statism watch

Yes, everyone get ready for the big ‘green jobs’ boom propaganda. Problem with that idea is, money isn’t a zero-sum game. You print it and give it to Samsung, or sink it in a public rail line, you may employ some people short-term but this will be at the expense of the people standing on the taxation rug you just pulled out from under them. For more, see the broken window fallacy. Now, combine this with the fact of US states and regional initiatives signing these independent contracts with Canadian provinces on any number of things – environmental projects, carbon taxes, continental IDs, running massive highways through, etc. – and you’re looking at a situation where Canadian sovereignty is being leached away with zero input from you.

Related: West coast regionalization rears its head in ‘Cascadia’ | B.C., 3 US states sign accord for ‘Pacific North America’ hours before Olympic kickoff | Jim Prentice: Implement A ‘North American Climate Change Regime’ | Passing on the Mantle of Deep North American Integration | Think-tank calls for United States of Great Lakes | Toronto part of ‘transnational mega-region’

Dana Gabriel, BeYourOwnLeader.com
March 12, 2010

U.S.-Canadian state and provincial integration is being achieved in areas of transportation, the economy, energy and the environment. With some national, trilateral and global initiatives being discredited, stalled or ineffective, it appears as if the strategy has further shifted to a regional and local level in an effort to lay the groundwork for new agreements.

In 2008, the Pacific Coast Collaborative was established between Alaska, British Columbia, California, Oregon and Washington as, “a formal basis for cooperative action, a forum for leadership and information sharing, and a common voice on issues facing Pacific North America.” Some of its key priorities include action on clean energy, regional transportation, emergency management, sustainable regional economy, ocean conservation and climate change, as well as other issues. The inaugural Leaders’ Forum of the Pacific Coast Collaborative was held in Vancouver, British Colombia on February 12, 2010. It was hosted by Premier Gordon Campbell and chaired by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The meeting was also attended by Washington Governor Christine Gregoire and Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown. Although Alaska is also a member of the group, they were not able to send a representative to the meeting. It was announced that Oregon will be hosting the next forum to be held later this year.

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Those banks took down Lehmans just like they would a family farm – by pressing debt on it. Paper swaps, risk insurance, derivatives – it’s a legalized protection racket that blows up Ponzi currency bubbles, attacks rival banks with imaginary computerized money transfers, and destroys the economy like some sort of infectious money insertion virus.

Related: Goldman role in Greek crisis probed | How EU Countries Cooked Books Using Derivatives | Goldman Sachs Helped Greece Obscure Debt Through Currency Swaps | America slides deeper into depression as Wall Street revels | How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash | Goldman Sachs breaks record with $16.7bn bonus pot | More US Bank Failures and The Coming Deposit Insurance Bailout | Arrest Over Software Illuminates Wall St. Secret | The Lords of Time: Goldman Sachs and low-latency trading | Record quarterly profits and bonuses: Goldman Sachs makes out like a bandit on taxpayer’s dime | Goldman-Sachs: Pilfered trading code could be used to ‘manipulate markets’ | Taibbi: NYSE ends transparency to protect Goldman Sachs | Central banks to take off ‘training wheels’ | Goldman Sachs: The Great American Bubble Machine | 10 U.S. banks to repay U.S. bailout money | Top Senate Democrat: bankers “own” the U.S. Congress | Barclays, Lloyd’s, RBS join Goldman-Sachs in the black | Goldman-Sachs to repay TARP loan, resume private operations, bonuses, at “earliest time” possible | Which Banks Will Rule? | Wall Street’s Big Takeover | IMF may need to “print money”, act as “world’s central bank” as crisis spreads | Behind the panic: Financial warfare over the future of global bank power | Goldman-Sachs Alumni Hold Reins of Financial System | What Really Killed Bear Stearns? | Soros points out regulated markets fail to operate on market fundamentals, calls for more regulation | Competition study calls for lowered barriers to foreign ownership, bank mergers | Massive overhaul urged on foreign investment in airlines, media, and banks | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda

Linda Sandler, Bob Van Voris and Don Jeffrey
March 12, 2010

March 12 (Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. helped cause the failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. by demanding more collateral and changing guarantee agreements, according to a report on the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

“The demands for collateral by Lehman’s lenders had direct impact on Lehman’s liquidity,” said Anton Valukas, the bankruptcy examiner, in a 2,200-page document filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court. “Lehman’s available liquidity is central to the question of why Lehman failed.”

