By
Matthew
Russell Lee
WASHINGTON
DC,
April 20 --
The Volcker
Rule on
proprietary
trading by
banks was
one of the
responses to
the subprime
financial
meltdown of
2008.
On
Friday at the
IMF, Inner
City Press
asked Canadian
Finance
Minister
Jim Flaherty
about what
it has
reported as
the Group of
20's
opposition to
the rule, especially
for its
treatment of
non-US
sovereign
debt.
Flaherty
told Inner
City Press,
"it came up
informally a
couple of
times... I can
tell you,
Canada is
please there's
been delay in
planned
implementation
date,
concerned
about
extraterritorial
effect, I've
discussed with
Secretary
Geithner and
we look
forward to
further
developments."
Geithner,
as we've
noted and even
asked the US
State
Department to
explain, did
not show
up for the
Finance
Ministers
meeting about
Rio + 20 and
sustainable
development
held Friday at
the World
Bank. But has
Geithner given
Flaherty some
re-regulatory
assurance?
Flaherty
was also
asked about a
"disagreement"
he had with
Germany's
Finance
Minister
Wolfgang
Schauble,
concerning
whether
European
countries
were doing
enough about
their crisis
to avoid
Flaherty's
requested
veto and loss
of European
seats in the
IMF.
Flaherty said
he's known
Schauble for
as long as
he's been
Germany
minister,
Flaherty has
served longer.
Could that be
the problem?
Inner
City Press
asked him
directly,
beyond the
alleged
differential
treatment of
sovereign
debt, if the
mixing of
banking and
proprietary
trading
played a role
in the
meltdown.
"We're
all
entitled to
our views,"
Flaherty
replied. "In
the Canadian
situation,
proprietary
trading was
not an issue
for us. Some
would
argue it was
not causative.
I'll leave to
others to
debate."
Yeah
- while he
whispers to
Tim Geithner
about it, then
at the G20 in
Mexico.
Later
Friday
afternoon
outside the
IMF a protest
marched by, to
chants
including
Occupy Wall
Street. Few
journalists
looked up from
"making the
donuts," so to
speak,
packaging
Christine
Lagarde's
canned quotes
to Charlie
Rose as news.
And so it
has gone at
the IMF. Watch
this site.
