Otto von Bismark said "laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made." That maxim definitely applies to the excruciating process of watching the American stimulus package wind its way through the Congress. If anyone still wonders why the Democrats need that 60 vote majority in the Senate that they came ever so close to, this was why.
The Republicans took a good run at destroying everything good in Obama's proposed package. They reduced the overall value by $80 billion. They stripped out the limits on pay for employees of companies receiving a government bailouts. They turned something like $100 billion of the spending proposals into tax cut proposals instead. They stripped out the heart of the "buy American" clause (more on this in a bit). And the Democrats capitulated. But I'll give them credit for at least proposing some decent measures.
The Republicans seem set to filibuster everything with which they disagree in the Senate. And the bad news - the Senate Repugs are far more ideological on average than the House Republicans. Essentially, everything comes down to the two Maine Senators, both Republican and both relative moderates. Right now, and until Al Franken gets seated as the Senator for Minnnesota, the Democrats need two votes to break a fillibuster. This means that the two Republicans must be appeased. Even once Franken is seated, and it really is a matter of when not if, they will still need one Republican.
One of the biggest losses was the meat of the "buy American" clauses. It cracked me up to hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth coming out of Europe particularly, but also the Canadian centre and right about this. I wanted to smack some of them upside the head. Seriously. The point of a stimulus package in the US isn't to send money to European and Canadian business who employ European and Canadian workers, it is to send money to American workers, put Americans to work and support demand for American products. The people wailing about it are stupid idiots. Now, I know that stupid =/= conservative necessarily, but conservative = stupid a surprising percentage of the time. Why, for gawd's sake, would the American government be sending borrowed money overseas to support foreign economies when the US economy going into the shitter is what caused the current recession, and the US economy getting out of the shitter is the only thing that will make it better? Honestly these people are morons. It shouldn't be a surprise really, that the same people who gave us $100 = daycare think that stimulus money should be flowing out of the country. Stupid, stupid, stupid. And now, just for a change, I won't hold back and I'll tell you how I really feel. Oh. Wait.
To go back to Bismark's bon mot at the beginning, watching laws get made really is like watching sausages gets made (I am making an assumption about the making of sausages, since I have never seen it done). Both will make you nauseated, and eliminate your desire to have anything to do with the end product.
One post I am planning to write in coming days is about the inquiry into the extra-judicial execution of Robert Dziekanski by the RCMP, and how it is exposing a major web of lies. One outrage at a time though.
Showing posts with label Financial Crisis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Financial Crisis. Show all posts
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
A Momentous Time
As we approach the end of the reign of George Bush II, it becomes evident, to all but the most-close-eyed conservatives the hell to which we've been carried in Bush's hand-basket.
Human disasters are unfolding across the world. In Afghanistan and Iraq, the imperial west is brutally occupying, whether to extract oil or to protect pipeline routes. In Gaza the Palestinians are being slaughtered for political gain, in an appallingly crass, hubristic and hypocritical display. The genocide in Darfur continues to unfold, and American ally states from Lebanon to Pakistan to Georgia have been declaring states of emergency and clamping down on democratic opposition.
The great glory of modern capitalism, our globalized economy, is coming apart at the seams as economies across the world melt down, throwing workers out on the street, and bringing new protestations of Keynesian faith, despite the fact that the supposedly socialistic policy of bailouts simply enriches those already bloated with ill-gotten wealth. Bush and his wild-eyed acolytes of laissez-faire and the unfettered free market have proven to be unspeakable failures at managing the economy, as the ideological bankruptcy of their economic ideologies is proven to be matched only by its moral bankruptcy as in engages in one last orgy of upward redistribution of wealth. Executives get golden parachutes and workers get the soup kitchen line.
As laid out by the late, great, and incomparable Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose in their book Bill of Wrongs, the Bush regime has encouraged an all out assault on the principles of constitutional government in the United States, and this has had knock-on effects across the world. Canada puts in place Gitmo North and imprisons four men for eight years without charge, the opportunity to face their accusers or to know the evidence against them. Great Britain collapses into an agonized security state in which the average citizen of London is recorded on camera three hundred times every day, which would make Big Brother jealous. States in eastern Europe hold and torture men who have been kidnapped by the American government, in a practice called, with a chilling sterility, extraordinary rendition. American puppet regimes in the Middle East torture others, including Maher Arar who was confirmed to have committed no crime.