Former Lehman Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld, ex- Chief Financial Officer Erin Callan, former Executive Vice President Ian Lowitt and former Managing Director Christopher O’Meara certified misleading statements about the bank’s finances, according to the report. Fuld, 63, was “at least grossly negligent,” Valukas said. New York-based Lehman collapsed in September 2008 with $639 billion in assets.

In addition to his conclusions regarding New York-based Citigroup and JPMorgan, Valukas said of London-based Barclays Plc’s purchase of Lehman’s North American brokerage that a “limited amount of assets” belonging to Lehman were “improperly transferred to Barclays.” He added that the value of the assets may not be “material.”

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Flashback: Athens erupts as Greek austerity plan passes | Greece unveils radical austerity package | Athen’s coffers to run dry in two weeks, more cracks appear in Eurozone | Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros, ‘at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro’ | Goldman role in Greek crisis probed | Greek workers stage general strike | How EU Countries Cooked Books Using Derivatives | Goldman Sachs Helped Greece Obscure Debt Through Currency Swaps | Collapse of the euro is ‘inevitable’: Bailing out the Greek economy futile, says French banking chief | Euro currency union shows strains | Stimulating our way into debt crises | EU leaders reach secret Greek bailout deal | Will Greece set off ‘global debt bomb’? | EU cautions Greece about its deficit | Could Greece drag down Europe? | ‘Significant chance’ of second financial crisis, warns World Economic Forum | A world awash in debt

The Associated Press
March 11, 2010

ATHENS-Serious street clashes erupted between rioting youths and police in central Athens Thursday as some 30,000 people demonstrated during a nationwide strike against the cash-strapped government’s austerity measures.

Hundreds of masked and hooded youths punched and kicked motorcycle police, knocking several off their bikes, as riot police responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades.

The violence spread after the end of the march to a nearby square, where police faced off with stone-throwing anarchists and suffocating clouds of tear gas sent patrons scurrying from open-air cafes.

Police say 12 suspected rioters were detained and two officers were injured.

Rioters used sledge hammers to smash the glass fronts of more than a dozen shops, banks, jewelers and a cinema. Youths also set fire to rubbish bins and a car, smashed bus stops, and chopped blocks off marble balustrades and building facades to use as projectiles.

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That’s a pretty direct request. And to have it turned down is a slap, isn’t it? Geithner’s been over there trying to sell bonds and now we have this speech. It’s hard not to take it as a sign of monetary desperation on the part of the administration – how much American debt does China hold, again? But it’s just emerged that China is likely in debt up to its eyeballs as well, at up to 100% of its GDP. That’s not good.

Flashback: Soros: China Will Lead New World Order | Fisk: Nations to hasten demise of dollar in new world order | US dollar set to be eclipsed, World Bank president predicts | Bilderberg Wants Global Currency Now | Dollar to fall under scrutiny at G20 summit | IMF approves $13bn gold sale to boost lending fund | UN wants new global currency to replace dollar | G20 agrees to continue economic stimulus measures; Geithner shops international reserve accord | China Set to Buy $50 Billion in IMF Notes | Timothy Geithner: travelling bond salesman | Medvedev Unveils “World Currency” Coin At G8 | China calls anew for super-sovereign currency | No one talking about dumping dollar: China minister | China explores buying $50bn in IMF bonds | Chinese economists deem huge holding of US bonds “risky” as Geithner visits | A Bigger, Bolder Role Is Imagined For the IMF | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | UN & IMF Back Agenda For Global Financial Dictatorship | US backing for world currency stuns markets | U.N. panel says world should ditch dollar | IMF poised to print billions of dollars in ‘global quantitative easing’ | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | IMF may need to “print money”, act as “world’s central bank” as crisis spreads | Globalists Exploit Financial Meltdown In Move Towards One World Currency | World needs new Bretton Woods, says Brown | IMF prescribes state regulation of ‘global financial order’ | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda | Banks face “new world order,” consolidation: report

BBC News
March 11, 2010

China has hit back at comments by US President Barack Obama that Beijing should change its currency strategy.

On Thursday, he urged China to adopt a “market-oriented” exchange rate policy, increasing the pressure on Beijing to allow the yuan to appreciate.

But Su Ning, vice governor of the People’s Bank of China, accused Mr Obama of “politicising” the yuan issue.

According to news reports from Beijing, Mr Ning said that Mr Obama wants China to solve America’s problems.

“We don’t agree with politicising the renminbi [yuan] exchange rate issue,” Mr Su said on the sidelines of China’s annual session of parliament.

