There have been a lot of misleading things said about the Bank of Canada’s concerns around a potential wage-price spiral, most of them from left-wing economists or union leaders (as well as Jagmeet Singh and Pierre Poilievre), who have wrongly said that either governor Tiff Macklem was blaming wages for inflation (false), or that he told business leaders not to raise wages (also false). What Macklem said was that when negotiating contracts, to remember that they were determined to get inflation back to two percent as quickly as possible, so don’t keep high raises out for too long, because that is what could drive a wage-price spiral. What that means is that because wages would be above the rate of inflation, it means that prices—particularly for services—would need to be raised to pay for those wages, which then keeps inflation higher for longer. It’s also why it’s not just price controls that have happened in the past, but wage and price controls, to try and keep that impetus in check.
Payroll data has been released, which demonstrates why the concerns about a wage-price spiral are abating. Kevin Milligan explains:
https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1618678055396081665
https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1618679010099359744
https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1618680872106086402
https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1618691478653644800
Ukraine Dispatch, Day 338:
Russians fired more missiles at Kyiv and places like Zaporizhzhia, killing eleven civilians in the process.
Today, russian terrorists attacked Ukraine with 55 missiles.
47 of them have been shot down by our troops and three missed their targets.
For these acts of terrorism to stop, russia must be defeated.@CinC_AFU @KpsZSU— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) January 26, 2023
https://twitter.com/defencehq/status/1618859295851921409