This week we learned that Rights and Democracy -- an agency established by Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1988 to monitor human rights and democratic development internationally -- has been terminated. The closure follows similar shutdowns by the Harper Conservatives of organizations that bear witness to these trends internationally, such as KAIROS and the Canadian Council for International Cooperation. The $11 million in "savings" was not part of the identified list of cuts announced in last week's federal budget.

Capitalism has entered an ugly new era, one that may work well for the shareholders of the world, but not for the rest of us.

I couldn't help but notice that, on the very same day Caterpillar shuttered the doors of its London, Ontario locomotive plant and headed to low-wage Indiana, the Wall Street Journal reported federal corporate tax receipts as a share of profits had dropped to their lowest level in at least 40 years in the U.S. Sadly, that's not just an American story.

As Christmas presents go, this one was a shocker: Over lunch on Monday, cash-strapped Finance Minister Jim Flaherty promised provincial and territorial finance ministers he'd increase federal funding for health care by six per cent each year for the next five years. No strings attached. No negotiations. A done deal. With a catch.

The provinces and territories have five years to figure out how to make health care sustainable on their own terms, every premier for himself. After that, the Harper government will contribute less, tying federal contributions to the growth in the economy, with a floor of three per cent.

Starting today I will be on a regular weekly biz panel for the Lang and O'Leary show, every Thursday night.

The panel will take on two six-minute segments to discuss the big economic stories of the day. Today's proposed topics -- the Eurozone mess, whither Canada's GDP, is Occupy a media invention/will it hold without media attention, upcoming job market numbers.

A cool opportunity to bring a progressive perspective into perhaps the most neoliberal -- and watched -- Punch and Judy show in the business news universe, at least in English-speaking Canada.

The show airs daily on CBC News Network, between 7 and 8 p.m. (EST, but I think everywhere same time slot). The biz panel segment will be in the second half of the show, after 7:30.

Governments around the world are heading down a path to economic suicide.

So said Nobel Prize-winning former chief economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz, to hundreds of well-heeled financiers and decision-makers who paid a bundle to hear him in Toronto.

With a voice as gruff as gravel, and an energy bristling with urgency, he told governments in Canada and the rest of the world now is the moment to address unmet needs, and use underutilized resources. Failure to do so would unnecessarily prolong the tough times.

Addressing the 5th Toronto Forum on Global Cities, Stiglitz challenged leaders who say it is time for government to get their fiscal houses in order by cutting.

This is not the stuff of usual protests. Over the past month, a little idea from a Vancouver outfit has mushroomed into a cross-continent movement.

Occupy Wall Street, kicked off by Adbusters in July and coming to Toronto this weekend, has already spread to 70 American cities and is going global as protesters challenge society to rethink how the economy and the government operates, and for whom.

It's an awakening -- a populist call for that "adult conversation" many thought would take place after the global economic calamity of 2008. It didn't then. But it may now, thanks to Occupy Wall Street, in a city near you.

It's often said that there aren't enough rich people in Canada to make a real difference to fiscal policy and, in consequence, the rest of us.

Yesterday Canadian Business's annual special edition devoted to Canada's richest 100 people hit the stands, where it will stay until Christmas. As a regular contributor I was invited to submit a column. I chose to drop the T-bomb and show how just a few people can make a huge difference in the lives of millions of Canadians through their contribution to public policy. You can read the article here.

This essay was commissioned by the National Post. It was published under the headline "A Problem for Everyone". In the print edition, the overline -- a large font summary of what you are about to read written by the editors -- reads: "Income inequality isn't just unfair -- it threatens the whole foundation on which our capitalist economy is based." Those are not my words. They are the words of the National Post.

Work hard and you'll get ahead. That's been the mantra of folks who prefer their governments small and their success big.

In August, Canadian Business magazine published my article on why inequality is bad for business. It is produced in full below.

Last week the International Monetary Fund, not known for left-leaning views, released a series of articles entitled "Why Inequality Throws Us Off Balance".