Bush and his flunkies have radically undermined the emergence of an international legal order, attempting to scuttle the International Criminal Court after securing major concessions. They have sabotaged attempts to save our climate from radical and disastrous change by recanting America's signature on the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. They have undermined the Geneva Conventions on the Law of War by creating the status of illegal enemy combatant that has no basis in law and is simply an excuse to hold the racialized other forever in a legal black hole.
This is but a brief and incomplete catalogue of the worst excesses, and high crimes, of George Bush, called Dubya. But not all is dark.
In the election on Nov. 4, 2008 Americans spoke resoundingly of a desire for change. While they likely will get only cosmetic change out of Barack Obama, Americans were mobilized and involved in politics in a way not seen since the election of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Americans have been jolted out of political apathy, and it is to be hoped that their awakening will be transmitted to the slumbering populations of the rest of the industrialized world.
In Latin America a radical transformation of both economics and politics is gaining steam. A truly democratic and socialist movement has arisen, and is demanding justice and equality for their people, and an end to the domination of their states by their wealthy paleo-colonialist elites and foreign corporations. The people of Venezuela resisted an American-sponsored coup in 2002 that was eerily reminiscent of the coups in the southern cone during the 1970s. The workers and the indigenous populations have reclaimed control of their countries in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador. Centre-leftists have been elected by wide margins in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay. South America faces a revolutionary moment, and it provides a template that can be followed across the South.
As the economy melts down, that defining revolutionary moment spreads into the industrialized economies. It is a self-evident failure of capitalism. Socialists must be ready with alternatives to present, or we will lose this moment, as we lost the moment of the Great Depression.
The last days of George W. Bush are a time for celebration, as the global tyrant leaves the scene. But we can't stop at celebration. We must push for a true revolutionary moment, to bring democratic socialism to all the people of the world.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 6
Human disasters are unfolding across the world. In Afghanistan and Iraq, the imperial west is brutally occupying, whether to extract oil or to protect pipeline routes. In Gaza the Palestinians are being slaughtered for political gain, in an appallingly crass, hubristic and hypocritical display. The genocide in Darfur continues to unfold, and American ally states from Lebanon to Pakistan to Georgia have been declaring states of emergency and clamping down on democratic opposition.
The great glory of modern capitalism, our globalized economy, is coming apart at the seams as economies across the world melt down, throwing workers out on the street, and bringing new protestations of Keynesian faith, despite the fact that the supposedly socialistic policy of bailouts simply enriches those already bloated with ill-gotten wealth. Bush and his wild-eyed acolytes of laissez-faire and the unfettered free market have proven to be unspeakable failures at managing the economy, as the ideological bankruptcy of their economic ideologies is proven to be matched only by its moral bankruptcy as in engages in one last orgy of upward redistribution of wealth. Executives get golden parachutes and workers get the soup kitchen line.
As laid out by the late, great, and incomparable Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose in their book Bill of Wrongs, the Bush regime has encouraged an all out assault on the principles of constitutional government in the United States, and this has had knock-on effects across the world. Canada puts in place Gitmo North and imprisons four men for eight years without charge, the opportunity to face their accusers or to know the evidence against them. Great Britain collapses into an agonized security state in which the average citizen of London is recorded on camera three hundred times every day, which would make Big Brother jealous. States in eastern Europe hold and torture men who have been kidnapped by the American government, in a practice called, with a chilling sterility, extraordinary rendition. American puppet regimes in the Middle East torture others, including Maher Arar who was confirmed to have committed no crime.
Bush and his flunkies have radically undermined the emergence of an international legal order, attempting to scuttle the International Criminal Court after securing major concessions. They have sabotaged attempts to save our climate from radical and disastrous change by recanting America's signature on the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. They have undermined the Geneva Conventions on the Law of War by creating the status of illegal enemy combatant that has no basis in law and is simply an excuse to hold the racialized other forever in a legal black hole.
This is but a brief and incomplete catalogue of the worst excesses, and high crimes, of George Bush, called Dubya. But not all is dark.
In the election on Nov. 4, 2008 Americans spoke resoundingly of a desire for change. While they likely will get only cosmetic change out of Barack Obama, Americans were mobilized and involved in politics in a way not seen since the election of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Americans have been jolted out of political apathy, and it is to be hoped that their awakening will be transmitted to the slumbering populations of the rest of the industrialized world.