“We also don’t agree with a country taking its own problems and having another country solve them,” he said. China has always regarded currency issues as an internal matter.

Mr Obama had urged China to change its currency strategy to help re-balance the global economy.

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So Dwight Duncan’s argument to rationaliaze this scam is – ok, so what if we snuck this deal through under the radar of the Ontarian electorate (whom would have protested it had they known) – it’s a done deal now, and it would be besmirching our honour to go back on it. He’s completely begging the question of whether this this is even a severance. Ok, slick. You figure we’re stupid enough to buy that? Well, are we?

Flashback: HST ad campaign debuts in Ontario | Ont. deficit could linger for years: McGuinty | HST bill passes, 13% tax starts July 1 | Poll: HST equals Hated Sales Tax | Tories, Liberals, Bloc approve HST for Ontario and B.C. | Anti-HST protest at Ontario legislature spills onto Toronto streets | More HST debate fallout after Ontario Legislature sit-in | Liberals to support HST bill | Tory HST protest halts Ontario question period | Federal HST tax bill to be introduced, plays politics with law | Ontario Tories walk out to protest lack of hearings on HST | Contentious HST bill introduced in Ontario | Food under $4 to be HST-free, Ontario says | McGuinty says HST doubters exist in Liberal ranks | If passed, HST locked in through 2012 | New HST tax is fair, McGuinty says | Thousands rally against coming HST tax in BC | Flaherty offers taxpayer-funded bribe to adopt HST tax, holdout provinces demur | BC, like Ontario, moves to harmonize taxes | Ontario Liberals pressing to hide new ‘harmonized’ tax in prices | Ontario to merge GST, PST in ‘harmonized’ tax hike | EU approves free-trade talks with Canada | Canada expects EU free-trade talks soon: Stockwell Day | Harper, Sarkozy vow to work toward Canada-EU deal | CD Howe Institute backs Canada-EU deal, deep integration | Towards a new world order: Canada-EU trade proposal rivals scope of NAFTA

The Canadian Press
March 11, 2010

Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan talks to reporters after tabling HST legislation on Nov. 16, 2009.

More than 1,250 Ontario tax collectors will get a severance package worth up to $45,000 each despite the fact they won’t be losing their jobs.

The move, part of the province’s plan to harmonize sales taxes with Ottawa, will see the provincial collectors become federal employees, triggering a payout critics said amounted to tens of thousands of dollars to change business cards.

The opposition parties said it shows how wrong-headed the HST is, but Premier Dalton McGuinty said the province is simply honouring an existing collective agreement.

“There’s an important part of our brand as a province, as a government, when we do business with each other and when we do business with the world, is that when we give you our word, our word is our word,” McGuinty said after an unrelated event in Listowel, Ont.

“I guess the alternative is we could introduce legislation in the house and say: ‘Look, you signed a deal and we signed a deal (but) it’s no longer convenient for us to respect that deal.’

“Where does that take you?”

Earlier this week, the Ministry of Revenue quietly announced the buyouts for more than 1,250 provincial collectors who will now work for Ottawa. It says the province had signed an agreement with the Canada Revenue Agency outlining “opportunities with the CRA for all Ontario government employees impacted by harmonization.”

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Flashback: Hope keeps Flaherty’s balanced budget afloat | Flaherty’s economic plan blasted as leading to taxation or cuts | Idle job market hurting recovery, Flaherty warns | No new stimulus, economy ’stabilized’: Harper | Can’t say if federal stimulus is working: watchdog | Liberals call stimulus numbers ‘fiction’ | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | Economic picture still not very bright, and more layoffs are in store, manufacturers say | G20 to pledge continued ’stimulus’, examine international reserve fund | Aspiring government economists must reveal views on stimulus plan | Fund me or axe me, parliamentary budget officer says | Stephen Harper trumpets economic report card | Carney says G20 must stay the course on stimulus | Ottawa’s deficit plan would hike EI premiums | Canada’s $1-trillion debt baby | Flaherty sees deficit, debt, and timetable to return to surplus all expanding | G20 agrees to continue economic stimulus measures; Geithner shops international reserve accord | Federal deficit hits $7.5B in April-May | Budget officer ‘can’t tell’ if stimulus plan working | G8 leaders see no early end to stimulus | Flaherty looks for way to end stimulus | Stimulus cash is flowing – down a hole? | Harper lays out stimulus spending in progress report | ‘Reduced pace of deterioration’ indicates economy on the mend: Flaherty | Federal deficit to top $50B | Stimulus needed now, Bank of Canada says | US Congress reaches deal on economic stimulus package | $12B for infrastructure forms key pillar of stimulus package | Brace for a big, ‘comprehensive’ budget: Harper | Transport Minister Baird calls for dramatic action on stimulus package | Obama calls for ‘dramatic action’ on stimulus package | Flaherty vows short-lived deficit, consults corporate chiefs on spending initiatives | Harper government plans deficits as deep as $30 billion | Britain to introduce massive stimulus package | Deficits ‘essential,’ Harper says | Flaherty eyes sale of Canadian government assets | Flaherty lauds Keynesian global ‘economic stimulus’ strategies

