AYLMER, QUEBEC | Here's a sobering thought for all of Canada's wage earners to begin the new year with: by the time we each have our first coffee on the first working day of the new year, Canada's 100 top-earning CEOs will have already banked what it will take each of us a full year to earn.

That's the average Canadian wage, and this has been calculated by Ottawa's Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives which has also been researching the details of government bailout plans for the current crisis.

The Centre found that of the 75 billion federal tax dollars bailing out the financial sector, 50 billion will be spent buying bad mortgages held by Canadian banks.

The banks which freely bought these mortgages have threatened to freeze credit for the whole economy unless they're given serious corporate welfare.

In looking at that, the Centre discovered that in 2007, the Royal Bank's CEO took home almost 38 million dollars. Yes, one person was worth 38 million in salary, options, and bonuses. His exact earnings were $37,800,301.

At a 60-hour week, that's $600,000 per hour.

The Bank of Nova Scotia was second, giving its CEO almost $14 million; TD Bank paid a package of almost $10 million, and the Bank of Montreal's CEO banked slightly over $8 million.

That's why they're so far ahead of us before our first sip of coffee.

It's worth pointing out that these CEOs are the very people who presided over their banks' wholesale purchase of the junk mortgages from the US. They are being rewarded every year for such doubtful financial decision-making with more money than most of us will earn in our lifetimes.

But they have us over a barrel. They, and the shadow banks, control the credit that runs our economy.

The Bank of Canada and the Prime Minister's Office could have used this opportunity to rearrange our system of credit to make it immune from future financial market excesses. Fifty billion is a powerful tool, plus the government's ability to regulate whatever it sees fit, but this is not what's happening.

The fifty billion is going to the banks in exchange for giving Ôus' the junk mortgages that the banks thought they were going to make a killing on. OK, they're still making a killing.

If fifty billion is sufficient to free up credit across the economy, why isn't it applied directly to credit needs of corporations and families? Why use it to pay millions in salaries and perks for people who obviously make poor decisions?

Couldn't those billions have gone to credit unions, for example, with the stipulation that it be used for re-opening the credit system? What do we want with useless sub-prime mortgages?

What assurances do we have that the banks won't hoard this funding against more self-inflicted losses -- or more CEO and shareholder payouts?

We should pour another cup of coffee, and give these bailout plans much more thought.

---

Copyright © 2008 Fred Ryan/Log Cabin Chronicles/12.08