So there's really no new model for how to run this economy, and nobody's even, I think, thinking about that question, much less an answer."
-Doug Henwood, of Left Business Observer, on The Real News Network
financial regulation
Financial sector plays no role in deficit reduction
Ever since the 2008 financial crisis, Canadian banks have enjoyed almost heroic stature for not being like those bad Wall Street banks that collapsed, triggering a global recession.
Certainly there's been no talk of imposing higher taxes on Canadian banks, to make them help pay for the huge government deficits brought on by the financial crisis and resulting recession.
That wouldn't be fair, since our banks -- unlike the Wall Street banks -- played no role in bringing about the financial crisis.
But why doesn't that logic apply to other groups who also played no role in bringing about the financial crisis?
Of bailouts and liquidity shakedowns
Here is an amazing multimedia article published by Bloomberg Markets Magazine in the U.S., that lists all of the individual banks which received financial assistance from the U.S. Federal Reserve during the 2008-09 crisis. It shows each bank's peak borrowing from the Fed, the number of days they held the funds, and the timeline for paying it back. You can sort the banks by name, amount borrowed, and other criteria.
'What do banks actually DO?': Teach-in with Occupy Toronto
What do banks actually DO? Create credit out of thin air.
Were Canadian banks bailed out? Absolutely, to the tune of $200 billion. And they are still protected and subsidized more than any other sector of the economy.
What must be done with these banks? Tax them, control them, and ultimately take them back.
Challenging the private credit system: Who's bailing whom?
The time since 2008 has been a crucial historical moment for progressive economists to pull back the green curtain that surrounds the operation of the for-profit banking system, and expose that system for what it is: a government-protected, government-subsidized license to print money.
The problem is, as soon as you start saying things like that, people conclude you are some kind of wacked-out conspiracy theorist nut-bar. It sounds insane to claim that private banks have a license to create money out of thin air. As John Kenneth Galbraith put it, "The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled."
Financial dogma and faith without religion
For a few days this week, my son and I had some Muslim Arab kids from the Mideast, ages 8 and 12, up at the cottage. They've been in Canada for two years. Since it was Ramadan, we decided to fast with them. It's not mandatory for children but lots do it.
Defeating capitalist fanatics
By now it should be obvious that American capitalism is not working for the benefit of its "middle" class let alone the minority who are being crushed by poverty, including the fast growing suburban poor.
Capitalist failure is not obvious to most Americans, thanks to the work of capitalist fanatics in extolling its virtues. These true believers are not so much the bankers, and the corporate CEOs raking in the dough; rather the credit for selling the public on a failing system goes to their allies in the press, politics and the academy.