CBC News
March 11, 2010

Canada’s budget watchdog disagrees with parts of last week’s federal budget, namely the deficit forecasts and economic expectations.

In a report released Thursday on its website, the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer said it expects the deficit will peak at $53.0 billion in 2009-10, improving to $12.3 billion in 2014-15.

The projected deficit is $10.5 billion larger in the final year than the budget forecast tabled on March 4 by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

The budget office, headed by Kevin Page, said its largest deficit forecast is the result of projected revenues that are $6.0 billion lower and government expenditures that are $4.5 billion higher than those forecast in the budget.

The lower revenue expectations stem from lower corporate and personal income tax revenues, the report said.

On the economic front, the budget office also has issues with the federal budget’s outlook. It noted the budget says “the uncertainty surrounding the medium-term outlook has diminished significantly since the September Update.”

This conclusion is “inappropriate” given the lack of analysis of the variance in private-sector forecasts underpinning the budget, the report said.

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Related: IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | EU considers general carbon tax | Gordon Brown’s plan for global bank tax ‘a step closer’ | Global Bank Insurance Levy Wins Support over Transaction Tax at Davos | Harper urges G20 to follow economic accords | Bankers unite against Barack Obama and Gordon Brown in call for world regulation | IMF warns against retreat from stimulus spending | Banks find gaping loophole in Obama financial reforms | Obama talking tough with banks | EU urged to adopt bank supertax | Obama ponders bank transaction levy to recoup bailout shortfalls | Explosive Leaked Emails Expose Treasury Secretary Geithner’s Deception in ‘Backdoor Bailout’ | Final Copenhagen Text Includes Global Transaction Tax | EU calls for tax on bank transactions | UK: Brown takes campaign for Tobin tax to Commonwealth | UK: Brown proposes global fund to kick-start Copenhagen climate change process | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | Bernanke continues pressing for sweeping new powers for Fed | IMF chief wants global bank tax | G20 nations meet as protests flare on issue of international banking regulation | IMF approves $13bn gold sale to boost lending fund | China Set to Buy $50 Billion in IMF Notes | China calls anew for super-sovereign currency | No one talking about dumping dollar: China minister | China explores buying $50bn in IMF bonds | Chinese economists deem huge holding of US bonds “risky” as Geithner visits | A Bigger, Bolder Role Is Imagined For the IMF | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | UN & IMF Back Agenda For Global Financial Dictatorship | IMF poised to print billions of dollars in ‘global quantitative easing’ | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | IMF may need to “print money”, act as “world’s central bank” as crisis spreads | Globalists Exploit Financial Meltdown In Move Towards One World Currency | World needs new Bretton Woods, says Brown | IMF prescribes state regulation of ‘global financial order’ | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda | Banks face “new world order,” consolidation: report

Daniel Hannan, The Telegraph
March 10, 2010

As predicted, the European Parliament has voted for a tax on financial transactions, to be levied directly by Brussels. The vote went through by 536 to 80: only my own group, the European Conservatives and Reformists, voted solidly against the measure, although we had some support from UKIP and its allies as well as two Danish liberals and two Portuguese conservatives.

Anyone wondering why David Cameron broke with the palaeo-federalist EPP need only look at its automatic support for such measures as this. With a handful of exceptions – such as those two heroes from our oldest ally - the Christian Democrats invariably vote for higher taxes, greater state intervention and Euro-corporatism. I do wish British journalists would stop lazily refering to the EPP as “Centre-Right”; the EPP itself angrily insists that it is “a party of the Centre”.

The Tobin Tax might well be vetoed by one or other of the national governments. But the campaign for pan-European taxation is only just beginning. This will be the big battleground of the next five years. It’s time for a European Tea Party.

