So much for the deficit slayer

Bay Street hasn't turned a hair over the 'Saint's' departure because they knew he was just a point man

The Straight Goods Cyber Forum
with Larry Solway

Commentary:

  Sends a bad message to Bay Street was the way one mogul put it. Well ain't that just too damn bad!
  It is profoundly clear that Martin was point man. Martin did what Chrétien would not do: conservatize the Liberal party's fiscal policies. Chrétien is devious enough to send Martin in to do all the "heavy lifting" which leaves him, Chrétien, free to continue to call himself a Liberal. He had all the bases covered. He could maintain his questionable credentials as a Prime Minister of the people, while Martin ravaged social programs and cut the deficit on the backs of ordinary Canadians.
  The Toronto Star, never wanting to miss a chance to jump on the nearest bandwagon, led with a story that: Liberal backbenchers angrily confronted Jean Chrétien over his firing of former finance minister Paul Martin, some telling the Prime Minister that he should consider quitting. Read the whole story and all those "angry backbenchers" turn out to be 17 Martin loyalists.
  But, to the dismay of many SG readers, I turn to the august and "thoughtful" Globe and Mail. And to make you even more steely-eyed with fury, I turn first to Report on Business. That's where the "real" news is. It's real because it skews the news to make it relevant not to human need or suffering or even joy, but to the realities of dollars and cents! I read what I expected to read on the heels of the Martin ouster: bad for Canada, bad for business blah blah blah.
  The stories were headlined Canada: Shining Economy, Government in Disarray. Tenure (Martin's) marked by Slaying of Deficit. Manley No Martin: Economists. Departure Comes at a Bad Time for Dollar.
  I don't have to be an economist. In fact, it's probably better because my opinions won't be tainted by academic verities.
  So, with apologies to no one, here goes another of those non-economist looks at economics.

Paul Martin resigned and no one in world markets cared

  First of all, the Canadian dollar: it goes up. It goes down. It didn't go down when, according to The Economists, it should have. Paul Martin resigned and no one in world markets cared. Some local economists said there might be a decline but it would be short-lived as the world money market got used to the fact that nothing much would change.
  The dollar goes up. Is it going up because, as all the gurus say, our economy is strong and our surplus doesn't exist, and we have lowered taxes and are fighting inflation? Is that why? No. It goes up because the benchmark U.S. dollar is going down and the Canadian dollar is always described in terms of the exchange rate with the U.S. buck. Just to make the point more distinctly: the price of gold is skyrocketing. But it is only partly because in troubled times money goes to hide in good old reliable gold. It is also going up because the world price is quoted in U.S. dollars and the U.S. dollar, as I said before, is going down.
  What's more, the dollar is a very small player in terms of world monetary systems, which means that big punters aren't likely to take a major "long" position in a small currency so any buying or selling will make the dollar look like what it is: small and vulnerable. The same applies to small cap thinly held securities - but that's a little too much financial gobbledygook for now.
  Closer to home: the "deficit slayer." What patent, arrant nonsense! Like I said, Martin was Chrétien's point man. He did all the heavy lifting and took most of the heat (or praise) for the results. He battled the deficit. But so did Mike Harris. He gutted social programs, which is what the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund enjoy. Don't spend money on silly stuff like Housing or Health or Welfare, or Education when you don't have it. Better still, when times are really good, you take in huge revenues so even a moron can cut the deficit. The first thing you do with that money is give it back to the worthy wealthy in tax cuts and hint that some money will go to the restoration of social programs.
  So much for the deficit slayer.
  The only visible enemy the Liberals have is Stephen Harper, he of the National Coalition; he of the people who ran those "How Do You Like Socialism So Far?" billboards during the Rae government in Ontario. He who believes in closer ties with American policy, lower taxes, referenda, recall of MPs and "business-like" government. (I suppose "business-like" refers to how well run private businesses are - like Enron and Nortel and all those great guys.)
  Finally, through the dust and destruction of the Liberal Party (don't bet on it) comes a resignation from Alexa and up to the plate steps the indomitable Buzz who, in the Globe and Mail, asks why she would quit right at a time when the government is in disarray and goes on to promote his own kind of business-bashing social democracy. The capper is Ed Broadbent reminding us all that business is no longer the villain…
  I give up.

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