In Latin America a radical transformation of both economics and politics is gaining steam. A truly democratic and socialist movement has arisen, and is demanding justice and equality for their people, and an end to the domination of their states by their wealthy paleo-colonialist elites and foreign corporations. The people of Venezuela resisted an American-sponsored coup in 2002 that was eerily reminiscent of the coups in the southern cone during the 1970s. The workers and the indigenous populations have reclaimed control of their countries in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador. Centre-leftists have been elected by wide margins in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay. South America faces a revolutionary moment, and it provides a template that can be followed across the South.
As the economy melts down, that defining revolutionary moment spreads into the industrialized economies. It is a self-evident failure of capitalism. Socialists must be ready with alternatives to present, or we will lose this moment, as we lost the moment of the Great Depression.
The last days of George W. Bush are a time for celebration, as the global tyrant leaves the scene. But we can't stop at celebration. We must push for a true revolutionary moment, to bring democratic socialism to all the people of the world.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 6
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Crass Conservative Games
Did anyone out there fall for the line from the Conservatives that they were looking for a new spirit of cooperation? Don't worry if you did, so did the whole media. Now, however, only twelve days into the new Parliament comes word that Harper is going to try to end the $1.95/vote/year subsidy to political parties that was intended to replace corporate and union donations, as well as to compensate for the cap on personal donations.
This is an astonishingly crass move from the Conservatives, since they stand to lose the least from this. Losing the subsidy would lose the Conservatives 37% of their income for the year, whereas losing it would cost the NDP 57% of their income, cost the Block a whopping 86% of their income, and (this is the critical one) the Liberals 63%. The Conservatives are trying to exploit the fact that they have a massive fundraising edge on the other parties to cripple them, in the name of austerity. This is, quite frankly, an attempt to apply the coup de grace to the Liberal Party of Canada by extra-electoral means. It is distinctly undemocratic, and in fact anti-democratic.
This is stupid. The subsidy supports a system that reduces donor influence in the political process, and only costs $30 million. This is another one of those mean spirited Conservative cuts, but this one is profoundly anti-democratic as well. The electoral financing system is not a tool to be used for partisan political advantage.
This is likely to be the beginning of a long list of cuts to progressive programmes that the Conservatives will propose in the name of austerity. They will use this as an excuse to cut programmes they don't like, while still handing over $50 billion in tax cuts to corporations. No economist in their right mind would suggest cutting corporate taxes in the middle of a recession like this. The correct response is spending, and deficit spending if necessary, to directly stimulate the economy, and create jobs for the unemployed. This puts money directly into the hands of the worst affected, as opposed to corporate tax cuts, which gives money to the most well off while cutting what goes to the poor.
Back to the main point however, this economic meltdown is being exploited for partisan and ideological gains by the Conservatives, and they should be ashamed.
Update: As Devin Johnston mentioned in the comment, he has started a Facebook group, which you can find here. As of the time of writing this, it has 45 members. I encourage everyone who reads this and cares about the issue, or about democracy in general, to sign up.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 55
This is an astonishingly crass move from the Conservatives, since they stand to lose the least from this. Losing the subsidy would lose the Conservatives 37% of their income for the year, whereas losing it would cost the NDP 57% of their income, cost the Block a whopping 86% of their income, and (this is the critical one) the Liberals 63%. The Conservatives are trying to exploit the fact that they have a massive fundraising edge on the other parties to cripple them, in the name of austerity. This is, quite frankly, an attempt to apply the coup de grace to the Liberal Party of Canada by extra-electoral means. It is distinctly undemocratic, and in fact anti-democratic.
This is stupid. The subsidy supports a system that reduces donor influence in the political process, and only costs $30 million. This is another one of those mean spirited Conservative cuts, but this one is profoundly anti-democratic as well. The electoral financing system is not a tool to be used for partisan political advantage.
This is likely to be the beginning of a long list of cuts to progressive programmes that the Conservatives will propose in the name of austerity. They will use this as an excuse to cut programmes they don't like, while still handing over $50 billion in tax cuts to corporations. No economist in their right mind would suggest cutting corporate taxes in the middle of a recession like this. The correct response is spending, and deficit spending if necessary, to directly stimulate the economy, and create jobs for the unemployed. This puts money directly into the hands of the worst affected, as opposed to corporate tax cuts, which gives money to the most well off while cutting what goes to the poor.
Back to the main point however, this economic meltdown is being exploited for partisan and ideological gains by the Conservatives, and they should be ashamed.