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Flashback: Ontario Premiere McGuinty heralds Samsung ‘green energy’ deal | ‘Green jobs’ are key to U.S., Canadian recovery: US Ambassador | Jim Prentice: Implement A ‘North American Climate Change Regime’ | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | US Congress passes mandatory national service bill | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | Terence Corcoran: Ontario’s green energy plan sneaks in feed-in taxes | New World Order Crony Gary Hart Calls for “Civic Duty” | US Democrats Introduce Public National Service Bills | Justin Trudeau introduces National Voluntary Service motion | Ontario joins continental WCI cap-and-trade scheme | B.C. carbon tax kicks in on Canada Day | They call it cap and trade, but it’s just another fuel tax | Quebec, Ontario sign historic climate pact | Every adult in Britain should be forced to carry ‘carbon ration cards’, say MPs | CEOs call for ‘aggressive’ action on climate change

Terence Corcoran, Financial Post
March 10, 2010

Despite bubbles, governments keep pumping air into alternative energy

That eerie hissing you hear may well be the air beginning to seep out of the green energy bubble. The sound is similar to the pfffffft and sshhhhsssssp noises we heard in the early days of the dot.com bubble collapse or the subprime mortgage meltdown. If you can’t hear it, you are not alone.

While investment analysts are telling their clients to get out of solar power firms and warning about the continuing risks in wind and bioenergy schemes, Ottawa and the provinces are on a mad populist stampede to throw billions of dollars at the green energy monster. The politicians don’t seem to be keeping up with the trends. “Don’t try to catch a falling knife,” warned J.P. Morgan this week in a report that told investors the market continues to fall out of the solar panel module market.

It downgraded a bunch of solar companies that have already been in a tailspin since the fist signs of a solar crash back in 2008.

Other alternative energy sectors are hitting walls. Jurisdictions with wind power regimes face continuing issues related to the fact that the wind often doesn’t blow much, turning investments in wind farms into cash-draining albatrosses. In Ontario, the 1,100 megawatts of built wind turbine capacity are often running a few megawatts at a time, and even on the best of days have trouble producing 150 megawatts.

Despite the fundamental lack of economic justification for alternative energy, governments keep pumping air into the bubbles. They blew a small fortune on ethanol programs that didn’t quite work out, so now they’re betting vast sums on aggressive campaigns to create green industries using some of the most regressive interventionist methods known to economics.

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This is the Soros plan. And of course, the IMF will happily operate this immense capital pool. Really nothing to do with global warming, of course, that’s just the pretext. It’s unlikely the money will even ever go towards ‘fixing’ the environment, as though a tax could ever accomplish this in the first place. Remember how the American banks simply appropriated the bailout funds and put them towards buying up and merging with their smaller competitors? It’s outright theft. And the end that these globalizing institutions have in sight is the creation of a new layer of global governance, with centralized taxation and currency control headed up by the IMF and the World Bank. It doesn’t seem as though they particularly care how they get the funding for this – recent months have seen separate proposals for a ‘Tobin tax’ on all financial transactions at Copenhagen and elsewhere, a global bank insurance levy, and now this idea of a direct ‘IMF tax’ on the GDP of nations. Ever since Copenhagen fell through (in large part because African states could see the proposed economic colonization a mile away, and they didn’t want to go that route), the globalist clique has backed off for a while, but now the renewed push is on to get the international community to capitulate, and there is an implicit threat involved now. Hand over power, or more countries fall. (Economist Max Keiser has exposed how Iceland was taken down by derivatives (skip to the second video), and it’s all over the news how Goldman Sachs wrecked Greece.)

Flashback: EU considers general carbon tax | Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2012 | Davos: Global climate fund threatens aid to developing world, campaigner warns | Davos 2010: George Soros warns gold is now the ‘ultimate bubble’, calls for IMF to handle climate fund | Copenhagen Accord Establishes Global Government Framework | Canada part of Copenhagen climate deal | Final Copenhagen Text Includes Global Transaction Tax | World leaders push for climate deal | UN Chief: We Will Impose Global Governance | Copenhagen climate summit releases draft final text | IMF could fund climate adaptation: Soros | Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after ‘Danish text’ leak | Bombshell UN Climate Documents Reveal Planned “End Run” Around National Sovereignty | Canada agrees to contribute to $10-billion climate change fund | UK: Brown proposes global fund to kick-start Copenhagen climate change process | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Everyone in Britain could be given a personal ‘carbon allowance’ | Czech President: Copenhagen to be ‘Largest tax increase in world history’ | Friends of the Earth attacks carbon trading as banker scam | Oil Companies Support Global Warming Alarmists, Not Skeptics | Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth sequel stresses spiritual argument on climate, downgrades CO2 threat | EU agrees to pay developing countries ‘climate aid’ to pass Copenhagen | Copenhagen’s Plans for a New ‘Government’ are Scary | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | Lord Nicholas Stern: The world’s future is being decided this weekend | Thatcher science adviser: Copenhagen goal is world government | German Scientists Call for ‘World Climate Bank’ | G8 Summit: Rich nations to pay green tab | US Congress Passes the 1,200-page Climate Bill that it was not allowed to read | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | The great carbon credit con: Why are we paying the Third World to poison its environment? | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | Economic stabilization may rely on carbon economy, economist says | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change

