Editor, The Times:
Back in the good old days, when the Berlin Wall was torn down, Germany was reunited and capitalism emerged triumphant, there was much talk about how the free market would solve it all. Just let everything float free and a new Jerusalem of prosperity, fairness and all those good things would reign upon the planet.
Among those who picked up on this were the financial sectors of various countries. Those South of the Border really swallowed this hook, line, and sinker. The Glass-Steagall Act in the US of A since the Dirty 30s was cancelled. Banks, financial institutions, you name it, were allowed to merge, mingle and dream financial schemes that, in retrospect, appear to come from the mind of Lewis Carroll. Not even financiers supposedly in the know could explain these Mad Hatter money forces.
Here in the land of the Maple Leaf, Canada’s banksters took up the cry. Mega-size the banks – we can’t compete globally unless the financial institutions of Canada are merged into one or two huge entities ready to take on all comers.
Jean Chretien resisted this call, pointing out that Japan’s banks had done just that and look at the mess they were in.
One man who was all for mega-sized Canadian banks (along with joining George Bush’s ship of idiots’ in Iraq) was Stephen Harper. Along with Canada’s banksters, he promoted the idea that one or two huge financial entities here in Canada could compete globally. Where have we heard of this before?
Yet the legend of Stephen Harper as a great financial manager persists. True, Canada did come through the financial crisis of 2007 – 2008 much better than the United States or other European countries, which had to be rescued by possibly the biggest financial bailout in history — socialism for the rich one might say! The Harperites went against all their instincts by providing some $50 billion of stimulus to the banks.
As to Canada’s financial wizards they waved and patted themselves on the back and took the stimulus.
And the legend of good financial management lives on!
Dennis Peacock
Clearwater, B.C.
