The news today is laden with bad economic news. The Toronto Stock Exchange dropped almost 350 points and the Dow dropped 400+ into the 10,000s even though the US government bailed out AIG to the tune of $85billion.
As someone told me on the doorstep tonight, Stephen Harper still doesn’t get it. He seems to believe that Canada is safe from the economic woes of the Americans. As the former head of the National Citizen's coalition and a graduate of the Calgary school of economics (a clone of the Chicago School), he still firmly believes the market will solve all.
The world is moving rapidly back towards government regulation of the financial sector and the economy in general: Harper has not moved an inch from his laissez-faire ideology.
A recent article in the Globe and Mail addressed this:
"With the nationalization of American mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the February nationalization of Britain's Northern Rock, governments are stepping in again. The heady days of conservative economics are over for now." (Skidelsky is professor emeritus of political economy at Warwick University, England, and author of a prize-winning Keynes biography)
Read the rest of Skidelsky's article
Anyone wanting to read more about the Chicago School of Economics should read from a left perspective must read Naomi Klein's book, The Shock Doctrine, attend her upcoming lecture at the University of Lethbridge, or, at the very least, visit her website:
Naomi Klein Official Website
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