I'm not sure the counter proposal suggesting sale of debt is a good one (it may be -- I just don't know) but a global bank levy is wrong. Canada does not need such a levy and there are (a few) other countries that don't need the levy either. Perhaps it makes sense in the EU and US but not here:
PM aims to turn aside U.S. and EU initiative that risks becoming a distraction from his G20 agenda
Graeme Smith and Kevin Carmichael
New Delhi and Washington— From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

Canada is taking its campaign against a global bank levy on the road, part of an aggressive shift in tactics by the Harper government to kill an initiative that risks becoming a distraction from the Prime Minister's agenda at the G20 summit.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who blocked a push by the U.S. and the European Union to win G20 support of a bank levy last month at meetings in Washington, was on the offensive in New Delhi Monday, trying to win support for Canada's counterproposal to the bank tax, an untested plan that would require financial institutions to sell debt that would convert to easily accessible reserves when funds run low.
"We have to keep our eye on the ball," said Mr. Flaherty, who rallied support for his stand among G20 finance ministers from emerging markets by characterizing the bank levy as unfair punishment of countries who had no role in causing the financial crisis. "The banks in India performed well, and so did the financial institutions in Canada."
3 comments:
Speaking as one of the billions of people paying through higher taxes and reduced services caused by the games the international bankers has played...
Who cares whether it is "necessary". Can't we get *some* of our money back? Even if it's only to prevent a repetition of the same thing next time. The bankers should pay *something*
Trust Ignatieff to _again_ be on the wrong side of the issue.
He's being handed a winning hand by Harper and he doesn't know what to do with it...
- tax the international bankers
- allow a tiny fraction of canadian aid to pay for necessary abortions
- protect fair dealing and fair copyright laws
That's this week.
Oh, I forgot part of the winning hand...
- support the Auditor General's investigation into MP spending
Oh yea... and:
- invest funding in sailors, not drydocked ships
If I were Ignatieff, by now, I'd be doing a weekly 'review of Harper' - something very public, even a little funny, and just hitting these, hard, one point after another, with all media (and bloggers) invited (they'd _have_ to cover it because they'd be afraid to miss it)
Because every week, these days, Harper is doing things that provide ammunition, and Ignatieff just ignores it - leading Canadians (including me) to believe he actually supports this stuff.
(I would be urging Jack Layton to do this too, but an NDP leader could run naked down Wellington Street and it wouldn't be covered)
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