Like Friedman, I have thought for some time that this crisis is much bigger than most realize, and that we are quickly falling behind in our efforts to address it. A faux rally on the market proves nothing. As Friedman notes
It’s always great to see the stock market come back from the dead. But I am deeply worried that our political system doesn’t grasp how much our financial crisis can still undermine everything we want to be as a country. Friends, this is not a test. Economically, this is the big one. This is August 1914. This is the morning after Pearl Harbor. This is 9/12. Yet, in too many ways, we seem to be playing politics as usual.Canada, in particular, is a small open economy highly dependent on trade. And world trade is in disarray. It is also dependent on two economic engines, the auto sector and oil. The auto sector has collapsed, and unless oil prices recover quickly that sector is in trouble as well. And while our financial sector looks comparatively healthy, the Harper government is hedging its bets to the tune of $200 billion dollars, which certainly raises questions.
In short, we too are staring into the abyss while our political class often appears to be using this crisis for their own gain (see Sen. Elaine McCoy's blog on this). Friedman is right when he says
. . . I wake up every morning hoping to read this story: “President Obama announced today that he had invited the country’s 20 leading bankers, 20 leading industrialists, 20 top market economists and the Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate to join him and his team at Camp David. ‘We will not come down from the mountain until we have forged a common, transparent strategy for getting us out of this banking crisis,’ the president said, as he boarded his helicopter.”Canada too needs a common and transparent strategy and a much greater sense of urgency.
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