Straight Talk About...: Part 3 - Some Views on the Economy from Prominent Thinkers

The number of prominent thinkers who are very concerned about this country's sad state of affairs is also on the rise. Here is a small sample of their views — as reported by the media:

Ten Canadian leading economists, some years ago, in a joint communique — responding to the question of why this country's economy, given all its vast resources, hasn't been able to function at a higher efficiency rate — ﬁnally conceded that, "The theories of John M. Keynes, John K. Galbraith and other prominent theoreticians no longer work. Furthermore, there appear to be no new realistic economic theories in the making."
Visiting U.K. Professor Ray Monk, lecturing at the Perimeter Institute, in Waterloo, Ontario, earlier talked about a huge "solution shortage" phenomenon, implying that, "we live in a society of experts, but today's intellectual climate is very fragmented and experts are isolated, but an interdisciplinary exchange, if initiated, could lead to many new practical ideas."
Glen Hodgson, Chief Economist with the Conference Board of Canada: "We need to reform our balkanized economy."
Gord Nixon, Chief Executive of Royal Bank: "The takeover frenzy is scary and it's time that Ottawa drew the line in the sand."
Robert Brown, CEO of CAE Inc., went even further by bluntly stating that, "A country must be in charge of its own destiny and can‘t have key decisions made outside."
Allan S. Binder, Professor of Economics and Vice Chairman of the G7 Group, has warned the North American Leadership about stubbornly chanting, "Free trade is good for you, to people who know it is not. These leaders will quickly become irrelevant to the public debate."
Lynton (Red) Wilson, former Deputy Minister of Industry: "Canadians have witnessed the sale to foreigners of major national icons, such as mining companies Falconbridge, lnco and Alcan. This includes steel ﬁrms like Algorna, Dofasco and Stelco, and retailers like the Hudson Bay Company. These sales have raised questions about the effectiveness of the government's assessment of such foreign investment."
Frank McKenna, TD Vice President and former New Brunswick Premier warns Canadians: "We are facing all of the classic symptoms of the Dutch disease, where we are getting hollowed out as a manufacturing country because we are uncompetitive. Yet we have the illusion of wealth because we have a small part of our economy that is producing revenue."
Professor Dennis Raphael of York University, Author of Poverty in Canada, blames Ontario's problems on the establishment's mistaken social-economic policies. In his book, he demonstrates "how organizations of the economic and political system causes poverty." He also argues that, "reducing poverty requires recognizing and confronting the interests that benefit from poverty."
Quebec Premier Jean Charest a few years earlier appealed to Prime Minister Harper by stating that, "A struggling manufacturing sector has repercussions for the entire Canadian economy."
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty some time ago reminded the federal government that, "It's no longer acceptable to say, all you need to do is cut taxes and stand back and the economic evolutionary forces are going to play themselves out."

Views of Other Prominent Thinkers on Global Issues

Vaclav Havel, former Czech President: "Civilization is on the bring of collapse, because the best thinkers have been excluded, for too long by governments everywhere."
Steven Hill, Director of the New American Foundation, — upon his return from his transatlantic investigative tour a few years ago, — provided the media with the following account of his trip: "Europe's economy and social system are two halves of a well-designed social capitalism. An ingenious framework in which the economy ﬁnances the social system to support families and employees in an age of globalized capitalism that threatens to turn us all into internationally disposable workers."
Paul Krugman, the prominent U.S. economist, — in an article published in the New York Times, in early May 2011 — analyzing the present state of the global economy, blames the policy elites for concentrating on reducing the budget deficits instead of focusing on major job creation programs.
Paul Krugman, in an other New York Times article few weeks later writes, "Textbook economics and experience say that slashing spending when you're still suffering from high unemployment is a really bad idea, because much of‘ what governments save by spending less, they lose as a weaker economy depresses tax receipts." It must be added that his views should be heeded by this country's policy-makers.
Jack Welsh, former CEO of General Electric Co. — in a TV interview on June 8, 2011 — in reference to the ongoing economic crisis, made two important suggestions:

"We need many job-creators in North America"
"We have to bake a bigger pie and everybody will have a bigger slice"

Harold Meyerson, editor-at-large of American Prospect, in a recent article published in the Washington Post, praised the German social-economic model and attibuted its success to the fact that, "corporate boards are required by law to have an equal number of management and employee representatives."
Charles H. Percy, former U.S. Senator: "Home ownership gives a sense of pride and dignity to people; it helps them integrate into the community."
F.D. Roosevelt, former U.S. President: "We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings."
Percy B. Shelley, English poet: "There is no real wealth but the labour of man."
James J. Davis, former U.S. Senator and Labour Secretary: "The worker buys back from those who finance him the goods that he himself produces. Pay him a wage that enables him to buy, and you fill your market with ready customers."