Update: As Devin Johnston mentioned in the comment, he has started a Facebook group, which you can find here. As of the time of writing this, it has 45 members. I encourage everyone who reads this and cares about the issue, or about democracy in general, to sign up.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 55
Monday, November 24, 2008
Shenanigans
I call shenanigans on the banks of Canada. You may recall that not that long ago, the government of Canada made $50 billion available to banks in case they were hit hard by the financial crisis in the United States. And yet today we get a statement from the CEO of TD Bank that it is highly unlikely that the bank will be cutting dividends.
This drives me nuts. For those of you that don't know, dividends are how corporations return profits to shareholders. The board of directors decides how much to return, and generally this is only supposed to be done when the company is profitable. These bastards are using public money to pay dividends to shareholders when the money was intended to help them survive a big hit from the financial crisis. These capitalists are robbing Canadians blind, and this crap flies under the radar, being mentioned only in coverage like the Report on Business.
Canadians should be up in arms that we are being fleeced, yet again, by the big banks. They must honestly think we're all stupid to pull this crap. Let's show them that we're not. Let's show them that they can't steal from the Canadian people. This is garbage.
How many people voted Conservative and not NDP in the naive belief that Conservatives would be better managers of the economy and the public purse? The NDP even ran ads telling people that exactly this would happen, including pictures of money being divvied up on boardroom tables. And that is exactly what we got. What is it going to take for people to realize that Conservatives are frauds?
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 57
This drives me nuts. For those of you that don't know, dividends are how corporations return profits to shareholders. The board of directors decides how much to return, and generally this is only supposed to be done when the company is profitable. These bastards are using public money to pay dividends to shareholders when the money was intended to help them survive a big hit from the financial crisis. These capitalists are robbing Canadians blind, and this crap flies under the radar, being mentioned only in coverage like the Report on Business.
Canadians should be up in arms that we are being fleeced, yet again, by the big banks. They must honestly think we're all stupid to pull this crap. Let's show them that we're not. Let's show them that they can't steal from the Canadian people. This is garbage.
How many people voted Conservative and not NDP in the naive belief that Conservatives would be better managers of the economy and the public purse? The NDP even ran ads telling people that exactly this would happen, including pictures of money being divvied up on boardroom tables. And that is exactly what we got. What is it going to take for people to realize that Conservatives are frauds?
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 57
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Harper, the Coming Deficit and Conservative Class Warfare
Stephen Harper continues to move away from his declarations during the election campaign that if we were going to have a recession here in Canada we would already have had one, and that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. Today at the APEC summit, he was, to use the Toronto Star's language, "[drawing] on memories of the Great Depression." Is it not strange, that he can change his tune so radically over the course of a month and a half, from excoriating Stephane Dion for refusing to absolutely rule out running a deficit, to making the arguments for why we should be deficit spending.
There are two explanations for this incongruity, when you take into consideration that many economists saw this recession coming down the pipes at least a year in advance, and some saw it coming longer away than that (Marx saw it coming 130 years ago). The first possible explanation is that Harper is fundamentally incompetent at the role of managing the economy. If he, with an MA in economics, was unable to see this coming 45 days ago, when the majority of the western world could, then he is entirely incompetent to be making the big decisions. Of we adopt this explanation, he was too focused on blind partisanship to actually see that the train was about to go off the rails. The second possible explanation is that Harper deliberately deceived the Canadian people, that he lied to us. This explanation is supported by the rapid about-face he performed when it became undeniably clear that the economy of the western world was headed into the shitter.
Harper has already committed the country to a $50 billion bank bailout, which when you consider the proportional sizes of the Canadian and American economies is actually a bigger bailout than the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. He wants to send the country further into debt to bail out the auto industry by handing them a no-strings-attached cheque. And mark my words, this deficit that he created to bail out failing capitalists is going to be used as an excuse to cut services for the working class. This is the Conservative modus operandi. Transfer wealth to capitalists. Use resulting deficit to justify programme cuts. Rinse. Repeat.
Now, I think that so long as we are operating under a market-capitalist system, Keynesian spending is a good way to stimulate the economy, but it has to be targeted correctly. Shovelling money into the gaping maw of transnational capital is not correct targeting. The best way to stimulate the economy is through direct transfers to the most impoverished. These are the people living pay cheque to pay cheque, and spending every cent that comes in on necessities of life like food, clothing and rent. These people will not take the transfers and squirrel them away. They will put every last cent back into circulation, thus getting maximum value for the government's stimulus dollar. Whereas transfers that benefit the rich wind up being saved, taken out of circulation and ultimately sent overseas to nontaxable Swiss bank accounts. Supposed stimulus measures targeted at the rich are a deception. They will not stimulate the economy because the money won't go into circulation, it will go into bank accounts to be inactive and gather interest.
