Whose Watch Was It?

In the November 6 edition of Doonesbury the George W. Bush character, represented as a battered helmet, lists TARP, the subprime mortgage fix he signed into law, as one of the most difficult decisions of his presidency. Not because he agreed to bail out the banks but because people might remember the bailout as his idea and as a result not blame the democrats.

“But hey, worked out,” says the helmet.

Worked out indeed. And now to the long list of those that have forgotten that George W. was in charge during the bailout we can add Gary Lamphier, business columnist of the Edmonton Journal.

“The crooks … got away with murder on Obama’s watch,” says Lamphier in a recent column about the 2008 financial crisis. (See “Documentary explores how Wall St. ruined economy,” The Journal, Nov.9.)

Obama's watch?

Check the record, Mr. Lamphier. On September 18, 2008, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke approach senior House and Senate representatives and with big hats in hand ask for $700 billion dollars. Congress and the Senate comply and on October 3 President George W. Bush signs off on the deal. The first $350 billion arrived October 3, 2008, the second on January 15, 2009. President Barack Obama was elected on November 4, 2008, and inaugurated on January 20, 2009.

Any column that tries to pin the responsibility of the 2008 financial crisis onto President Obama without saying a word about Preseident Bush's involvement isn’t worth the price of a share in a collapsed investment bank.

What a sorry state when the comics section gives us a better read on the financial crisis than the business section.

Pricing and Subsidizing Fossil Fuels

What we as consumers pay for coal, gas and oil fails to take into account the damage burning these fuels does to our health, our environment, and our climate. None of these costs are factored into the price of these fuels, and rather than remedy that with a price on carbon, the Harper government chooses instead to unload these costs onto future generations. That in itself is reprehensible

But apparently, when it comes to fossil fuels, unfair pricing is not enough for this government. They have to subsidize these industries. In effect pay them to do their dirty work. Encourage them to diminish our health, to foul our environment, to disrupt our climate.

According to International Institute for Sustainable Development (see Fossil Fuels - At What Cost) federal government subsidies and tax breaks to the fossil fuel industry are well over a billion dollars a year. And while the rest of the G20 is attemting to reduce their subsides, Mr. Harper stands firm.   

So this is what we get from a government that yammers on about the free market and cutting taxes: unfair pricing and enormous subsidies.

If the Harper government feels so strongly about the free market, then they should ensure that the price for fossil fuels takes into account all the costs. And if they feel so strongly about cutting taxes, then they should eliminate the fossil fuel subsidies.