Harper sets a corporate table for Summits
2010 2010-05Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 9 →
The words are the paper's own, from its digital file; the division into articles was made by machine, so a box or caption can end up inside the article next to it.
Scan page 9
The big issues on the agenda for the G8 and G20 Summits in Huntsville and Toronto in June include climate change, nuclear weapons, Afghanistan, and the state of the world economy. Poverty, hunger, and disease as a function of capitalist economic crisis and growing inequality will likely take a distant back seat to government deficit and debt reduction.
Just to make sure that the rich are not made to pay, even in the slightest way, for the crisis their system caused and their actions aggravated, the Conservative federal government in Ottawa is campaigning aggressively to block a proposal for a speculation tax and an excess-profits tax on financial institutions.
This is an old idea, first posited by the English economist John Maynard Keynes in 1936, and by American economist James Tobin in 1972. It is backed today by British P.M. Gordon Brown and the International Monetary Fund; even U.S. President Barack Obama is edging towards such a tax to pay for bank bailouts. These facts are clues that the FAT (Financial Activities Tax) will not go nearly far enough—and moreover, that it is designed to help stabilize the system of the fat cats rather than help Ameritrade, a discount brokerage based in the U.S. Midwest.
One elite’s loss is another’s gain. That’s why we call it inter-imperialist rivalry, sometimes the stuff of wars. But this one is still well under control as high-finance operators make the average Jill and Jack pay the price in lost homes, jobs, and pensions.
Meanwhile, as bank profits in Canada soar, and corporate taxes decline, consumer debt is rising fast. In Canada, disposable income growth has been going down, and in the year ended last February, household debt went up more than three times faster than income growth. Canadians have seen their liabilities rising twice as fast as their assets over the past two years—despite the rebound in stock valuations and the recent surge in home prices.
“Canadian consumer fundamentals are weaker than they have been in almost 15 years,” reported CIBC economist Benjamin Tal on April 1. When will the next bubble burst, and who will pay the price?
— B.W.