Don't feel guilty if you don't understand Alberta's shocking electricity prices. You're not supposed to.

Sales of electricity in Alberta are now managed through what Dilbert calls a "confusopoly." It's a system of near-monopoly marketing designed to defy explanation. Its goal is to make it easy for you to sign a bad deal, or to manipulate you into feeling that there's no point creating a ruckus about the worse deal you're stuck with. Resistance is futile. Shut up and pay.

You think this is too cynical? Well then, you explain it in a way that makes sense!

In December, 2010 Stephen Harper created the Red Tape Reduction Commission. A month later he and U.S. President Barack Obama signed a border security deal.

Two initiatives in a new deregulation agenda.

Canadian business--big and small--is on a deregulation tear and Harper seems more than willing to push the file on every possible front.

The mandate of the Red Tape Reduction Commission is to identify "irritants" stemming from federal regulatory requirements that have a "clear detrimental effect on growth, competitiveness and innovation."

If growth, competitiveness and innovation are code words for increased profits, then all federal regulations must be detrimental.

Congress returns from its April recess this week with financial reform at the top of its to-do list. With millions of Americans still bearing the brunt of the worst recession in 80 years, Congress needs to start protecting our economy from Wall Street excess, and repair the shredded social safety net that has allowed the Great Recession to exact a devastating human cost.

Big banks are an economic parasite