Myth of Powerlessness :: essays research papers fc

Linda McQuaig's book, The Cult of Impotence: Selling the Myth of Powerlessness in the Global Economy, is a refreshing new approach to viewing the current state of global economy and Canada’s place in it. In recent years, such mysterious terms as fiscal deficits, natural rate of unemployment, stock market fluctuations, interest rate cuts and zero inflation and so on, have received an exceptional level of public consideration. Nevertheless, in spite of the now generally acceptable importance of the terms, their meaning an the effects of the domestic economic policies is left for the â€Å"professional† economists to analyze and present the public, as well as nation’s governing bodies with a list of remedies. Their guiding logic and principles are rarely questioned and more rarely fully understood. In such an environment, McQuaig has earned a wide audience for her writings by stripping away the aura of complexity from controversial economic issues and making them a ccessible and relevant to a general audience. Challenging the opinions of the â€Å"experts†, she is trying to bring back the debatable economic policies of the â€Å"global age† to democratic accountability. McQuaig is a notable journalist and a writer, who has written a number of books on the state of affairs that Canada’s economy is. Unlike her previous books that she has written ,discussing deficit reduction and cuts to social programs among others, this time she drifted away from the specifics and focused on our general view and acceptance of the economic processes. In the book, she attacks nation’s political passivity and acceptance of the believed fact that the domestic economy fully depends on the global market situation and that is should follow the trends. Trapped in this view, governments act as a victims to the global economic process and accepts an its people and impose this view on the electorate. Canada’s economic troubles is not unique. Although, Canada is enjoying a period of relative economic growth, and the level of unemployment is at its lowest level since April 1976 at 6.8% in January 2001 (Tam). However, these 6.8% still mean 1.1 million people jobless. McQuaig argues that combating the unemployment should be the number one national economic policy, at times at the expense of the corporate and governmental financial institutions and currency speculators. The fiscal conservatism of Bank of Canada under Gordon Thiessen, the bank’s governor, and anti-inflationism which have become, it seems, the idà ©e fixe for most state financiers became a source of tremendous political apathy, hindering the capacity of elected officials to carry through on their more progressive and egalitarian campaign promises.