I understand that many people are worried about the looming failure of the big three American automakers. So am I, since there are plenty of jobs that will be lost, with the resulting knock-on effects through the economy. That is why I support finding a way to save them, but not in their present form. The only way I would ever support a bailout is if it resulted in the public acquiring, on a permanent basis, majority equity and voting control over the companies. That way, the government can insure that the bailout money goes to the right places, not into paying dividends and obscene executive pay packages. The government can make sure that the companies are serving the public interest by building fuel-economical (not the same as fuel-efficient, though generally fuel economy requires fuel efficiency) vehicles for sale to the public, as well as retooling some plants to produce public transit vehicles like buses, street-cars, light-rail vehicles and trains to meet the longer-term requirement for effective, efficient and widespread public mass transit.
Nationalization is ultimately the best bet precisely because the nationalized companies can be made to serve the needs of the people, rather than the people serving the needs of the companies and their controlling capitalists. Government ought to be for the people, not for capital, but I can't call to mind a time when Canada truly had government for the people. In fact, the only government I can think of that was ever really for the people in Canadian history was the CCF government of Tommy Douglas in Saskatchewan that introduced many great programmes, built many strong Crown corporations, substantially increased the standard of living across Saskatchewan, and managed to do all of this while running 17 straight balanced budgets, making that government the most effective manager of public funds in Canadian history.
Conservatives like to wrap themselves in the mantle of sound fiscal management, but their version of sound management is transferring wealth to the wealthy, and making up for it by cutting services to the working class. That isn't sound fiscal management, that is the class warfare for which they so readily decry socialists. The only difference is that conservatives around the world wage class warfare on the working class. Since the capitalists and their political puppets on the right are waging class warfare on the workers already, it is time that the working class said "enough already" and started to wage class warfare back. Enough sitting around and passively taking it. It's time to organize and fight back.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 58
There are two explanations for this incongruity, when you take into consideration that many economists saw this recession coming down the pipes at least a year in advance, and some saw it coming longer away than that (Marx saw it coming 130 years ago). The first possible explanation is that Harper is fundamentally incompetent at the role of managing the economy. If he, with an MA in economics, was unable to see this coming 45 days ago, when the majority of the western world could, then he is entirely incompetent to be making the big decisions. Of we adopt this explanation, he was too focused on blind partisanship to actually see that the train was about to go off the rails. The second possible explanation is that Harper deliberately deceived the Canadian people, that he lied to us. This explanation is supported by the rapid about-face he performed when it became undeniably clear that the economy of the western world was headed into the shitter.
Harper has already committed the country to a $50 billion bank bailout, which when you consider the proportional sizes of the Canadian and American economies is actually a bigger bailout than the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. He wants to send the country further into debt to bail out the auto industry by handing them a no-strings-attached cheque. And mark my words, this deficit that he created to bail out failing capitalists is going to be used as an excuse to cut services for the working class. This is the Conservative modus operandi. Transfer wealth to capitalists. Use resulting deficit to justify programme cuts. Rinse. Repeat.
Now, I think that so long as we are operating under a market-capitalist system, Keynesian spending is a good way to stimulate the economy, but it has to be targeted correctly. Shovelling money into the gaping maw of transnational capital is not correct targeting. The best way to stimulate the economy is through direct transfers to the most impoverished. These are the people living pay cheque to pay cheque, and spending every cent that comes in on necessities of life like food, clothing and rent. These people will not take the transfers and squirrel them away. They will put every last cent back into circulation, thus getting maximum value for the government's stimulus dollar. Whereas transfers that benefit the rich wind up being saved, taken out of circulation and ultimately sent overseas to nontaxable Swiss bank accounts. Supposed stimulus measures targeted at the rich are a deception. They will not stimulate the economy because the money won't go into circulation, it will go into bank accounts to be inactive and gather interest.
I understand that many people are worried about the looming failure of the big three American automakers. So am I, since there are plenty of jobs that will be lost, with the resulting knock-on effects through the economy. That is why I support finding a way to save them, but not in their present form. The only way I would ever support a bailout is if it resulted in the public acquiring, on a permanent basis, majority equity and voting control over the companies. That way, the government can insure that the bailout money goes to the right places, not into paying dividends and obscene executive pay packages. The government can make sure that the companies are serving the public interest by building fuel-economical (not the same as fuel-efficient, though generally fuel economy requires fuel efficiency) vehicles for sale to the public, as well as retooling some plants to produce public transit vehicles like buses, street-cars, light-rail vehicles and trains to meet the longer-term requirement for effective, efficient and widespread public mass transit.
