Trudeau Liberals Fucking Everyone Over AS USUAL

From Ed Finn at Rabble: "Bleak post-pandemic future looms as government keeps borrowing from private banks instead of the Bank of Canada"

Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer, Yves Giroux, recently estimated that the federal deficit incurred from funding pandemic virus relief measures -- now about $260 billion -- could soar as high as $900 billion by this time next year unless curbed long before then."Temporary measures…will have to be temporary," he cautioned, adding that if they are maintained at the current high rate of 12 per cent of GDP (going into 2021), the country will be sliding down a dangerous fiscal path that would be unsustainable.
He did not explain that the main reason for such a looming fiscal catastrophe is that these billions of dollars are being borrowed from the private banks at relatively high interest rates.

The financial sector has become the most powerful economic sector in late-capitalist Canada. Even though it doesn't do much for the country (except gouge us). And power based on economic clout is power that is going to resist having to pay for anything.

That's why you see the Canadian federal government doing everything in its power to make sure that Canada's banks aren't inconvenienced by this pandemic. Everyone else is expected to take a loss, including small businesses, but not the banks.

I remember at the start of this crisis how some progressives weren't happy about the appearance of the word "war" in discussion of dealing with Covid-19. But I always thought; If that's what it takes to get our politicians to take it seriously, then use that terminology. Because when there's a war, you gotta spend. And you can't weaken the country by taking on avoidable debt. Everyone has to do their part. There should have been a moratorium on rents and debt payments (because people weren't working!) and taxes should have been raised on the wealthiest to pay for the extra healthcare costs and necessary subsidies so that people could eat and buses could run and other public services that are essential could be maintained.

But more importantly, the Bank of Canada could have funded this necessary spending:

A similar steep rise in federal government spending occurred after the end of the Second World War. That's when several huge construction projects were undertaken, including the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Trans-Canada Highway, and the construction of modern airports and seaports. Major social programs were also provided or improved at that time.
If such a massive and costly expansion of services and infrastructure were to be launched today, our federal government would incur costs running into many billions of dollars, as it now does for its pandemic relief spending. Back in the post-war period, however, the total cost of all these economic and social projects resulted in barely a minimal increase in the federal debt.
Why? Because the federal government didn't borrow money from the private banks at that time, as it does today. All the funding came from the Bank of Canada in the form of interest-free "loans" that were "repaid" to the Bank of Canada. The government thus avoided large debts and deficits for public infrastructure projects.

A lazy, entitled, embezzler like Andrew Scheer might stupidly worry about the compromised moral fiber of people who received subsistence payments during a time when they weren't allowed to work, but his party isn't in power now so fuck him and his party. (Although there was a danger that they might have won a majority government last election thanks to the fucking Liberals' betrayal of their promise to end our FPTP electoral system.)

As sure as night follows day, the political tools of the oligarchs are going to be pointing to the massive deficits resulting from this crisis as the excuse for still more privatizations and austerity.  Liberal hacks will pretend that these are unfortunate realities that have to be addressed and they'll fetchingly wipe tears from their eyes as they destroy us, but destroy us they will.