The EU economic plan will leave it in tatters.
Ellen Russell
Ellen Russell studied economics as a foreign language, and enjoys translating the business section of the newspaper for people whose lives are actually getting impacted by economic gibberish. She has decoded economics at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the Centre for Popular Economics and in various newspapers and magazines.The European financial meltdown -- next in a continuing series
As I write, the Europe's sovereign debt crisis is a ticking bomb. Unprecedented events are happening at a mind-spinning pace. In the middle of last week the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) offered to help bail out the struggling European countries. By the end of the week, the European central bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks announced that European banks would be showered with "unlimited" loans to help them.
The reason for all of these sudden extraordinary measures is the fear that an impending European financial crisis could make the events of 2008 look like minor leagues. It is a justified fear. If financial panic spreads and speculators go for blood, it will be almost impossible to stop the chaos.
Neoliberal economics is not an immovable object
Market forces rule only if we let them.
Related rabble.ca story:
What financial crises teach us about economic democracy
The left can learn an important lesson from the financial upheavals that are becoming routine these days. As elites scramble to confront each successive crisis, they prove by example that which they consistently deny: there is an alternative to the dictates of the free market.
One of the most politically disempowering aspects of neoliberal capitalism is the mantra that we were powerless to resist economic forces. We are constantly told that there is no help for our economic complaints. The free market created the situation, and market forces reign supreme.
Financial crisis as a way of life
From Wall Street to Iceland to Greece to Ireland, the world is lurching from one financial crisis to the next. The financial panic of 2008 has morphed into the era of financial crises. If you think you live in an oasis away from financial meltdown, think again. Financial markets are so twitchy (and so interdependent) that a problem anywhere could become a problem everywhere.
How did we become hostage to financial markets? A generation of neoliberal finance set the stage for chronic worldwide financial instability:
Inequality has skyrocketed
Debt by 1,000 tax cuts: An election special
Stephen Harper knows he can't come right out and reveal his radical agenda to downsize government. But if he gets his majority, expect Harper to slash and burn on the pretext that the federal debt and deficit requires massive evisceration of government.
Harper presents fearmongering with the budget
Budget 2011: We need a mature debate about the deficit, debt, and the merits of tax cuts.
Related rabble.ca story:
Should you care who owns the Toronto Stock Exchange?
So maybe you didn't lose a night's sleep when the TMX group, the owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange, announced plans to merge with the London Stock Exchange Group. But the change in ownership of Canada's biggest stock exchange might be a wake-up call.
The stock market is sort of like the air traffic control centre of finance. How a stock market works will influence how money gets moved around the economy. And while all that money is moving around, some gruesome mid-air collisions may happen if the air traffic controllers aren't on top of their game.
A stock exchange merger across national boundaries will undermine the ability of the exchanges' regulator supervisors to prevent financial smash-ups.
Will Harper's superiority complex contribute to the next financial crisis?
The mantra of the Harper government is that the Canada's banking sector is a bright star in the banking heavens. No public opportunity is lost to take credit for the resilience of Canadian banks during the 2008 financial crisis: "Without wanting to appear arrogant or vain, which would be quite un-Canadian," claimed our finance minster, Jim Flaherty. "While our system is not perfect, it has worked during this difficult time."
Sorry to break it to you, finance minister: there are some indications that this overconfidence may undermine the very qualities that helped the Canadian banking system to withstand the financial turbulence of 2008.
Canada and the next world financial crisis
How will the next financial crisis erupt? (Or perhaps we should describe it as a further chapter of the ongoing financial crisis.) It's like figuring out which piece of tinder will ignite after a sizzling heat wave. We know it's bad out there, but just where will the next spark hit? What follows is one of many- potential financial crisis scenarios that Canada could face.