Nationalization is ultimately the best bet precisely because the nationalized companies can be made to serve the needs of the people, rather than the people serving the needs of the companies and their controlling capitalists. Government ought to be for the people, not for capital, but I can't call to mind a time when Canada truly had government for the people. In fact, the only government I can think of that was ever really for the people in Canadian history was the CCF government of Tommy Douglas in Saskatchewan that introduced many great programmes, built many strong Crown corporations, substantially increased the standard of living across Saskatchewan, and managed to do all of this while running 17 straight balanced budgets, making that government the most effective manager of public funds in Canadian history.
Conservatives like to wrap themselves in the mantle of sound fiscal management, but their version of sound management is transferring wealth to the wealthy, and making up for it by cutting services to the working class. That isn't sound fiscal management, that is the class warfare for which they so readily decry socialists. The only difference is that conservatives around the world wage class warfare on the working class. Since the capitalists and their political puppets on the right are waging class warfare on the workers already, it is time that the working class said "enough already" and started to wage class warfare back. Enough sitting around and passively taking it. It's time to organize and fight back.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 58
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Harper Has Been Hiding a Deficit
So it turns out that all of Stephen Harper's assurances that the country is not in a deficit were false. Based on Ministry of Finance figures, blogger Michael Watkins has discovered that over the first six months of the fiscal year, Harper's government ran a deficit of $23 billion. This is far more that the deficit over this same time period from any other government this decade, and it is unusual for the government to see first half losses, indeed, there is usually a spike in the surplus in the first three months.
All of the documentation for this situation can be found at mikewatkins.ca. He's done a great job laying out the proof of Conservative perfidy and fiscal failure. I highly recommend reading it for yourself.
This is proof that not only can the Conservative Party of Canada not be trusted as fiscal manager (uh, no shit! Look at Ontario under this same Minister of Finance or Canada under Brian Mulroney), it proves that they are willing to lie about it, and hide the truth from Canadians (again, no shit. Flahrety lied about the shape of Ontario's finances, and a claimed small surplus turned out to be a $6 billion deficit).
The CPC is corrupt, and full of lying bastards who will do whatever it takes to hold on to power. What do you know, that is almost an exact description of the Liberal Party of Canada too. We as Canadians need to throw these bums out, and stop electing black cats, white cats, or spotted cats. Mouseland needs to elect mice to run the show. For those of you who don't get the reference, google "Tommy Douglas" and "Mouseland".
Six days left until the election folks.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 103
All of the documentation for this situation can be found at mikewatkins.ca. He's done a great job laying out the proof of Conservative perfidy and fiscal failure. I highly recommend reading it for yourself.
This is proof that not only can the Conservative Party of Canada not be trusted as fiscal manager (uh, no shit! Look at Ontario under this same Minister of Finance or Canada under Brian Mulroney), it proves that they are willing to lie about it, and hide the truth from Canadians (again, no shit. Flahrety lied about the shape of Ontario's finances, and a claimed small surplus turned out to be a $6 billion deficit).
The CPC is corrupt, and full of lying bastards who will do whatever it takes to hold on to power. What do you know, that is almost an exact description of the Liberal Party of Canada too. We as Canadians need to throw these bums out, and stop electing black cats, white cats, or spotted cats. Mouseland needs to elect mice to run the show. For those of you who don't get the reference, google "Tommy Douglas" and "Mouseland".
Six days left until the election folks.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 103
Monday, September 29, 2008
$700 Billion Bailout Fails to Pass Congress
What do you know. The unprecedented, mind-bogglingly big, handout to the corrupt financial sector in the United States has failed to pass through the House of Representatives. It failed by a margin of about 20 votes. This has caused a major drop on American stock markets, but remarkably an even larger drop in Canada. While the Dow Jones Industrial Average of the New York Stock Exchange fell 6.98%, the S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 7.9%.
As we see stocks in Canada being more adversely affected by this crisis than American stocks, and the trading partner on whom the Canadian economy is dependant circling the drain, we have the out of touch ramblings of our Prime Minister for cold comfort. Two weeks ago, Stephen Harper said “My own belief is that if we were going to have some kind of big crash or recession, we probably would have had it by now.” Yeah, right Steve. Tell that to all of the people who have seen their retirement savings wiped out over the last three weeks as the TSX has been tanking.
