Hell Has Frozen Over- Slightly
As much as it pains me to write this, but I have to agree with Jim Flaherty on his refusal to fall in line with the IMF on the idea of a bank tax to create a slush fund to bail out those financial institutions who get themselves into trouble.
Is it getting cold in here?
There is much that I abhor about the current minority government but this stance, which flies in the face of what Great Britain and the U.S. were advocating, is the right one.
Taxing banks will not fix the underlying problems that got a lot of them into trouble- it would just be an ineffective band-aid on a gushing wound.
And who do you think would have to pay for this tax? The consumer, of course.
What really needs to be addressed are the regulations that were obviously absent that created the sort of Wild West environment which allowed these asset-backed securities to be mislabeled and sold to the public as the Holy Grail of investments- security (no risk of losing the principle) and high yield.
This, of course, doesn’t let the individual investor off the hook either, but that is another topic of conversation….
The Canadian banking system is not a perfect one but the IMF could start by looking at what we and other countries that managed to stave off a meltdown did right- which, coincidentally, is contrary to what the Conservatives wanted way back when there was a debate about loosening banking regulations so our banks could get bigger to compete internationally….
But I digress.
Kudos to the Conservatives on this one- because I really don’t think there will be too many more coming from me.
AngryEgg 