Monday, June 28, 2010

How About We Blame The Protesters?

There is a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking going on today in the Canadian media, with CTV and the CBC focusing almost entirely on the protests and their aftermath, with little to no mention of the important things that took place inside the fence. Some are angry that the police overreacted to protests, others are angry that they didn't do enough to prevent the destruction. How's about we put the blame where it is due, with the clowns who were aggressively confronting the police officers? People have the right to assemble in protest, but they don't have the right to throw punches at police officers and destroy property. It baffles me that after a bunch of hooligans go on a rampage; and here our major news networks are blaming the police for the insanity of others???

Shouldn't we be talking about what was accomplished at this Summit? On the "global bank tax" where many CBC pundits were criticizing the Prime Minister for being against it when Europe wants to do it. Basically it isn't a bank tax, so much as it bank insurance. A proposed global insurance fund that the developed world pays into and banks who fail can get bailed out. That's right, get carried away with bad loans, and we will save their asses. In economics there is a term called "moral hazard" which is the effect of an insurance policy that actually increases the probability of incurring a loss. If you eliminate the downside risk for financial institutions, then they will engage in more high risk transactions increasing the probability of catastrophic failure.

Why was it so critically important for Canada to host the Summits? Because Canada's financial system has weathered this "Great Recession" better than pretty much every other G20 partner. We absolutely should have been the one country setting the agenda on discussions, because our banks are the shinning example for the rest of the world to follow. The answer is bank reform, not bank insurance. It is important for the world's major economies to reduce their government deficits that are running a high risk of public debt crashing their currencies and thus their financial systems. Obama wants to keep spending, duh, no surprise there. The policies he's looking to pass are going to cost a lot of money, making deficit reduction impossible.

Sharing the Canadian model with the rest of the world is very important to avoiding another serious downturn. Now hopefully they will listen and make the necessary policy measures to reduce the probability of a second global catastrophic collapse. I doubt that many G20 partners will have the testicular fortitude to make the necessary budget cuts (it is easier to spend money than give it away), but if they take our Prime Minister's advice the world will be better off. Time will tell.

7 comments:

  1. I am astounded that the media is whipping up anger against the Toronto Police force. I am worried for the safety of these brave police officers.
    Shame on the Toronto media, Shame!

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  2. A lot has happened in Toronto over the last few days that needs to be digested. The spin has started. Some media luminaries were arrested which makes it more personal to them. CTV News at Noon here in Toronto had the anchor, Ken Shaw, whining about their reporter having been detained despite the reporter having press credentials. Their reporter was warned and told to leave 3 times. He was part of the problem as the police were attempting to narrow down the agitators. If you ask me, if a phalanx of police in riot gear ask (or tell) you to leave it would be best for your health to leave. If you watch the news, then you know that the reporters were there recording events. You also know that all those journalists and others with cameras face to face with the riot police were in the way of effective police control. It is a simple matter to deduce that the journalists were part of the problem.

    Guess who will win the public opinion war. It won't be the police unless they combat the media spin.

    The other issue is the naive pleasure seeking gawkers who were also in the way. Peaceful protestors should have been long gone. As for locals walking their dogs etc. they should know to stay clear of the police in riot gear. This wasn't television in the cozy confines of their own home.

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  3. I spent my morning watching the CBC on purpose.Not an iota of reference to the G20 meeting or its highlights.For that i had to go to the website.Incompetance is how i describe the CBC news channel.Thats ok though since i stay well informed regardless of CBC shennanigans.
    Lets see listen to a foul mouth protestor with an axe to grind, or a cop in riot gear telling me to leave the area.Its a no brainer,for those who have brains.LOL!

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  4. Maybe you have to consider the CTV/CBC useful idiots are anti-capitalist, anarchist protesters themselves. It's fun. It's cool. Knowing nothing is going to happen to you. Unlike, say, in other countries with state media.

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  5. In the aftermath of the recent insurrection in Toronto, three images keep repeating:
    1. How it took about a microsecond after the police started arresting rioters for the left-wing loons to start crying brutality, and how, in that microsecond, the MSM had managed to corral some neanderthal with dozens of pieces of metal protruding from his/her skin, and the intelligence of a newt, to interview.
    2. Watching Evan Soloman go apeshit when Tom Flanagan said that those protesters and rubber-neckers that got caught up in the police clampdown knew the chance they were taking. I thought the leftie goon was going to have an apoplectic fit. Typical left-wing reaction.
    3. How, after being asked to secure a complex area inside a major city, during a weekend when locals are about, the combined forces managed to get by with no deaths or serious injuries and no breach of the perimeter. You try to plan something like this; something that you neither asked for nor want, without some glitches. The politicians foisted this onto the police; and it was the politicians that failed to backup the police years ago before this became de rigeur for every international conference. It's the perfect example of a lefty utopia where liberty is carried to license.

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  6. Thrill seeking reporters embedded with the Black Thugs, which served the duo purpose of not covering PMSH on the international stage.

    Iceman, a 'CBC is bias, and we have documented proof' article:
    http://www.ottawasun.com/comment/columnists/2010/06/28/14551126.html

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  7. A lot of the protestors were carrying cameras and cellphones too, so it was hard to always tell who was who. Anyway I wish we would stop giving publicity to these clowns and troublemakers. A lot of them came back to Montreal and started demonstrating right away - get a life.

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