Steve would very much like for us not to connect the currently unfolding crisis in the States with the kind of massive, neo-liberal, deregulation that he wants to foist on us up here. Deregulation is responsible for this crisis, because when greed (i.e. capitalism) is allowed to run rampant and unchecked, it results in shady dealings and outrageous short-term planning. It leads to the kind of exploitation that sees the CEO of Lehman Brothers take home a pay package of US$37 million this year, the same year he steered that bank into the ground. Capitalism, but especially deregulated capitalism, is what allows the kind of insane, idiotic lending that led to this whole crisis in the first place. Neo-liberal deregulation of the economy is what led to Washington Mutual having on a tiny percentage of its debts in available cash, and being by far and away the biggest bank failure in the history of the world. Out of control capitalism is what led to the Great Depression, and it is what will lead to the depression that is coming. And the level of integration in the modern economy could lead to this depression spreading world-wide and making the Great Depression look like nothing.
Now is the time for the people to reassert democratic control over the economy. Now is the time to take control of the financial system away from greedy, exploitative and uncaring capitalists in their bank towers, and restore it to the people who actually make the economy go, the working class. Building institutions to allow for horizontal, popular, control over the economy will make sure that wealth is shared, and that no small cabal of piggish capitalists can drive the economy into the ground for their own personal gain.
It is exactly this connection that Steve and his pack of lying, bigoted and reactionary Conservatives would like for us all not to notice. Steve doesn't want us to realize that he is leading us down the garden path to financial ruin. He can spout all of the "strong on the economy" bullshit that he wants, but his policies essentially represent a massive wealth transfer from the labouring class to the capitalist class. The class that has stolen untold billions that they did not toil to earn. He wants to bleed Canadians dry to fatten the capitalist class. Canadians have to show him that we know what he is up to, and that he doesn't fool us.
But don't take this information and go vote Liberal. The Liberals have endorsed Harper's fiscal policies. They are simply a nice, smiley face to go with the same hyper-capitalist fiscal policies, and in fact they want to deepen the corporate tax giveaways and enrich corporate welfare while at the same time stripping resources from the poorest of the poor through a regressive carbon tax.
The NDP, while not perfect, is a party that can be counted on to stop this outrageous rush to the bottom of regulation, to put a stop to the insane transfers of wealth to the already obscenely wealthy, and to put money back into the social safety net. That's why I'm voting NDP. I hope you'll consider it too.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 112
As we see stocks in Canada being more adversely affected by this crisis than American stocks, and the trading partner on whom the Canadian economy is dependant circling the drain, we have the out of touch ramblings of our Prime Minister for cold comfort. Two weeks ago, Stephen Harper said “My own belief is that if we were going to have some kind of big crash or recession, we probably would have had it by now.” Yeah, right Steve. Tell that to all of the people who have seen their retirement savings wiped out over the last three weeks as the TSX has been tanking.
Steve would very much like for us not to connect the currently unfolding crisis in the States with the kind of massive, neo-liberal, deregulation that he wants to foist on us up here. Deregulation is responsible for this crisis, because when greed (i.e. capitalism) is allowed to run rampant and unchecked, it results in shady dealings and outrageous short-term planning. It leads to the kind of exploitation that sees the CEO of Lehman Brothers take home a pay package of US$37 million this year, the same year he steered that bank into the ground. Capitalism, but especially deregulated capitalism, is what allows the kind of insane, idiotic lending that led to this whole crisis in the first place. Neo-liberal deregulation of the economy is what led to Washington Mutual having on a tiny percentage of its debts in available cash, and being by far and away the biggest bank failure in the history of the world. Out of control capitalism is what led to the Great Depression, and it is what will lead to the depression that is coming. And the level of integration in the modern economy could lead to this depression spreading world-wide and making the Great Depression look like nothing.
Now is the time for the people to reassert democratic control over the economy. Now is the time to take control of the financial system away from greedy, exploitative and uncaring capitalists in their bank towers, and restore it to the people who actually make the economy go, the working class. Building institutions to allow for horizontal, popular, control over the economy will make sure that wealth is shared, and that no small cabal of piggish capitalists can drive the economy into the ground for their own personal gain.
It is exactly this connection that Steve and his pack of lying, bigoted and reactionary Conservatives would like for us all not to notice. Steve doesn't want us to realize that he is leading us down the garden path to financial ruin. He can spout all of the "strong on the economy" bullshit that he wants, but his policies essentially represent a massive wealth transfer from the labouring class to the capitalist class. The class that has stolen untold billions that they did not toil to earn. He wants to bleed Canadians dry to fatten the capitalist class. Canadians have to show him that we know what he is up to, and that he doesn't fool us.
