Prime Minister Stephen Harper, head cheerleader for Canada’s banks, is minimizing the fallout from the global economic crisis and has slipped into acquisition mode.
Canada’s banks, he says, should start buying up banks in other countries.
To him, the global crisis isn’t the next Great Depression. Nope, it’s a Monopoly game! If Park Place is for sale, we might as well buy it.
At this rate, I’m expecting Harper to replace the blue sweater from the last election with a plaid polyester suit and a t-shirt that says “I’ve got great swampland in Florida for you”.
Our Prime Minister’s true ideology is starting to show.
While most governments are doing all they can to correct the excesses of an unrestricted financial sector, save jobs, and stabilize whole economies, Canada’s prime minister holds firm to the free market ideology that got the whole world into trouble in the first place.
Oh, he’ll bend a little if he’s forced to.
He’ll acknowledge he’s “generally not a Keynesian” but that “we’re in Keynesian times, when interest rates go to zero and nobody’s investing.”
Reluctantly, his government has gotten involved in some market interventions (buying mortgages off of Canada’s banks, for instance, to try to loosen up credit for consumers).
He’ll say other governments should be spending about 2% of their GDP to stimulate their economies, though his own government fell short of that mark in its January budget.
At heart, Harper is a free marketeer and he won’t let go of that ideology without a fight.
He’ll take credit on the global stage for the strength of Canada’s banking system, but the truth is, the previous federal government did things Harper likely wouldn’t have done. It refused to let Canada’s banks enter into big mergers. It refused to allow big American banks to take over Canada’s banks. It held tight to government regulations that ended up protecting our banks from, well, themselves.
So there are deals to be had in the financial market. Do we really want to further encourage the consolidation of the world’s banking system, given its apparent stresses and weaknesses? Even the Wall Street Journal acknowledges, in a recent story, that there remains a lack of faith in the banking system today.
I’m a bargain hunter from way back and here’s what I’ve learned: A cheap deal doesn’t mean it’s a good one. A bad deal can turn very sour. And prime ministers?
They should never wear plaid.
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