant capital for dominant capital

The Business of Power: Canadian Multinationals in the Postwar Era

The modern corporation is the dominant institution of the Canadian political economy. Does this imply that ‘corporate power’ is a meaningful concept in the Canadian context? What role has globalization played in restructuring the corporate sector? Are large firms controlled by salary-oriented managers or profit-seeking proprietors? Do mergers and acquisitions fuel the expansion of large firms? Why has Canada experienced slower GDP growth in recent decades? And how can we account for the level and pattern of Canadian income inequality? These and other questions are probed in this dissertation using tools from a variety of heterodox political-economic perspectives, including Nitzan and Bichler’s ‘capital as power’ framework, Institutionalism and Post Keynesianism. The reader will be introduced to some of the assumptions, concepts and theoretical claims that steer the research. The history of Canadian business will be reinterpreted and scholarship on the modern corporation surveyed. This will set the stage for an examination of large firms, or ‘dominant capital’, in Canada over the postwar period. This study provides the first long-term estimates for aggregate concentration and for corporate amalgamation. It devises metrics to capture the distributive struggle between capital and labour and for the globalization of merger activity. The structure of corporate ownership is laid bare, linkages between amalgamation and concentration are established and the association between the growth of large firms and GDP stagnation is charted. The dissertation closes by establishing points of contact between the amassment of corporate power and income inequality

Efficient quantum processing of ideals in finite rings

Suppose we are given black-box access to a finite ring R, and a list of generators for an ideal I in R. We show how to find an additive basis representation for I in poly(log |R|) time. This generalizes a recent quantum algorithm of Arvind et al. which finds a basis representation for R itself. We then show that our algorithm is a useful primitive allowing quantum computers to rapidly solve a wide variety of problems regarding finite rings. In particular we show how to test whether two ideals are identical, find their intersection, find their quotient, prove whether a given ring element belongs to a given ideal, prove whether a given element is a unit, and if so find its inverse, find the additive and multiplicative identities, compute the order of an ideal, solve linear equations over rings, decide whether an ideal is maximal, find annihilators, and test the injectivity and surjectivity of ring homomorphisms. These problems appear to be hard classically.Comment: 5 page

"Crisis of Capital, Crisis of Theory": Conference Program and Videos

This is the first in a conference series organized by the Forum on Capital as Power and sponsored by Routledge and Springer. The present meetings explore the dual crisis of capital and theory. There are 21 scheduled presentations, including keynote addresses by Herman Scwhartz and Randall Germain and guest presentations by George Comninel, Leo Panitch, David McNally and Jonathan Nitzan. The conference closes with a roundtable interrogation of capital, power and the future of political economy. Attendance is free and all are welcome. DATE/TIME/PLACE: October 29-31, 2010 || York Lanes, Rooms 280N & 280A || Keele Campus of York University. VIDEOS: To watch the panels, click the link to the video podcasts above

A contemporary and systematic literature review of user centric innovation: A consumer perspective

Managing Innovation is a three-part series covering contemporary technology and innovation management research areas. Each volume comprises key articles from both the International Journal of Innovation Management and the International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management and provides an international, disciplinary approach across its broad coverage of topics. Relevant for both academics and practitioners, this volume focuses on key aspects of crowd innovation including motivations, challenges and benefits of this approach

Proinflammatory cytokines differentially influence adult hippocampal cell proliferation depending upon the route and chronicity of administration

Disturbances of hippocampal plasticity, including impaired dendritic branching and reductions of neurogenesis, are provoked by stressful insults and may occur in depression. Although corticoids likely contribute to stressor-induced reductions of neurogenesis, other signaling messengers, including pro-inflammatory cytokines might also be involved. Accordingly, the present investigation assessed whether three proinflammatory cytokines, namely interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) (associated with depression) influenced cellular proliferation within the hippocampus. In this regard, systemic administration of TNF-α reduced 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) labeling within the hippocampus, whereas IL-1β and IL-6 had no such effect. However, repeated but not a single intra-hippocampal infusion of IL-6 and IL-1β actually increased cellular proliferation and IL-6 infusion also enhanced microglial staining within the hippocampus. Yet, no changes in doublecortin expression were apparent, suggesting that the cytokine did not influence the birth of cells destined to become neurons. Essentially, the route of administration and chronicity of cytokine administration had a marked influence upon the nature of hippocampal alterations provoked, suggesting that cytokines may differentially regulate hippocampal plasticity in neuropsychiatric conditions

Relationship Among Emotional Intelligence and/or Extrovert Bias on Perceived Stress Levels in DPT Students

Purpose/Hypothesis: Students in graduate level DPT programs function at varying levels. Some students thrive and others struggle to maintain required minimum levels of academic performance. When considering admission of applicants, and when assisting enrolled students, consideration of factors contributing to academic success is of interest. Stress has been shown to be prevalent in a wide range of students and has many negative effects including poor life satisfaction, increased clinical burnout, and reduced academic performance. Research has shown a correlation between higher emotional intelligence (EI) and decreased stress levels in medical, nursing, and undergraduate students. The purpose of this study was to examine if emotional intelligence (EI) and/or extrovert bias correlates with perceived stress levels in Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students. It was hypothesized that students with higher emotional intelligence and more extroverted personalities would experience lower levels of perceived stress. Participants: After providing consent, a convenience sample of 60 first and second year DPT students (33 female) with age range 23 to 38 participated in the current study. Participation was voluntary and 60 of a possible 72 students chose to participate. Materials/Methods: After obtaining informed consent, participants completed Goldberg’s IPIP-Neo questionnaire (extraversion), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Assessing Emotions Scale (emotional intelligence). Each of these tools have demonstrated validity and reliability for the respective areas measured. Surveys were administered to students and results were analyzed for possible relationships between extraversion and stress levels as well as EI and stress levels using a Spearman Correlation test. Results: Spearman Correlation analyses were conducted with a significant negative correlation between EI and perceived stress rs = -0.291, p= 0.026 and a non-significant negative correlation between extraversion and perceived stress rs = -1.36, p= 0.305. Discussion: In the current sample, EI had a significant negative relationship with perceived stress levels, with higher EI scores correlating to lower levels of stress. The relationship between extraversion and perceived stress was non-significant. Clinical Relevance: Doctorate level graduate programs can be considered intense and very stressful. Admission of qualified students equipped to meet the demands of a DPT program has great importance. Establishing a correlation between EI, introversion/extraversion bias, and stress may help DPT programs further assess prospective students. Consideration of factors correlated with higher perceived stress may be useful when providing resources to admitted students to facilitate academic success

Hypothetical proposed Hale Passage salmon aquaculture site: environmental impact assessment

The Hale Passage Salmon Aquaculture Site is a hypothetical Atlantic salmon aquaculture site located within the coastal waters of the Salish Sea in Whatcom County, Washington. The proposed operation would include two 20x40 meter net pens sited within Hale Passage between Lummi Island and Lummi Nation, eastsoutheast of the ferry route