But don't take this information and go vote Liberal. The Liberals have endorsed Harper's fiscal policies. They are simply a nice, smiley face to go with the same hyper-capitalist fiscal policies, and in fact they want to deepen the corporate tax giveaways and enrich corporate welfare while at the same time stripping resources from the poorest of the poor through a regressive carbon tax.
The NDP, while not perfect, is a party that can be counted on to stop this outrageous rush to the bottom of regulation, to put a stop to the insane transfers of wealth to the already obscenely wealthy, and to put money back into the social safety net. That's why I'm voting NDP. I hope you'll consider it too.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 112
Saturday, September 20, 2008
US Debt to Increase by almost 10% to Bail Out Bankrupt Capitalists
Over the last couple days, as the drama on North American financial markets has unfolded, the US government decided that it needed to do something. And now that something has emerged as a US$700 billion plan to buy bad debt from banks and investment houses.
Brilliant. This plan will take the US debt from US$9.668 trillion (I can't even properly conceptualize that much money) to about US$10.3 billion. This plan will increase the US national debt by 150% the amount of the entire Canadian national debt (currently about C$500 billion or about US$477 billion). And for all this debt, Americans don't even have a national healthcare system. Lets, just for the shock value, look at these values expressed as numbers.
US National Debt: US$10 368 000 000 000
CAN National Debt: US$500 000 000 000
That's obscene. What is even more obscene is that this bail out won't do a single thing to help the ordinary people of the United States. The working class won't see a penny of this money. Bush is going to transfer $350 billion per year to the capitalist class. These are the same people who scream about welfare recipients getting a grand or two a month, so that they can buy food and pay rent (and often can't afford even that). And yet some on the right are screaming about this being "socialism." Trust me when I say, as a socialist, that this is not socialism. This is kleptocracy. The capitalists made ridiculously bad business decisions, endangered the fundamentals of the American economy, got filthy rich in the process, and now their mistakes are being covered by the taxes paid by working class Americans. It's obscene.
Americans are going to be stuck paying for this bailout for decades to come, if not centuries. The stupid, greedy piggish capitalists have gotten bailed out of their stupidity, and once again it comes on the backs of the people most oppressed by the capitalist system. But so long as the American media gushes about this bailout, most people won't ever know the difference. And of course, the supposed "left wing alternative" in the US, the Democratic Party, is cheer-leading this bullshit and will uncritically pass it through Congress.
This is bullshit. Americans need to be up in arms about this. Their future is being mortgaged (pun not intended, but now I like it) to bail out irresponsible pig-dog capitalists. But there is no outrage. It is beyond frustrating.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 121
Brilliant. This plan will take the US debt from US$9.668 trillion (I can't even properly conceptualize that much money) to about US$10.3 billion. This plan will increase the US national debt by 150% the amount of the entire Canadian national debt (currently about C$500 billion or about US$477 billion). And for all this debt, Americans don't even have a national healthcare system. Lets, just for the shock value, look at these values expressed as numbers.
US National Debt: US$10 368 000 000 000
CAN National Debt: US$500 000 000 000
That's obscene. What is even more obscene is that this bail out won't do a single thing to help the ordinary people of the United States. The working class won't see a penny of this money. Bush is going to transfer $350 billion per year to the capitalist class. These are the same people who scream about welfare recipients getting a grand or two a month, so that they can buy food and pay rent (and often can't afford even that). And yet some on the right are screaming about this being "socialism." Trust me when I say, as a socialist, that this is not socialism. This is kleptocracy. The capitalists made ridiculously bad business decisions, endangered the fundamentals of the American economy, got filthy rich in the process, and now their mistakes are being covered by the taxes paid by working class Americans. It's obscene.
Americans are going to be stuck paying for this bailout for decades to come, if not centuries. The stupid, greedy piggish capitalists have gotten bailed out of their stupidity, and once again it comes on the backs of the people most oppressed by the capitalist system. But so long as the American media gushes about this bailout, most people won't ever know the difference. And of course, the supposed "left wing alternative" in the US, the Democratic Party, is cheer-leading this bullshit and will uncritically pass it through Congress.
This is bullshit. Americans need to be up in arms about this. Their future is being mortgaged (pun not intended, but now I like it) to bail out irresponsible pig-dog capitalists. But there is no outrage. It is beyond frustrating.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 121
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