The Associated Press
March 8, 2010

Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga, left, and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, right, take part in a panel discussion at the University of Nairobi in Nairobi, Kenya, Monday, March 8, 2010.(AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday proposed a plan for the world’s governments to pool together to raise money needed to adapt to climate change, a rare step for an organization that normally does not develop environmental policies.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the Fund is concerned about the huge amount of funding needed and the effect that will have on the global economy. He added that the proposal may help efforts to reach a binding agreement on climate change later this year.

Strauss-Kahn proposed that countries adopt a quota system similar to the one the Fund uses to raise its own money, which could bring in money faster than proposals to increase carbon taxes or other fundraising methods. He only provided a broad outline of the plan, as the organization will release a paper within 10 days with full details. It is unclear how the proposal will be received.

The IMF raises funds from its 185 members mainly through a quota system that is based broadly on each country’s economic size. The United States is currently the largest shareholder.

“We all know that (carbon taxes and other fundraising methods) will take time and we don’t have this time. So we need something which looks like an interim solution, which will bridge the gap between now and the time when those carbon taxes will be big enough to solve the problem,” Strauss-Kahn said. “And that is exactly what the IMF proposal is dealing with.”

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So that’s what McGuinty’s government is up to. Ten bucks says this idea is Goldman-Sachs’. The notion of a piecemeal selloff of public assets is good in theory, a way to climb down from state ownership of market sectors that have little to nothing to do with the protection of citizen rights. But in the current context, there are problems of application that arise. How much of a return will taxpayers realize on their cumulative investments? And in a market that has little to do with free and unrestricted trade between individuals, and everything to do with prefigured benefits for institutional investors what will be the end result? Will there be a new centralized ownership of these resources, and what might be the consequences to Ontario’s (energy) sovereignty – energy, in a centralized market, has already been realized as a strategic asset. And finally, will there be any control over levels of ownership in these assets in order to ease the transition to a privatized energy economy? (Yes, reading further into the details). But perhaps, ironically, rather than this fascistic or P3 – public/private partnership or ‘corporativist’ – model, a breaking of these nationalized trusts into separate departments and a sale of those interests to private partners (for a fair price) might be the best way to encourage true market innovation in an echo of the era of trust-breaking from the past century.

Flashback: Ontario in no rush to sell Crown assets, minister says | Ontario Premiere McGuinty heralds Samsung ‘green energy’ deal | Ont. deficit could linger for years: McGuinty | Ontario eyes sale of crown corporations | HST bill passes, 13% tax starts July 1 | Poll: HST equals Hated Sales Tax | Flaherty eyes sale of Canadian government assets | Cities Debate Giving Away Public Infrastructure to Bankers

Robert Benzie, The Toronto Star
March 6, 2010

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan hinted at the proposed sale.

The Ontario government is looking at creating a publicly held $60 billion “super corporation” of assets such as the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and Hydro One and then selling a minority share to private investors, sources told the Star.

Insiders say that is an option under active consideration as part of Premier Dalton McGuinty’s ambitious five-year plan called Open Ontario, which will be spelled out in Monday’s Speech from the Throne.

While government sources insist nothing is set in stone, McGuinty is aggressively seeking ways to maximize the value of the province’s considerable holdings and at the same time jolt the economy.

A “super corporation” of the 610-store LCBO booze monopoly, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. gambling empire, and blue-chip utilities Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One, could be worth between $50 billion and $60 billion.

Unlike the failed scheme by the previous Progressive Conservative government to sell Hydro One in 2002, the Liberals would not have an outright sale of Crown holdings.

Nor would any deal be structured like the Tories’ controversial 1999 liquidation of Highway 407 for $3.1 billion, which has led to soaring tolls for drivers.

“You would put all the assets inside a shell and then issue shares on that shell. That way there’s still an element of public ownership,” a Liberal insider said Friday.

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