Canadian Foreign Influence in British Election Considered a Good Thing
Reports
that Canadian economist and banker Mark Carney played a role in the
British Labour Party's election preparation is another example of the
kind of foreign interference which the ruling circles favour a great
deal. Carney was the governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013
and the governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020. He is now
chairman, and head of impact investing at Brookfield Asset Management
since 2020, and was named chairman of Bloomberg Inc., parent company of
Bloomberg L.P., in 2023.
Canadian political journalist and
author Paul Wells, informs that Carney endorsed Rachel Reeves, who also
once worked for the Bank of England, in a video message to last
fall's annual Labour conference and that he worked to bring forward
Reeves to present the Labour Party as "A government that respects
business, wants to partner with business, and is open for business. In
an uncertain world, Britain is a place to do business." Reeves has
since the general election which brought the Labour Party to power been
appointed the new British finance minister.
Reeves announced "a new National Wealth Fund, with a remit to invest -- and so to catalyse private sector investment -- in new and growing industries," Wells informs. He added that Carney is leading a task force on the establishment of the "National Wealth Fund."
It is a revised libertarian scheme to divert the attention of Canadians and, by the looks of it, the peoples of the UK, from the dismal state of the economy because governments borrow from private banks with ever greater alacrity, divert all monies which should go to social programs to paying interest on the debt, along with fresh borrowing and ever higher payments on interest, while also stealing pensions and other funds to pay the rich schemes in the name of greening the economy and financing private interests to build infrastructure projects and the like. The scheme promoted by Carney talks up public-private investment and a more open offensive against trade unions, which are labelled as hurting the economy with the "high cost of labour and workplace rules."
It is not a coincidence that The Globe and Mail reported on July 11 that there are tensions between Prime Minister Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Freeland, that senior officials in the Prime Minister's office do not think Freeland has been "effective in delivering an upbeat economic message" and that a 'government source' said there have been internal discussions about recruiting Carney as Finance Minister. According to the Globe, Trudeau's office responded that he has full confidence in Freeland and Freeland's office did not comment. The Globe added that Carney has criticized the recent budget as not adequately focusing on fostering economic growth.
In other words, the Trudeau cabal are working seriously to rescue their dismal standings in the polls by distancing themselves from Freeland's budget. The new mantra is not unlike the one Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre spouts that government high taxes and bureaucratic regulations (red tape) are hurting established enterprises and blocking new enterprises and investments from developing. They say they are even hurting poor people and others dependent on social programs because of the lack of available public funds that are flying out the window to pay the debt caused by government overspending and interference and a stagnant economy.
To reinforce their argument of how desperate the situation has become, they flaunt the reality that the entire annual revenue from the GST goes to pay the annual interest payments on the debt. How ridiculously bad is that, they cry!!
But what to do? They cannot call for a moratorium on servicing the debt because that goes against their yeoman's service to pay the rich and especially sacred is the private property of the global imperialists. But to show they are mulling over the debt problem and racking their brains as to what to do they suggest no further government borrowing although how to achieve this remains vague other than "growing the economy means more taxes coming in resulting in more government revenue."
They describe the problems to prettify their schemes, which essentially are a rehash of the same line to pay the rich to mitigate risks to investment especially in the green economy and to attack the working class thereby growing the economy. In the end the larger and more productive economy which is supposed to materialize because they wish it so will provide enough money from taxes to pay for social programs.
They decry a leveling off of productivity. For them, increased productivity does not mean more disposable time for working people to humanize the natural and social environment which would include engaging in all aspects of life including politics and to raise the social and cultural level of society. Certainly not. For the ruling elite, higher productivity is a means to dispose of workers and their dreaded "cost of labour" and constant disruptions to their businesses through organized class struggle.
The problem they seek to obscure is the issue of who controls the economy and the produced social product and ultimately the politics. They cannot bring themselves to utter the truth of the matter (and much less take action) that global neo-liberal imperialist interests dominate and their mission in life is to skin the proverbial economic ox over and over and ensure their stranglehold over the polity and its governing institutions so as to enhance their narrow private interests and not damage them.
Nonetheless, their schemes only serve to exacerbate the crisis. With the further concentration of social wealth in fewer hands a problem arises for the rulers of fewer allies who have a stake in the system, in particular small and medium-sized enterprise owners. This is a strata which tends to no longer have confidence that their interests will not be sacrificed by the current rulers but who, in conditions of retreat of revolution, have yet to express confidence in the working class. The champions of neo-liberalism need that strata or they will become even more isolated with more and workers staking their claims and organizing themselves for a new aim and direction of the economy and country to serve the people and not the rich.
With the starving of social programs, the vulnerable and dispossessed and wider sections of the working class facing insecurity are becoming increasingly worried and unstable regarding their conditions and they are looking for change. It is a foregone conclusion that the narrow private interests which enrich the likes of Mark Carney and his ilk will do nothing but plunge Canada's increasing war economy into further crisis. And so too in the United Kingdom.
This article was published in
Volume 54 Number 41 - July 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54413.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca