Stephen Harper has finally chimed in on our present crisis. Susan Delacourt writes:
True to his convictions, born in the time of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Harper makes the case that government will have to shrink when this spending splurge is over. Or, in Thatcher’s immortal words, there is no such thing as society when the bills start coming in. That’s when we’ll need the markets again.
“Right now, as in wartime, we face extreme needs for physical and financial security,” Harper writes. “But as needs shift to jobs, growth and wealth creation — and those needs will be enormous — it will require more market activity and a bigger private sector, not more intervention and bigger government.”
Harper hates big government. Not so big business. And, when he was prime minister -- in 2008 -- big business got the lion's share of support:
“Too big to fail” was the signature line of the 2008 crash. Big in that case wasn’t big government, but the titans of industry, whose rescue, it was assumed, would save all those who depended on them. Not all of that worked out as planned.
Canada’s bruising lesson on this score came in the recent shutdown of GM’s Oshawa plant, 10 years after the federal and Ontario governments threw $9.5 billion (U.S.) in aid to the carmaker to keep thousands employed.
The Trudeau government is taking a different tack -- partly because Chrystia Freeland is Deputy Prime Minister. And she has written about the 2008 crisis:
Freeland, in her previous life as a journalist, wrote about the mistakes of the bailouts a decade ago, in a 2012 Reuters opinion piece, about a year before she made the leap into politics.
Freeland’s column appeared in the New York Times and recounted a conversation she had with Amir Sufi, a professor at the University of Chicago Business School, about how the 2008 bailouts were aimed too high up in the economic food chain.
“He believes the U.S. government made a costly mistake by focusing on bankers and not homeowners,” Freeland wrote. And then she added, prophetically. ”Mr. Sufi’s argument matters, and not just because there will, inevitably, be another financial crisis.”
Freeland probably didn’t expect to be sitting in the driver’s seat in any government the next time a financial crisis rolled around, but you can see evidence of her thinking and reporting on it throughout this pandemic.
It appears that Harper has learned nothing from 2008. Neither has his party.
Image: The Toronto Star
12 comments:
I read this piece at breakfast, Owen, and all I could think of is my gratitude that the Conservatives are not at the helm during this crisis. Harper's reactionary column is also a timely reminder of how hard the entrenched interests will fight to erase from public memory the vital role that government is playing during this pandemic lest 'the masses' get it into their heads that the neoliberal way is not the best way after all and demand permanent change.
Trust Harper to extol 'wealth creators' and ignore the damage they cause society as 'wealth accumulators' - the Isle of Man tax cheats, the Panama Papers brigade.
So mired is Harper's incredibly narrow focus on neoclassical economics and the neoliberal order that he cannot see their failure and, instead, believes the answer is to double down, ever more of the same. That his 'religion' (and economic models are faith based which is why we have transitioned from one to another about twice a century) has outlasted its utility, resulting in a hollowed out middle class, dangerous inequality and the rise of a precariat is of no moment to Sideshow Steve.
Some of the deck chairs are already being washed overboard and he doesn't see it. Perhaps that's why the people who were sitting in those chairs aren't relevant to Steve. He's no Donald Trump but he has about as much empathy.
Prick.
Harper's pronouncements are a reminder of how modern conservatism lost its way, Lorne, in its quest to make selfishness a virtue.
That one word captures the man, Mound.
.. Hello Owen.. & good morning..
I have an impertinent question for you.. and for Stephen Harper (or Ray Novak or Laureen) both & all of whom I assume consume your Indy Blog with a red face, & also Climenhaga, Mound, Lorne et al.. Read The Tyee.. or Simon de Montreal.. or wholly smokes.. read the comments too ? Or even read Kinsella or Licia Corbella.. Lorne Gunter, Lord Black, Rebel Ezra.. ie the partisan SUN types or wanna be Indy's - oracles with blue faces
What exactly would happen if 'the markets' .. at least the Canadian ones.. just were disappeared. You know.. poof they gone .. Puff the Magic Dragon scorched or ate them accidently.. ? Asking for a friend.. (who also asked about polls.. and what or why they are.. and why is sky blue). My friend is 9 years old.. she/he is tall enuff now to examine themselves in an adult mirror .. and uh.. kinda favors Greta Thunderbird.. wonders about Sheer, and the MP from Okeelahomer.. Ms Rempel two names.. Garner.. and why we don't send missionaries or spezial forces to save her from the heathens.. why does she have no monies.. and have to stay in somebodies basement
I just don't have the answers.. though I try.. These are toughie questions.. and I hate to pass em onto you.. but..
As an old and retired teacher, sal, I'm beginning to question my career choice. I went into education thinking that I was lifting the veil of ignorance. Perhaps I was incredibly naive.
If I may respond to the salamander, of course it's not market, themselves, but deregulation that's the problem - particularly to better favour the wealthy. It's just policies created (or dismantled) in the last 40-50 years that have made a mess of things, so those policies can be changed. Easy!! But first everyone has to recognize this reality and start demanding change. So, Owen, I still think teachers - and bloggers, even - can lift the veil of ignorance. It just might not happen in our lifetime. This is a slow learning cycle!
As a species, we're pretty slow learners, Marie. I keep hoping that each new generation will learn a little faster.
Harper ought to keep his big mouth shut. He never has worked a "real job". He was a disgrace as P.M. with passing 8 bills through Parliament which contravened our Constitution and were over turned by the Supreme Court of Canada. Harper simply mouths what lines he is fed by his financial supporters. Perhaps he is trying for a come back as leader of the Cons, because I don't believe he has done much in his new private endevours.
If it were up to Harper families could be out on the street. We saw how he and John Duncan handled housing for Indigenous people. they actually spent less on Indigenous children than on non Indigenous children. He's a hater. He only admires the financial elite of which he is not part. He's just their shrill. Harper shut the fxxk up.
As to his line about wealth creators, there aren't any. they're takers of wealth and horders of wealth. Warren Buffet had a lone not so long ago about how the aim of capitalism is to have all the money float to the top.
The way you create jobs is to give working people enough money to stay afloat and buy their homes, pay rent, go to local shops etc. all the "wealth creators' do is not pay taxes, unlike the workers, and keep their money in their bank accounts. Not many of them act like bill Gates who actually uses his money for social good.
I suspect the .01$ers are afraid that in due time the tax system of this country will be changed and require them to pay their fair share and he is sending out the first message for his handlers.
if it weren't for what Trudeau/federal Liberals/Freeland are doing now we'd be like the U.S.A. with 2 mile long lines ups at food banks. The federal lIberals have kept the economy going by ensuring people, thousands of them have money to spent on food, medication, gas, etc.
The Liberals have their faults, e.a.f. But, as Lorne wrote, we're lucky the Conservatives are not in the driver's seat during this crisis.
The ReformaCons are not "drivers", Owen. They are followers, as in, "follow the money" and as long as they get their regular allowance from their benefactors, they will continue to carry out the wishes of those same benefactors.
Ye shall know them by whom they serve, Lulymay. And you cannot miss who they serve.
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