Reclaiming power from the financial elite
Time to put finance back in a box and create an economy for ordinary people
In the new politics and economics that Vision 21 wants to help to bring about, citizens must be prepared to fundamentally reassess the role and impact of finance and financialization in our economy. Financialization refers to the trend in which wealth and profits are increasingly accumulated through financial channels and instruments rather than through production of goods, local manufacturing, community economic development and diversified trade.
The problem
As pensions and decent incomes have withered away, the public has been enlisted in a giant ‘casino’ economy, in which they are forced to direct their own registered retirement funds as risk-bearing agents in a less than fully transparent ‘financialized’ economy. Finance has created a kind of parallel economic universe with its own logic and governance, substantially divorced from the real world, and one in which the rest of us are exposed to constant risk. A few billionaires may have emerged, but at the price of introducing massive inequality and fragility into our society and compromising the future prospects of many young people across this land. Any objective analysis of the history of the last thirty years in Canada will show that the supposed efficiency gains of financialization are vastly outweighed by the serial contagions, asset price inflation, and massive indebtedness that has directly or indirectly impacted the great majority of working households, taxpayers, and individuals in this country. The control that Canadians once felt they had over the arc of their lives has been replaced by a random, chaotic, and ultimately dispiriting one which the financial sector has introduced into our midst.
“We live in a world where the latest market indicators bombard us on screens at every turn, and yet, as the old saying goes, to know the price of everything and the value of nothing, is a poor substitute for genuine economic progress for the benefit of all. ”
Our solution
1. Redefining GDP
Vision 21 argues that GDP as presently calculated misrepresents and distorts our economic health by including financial sector revenues—such as bank interest, fees, and transaction charges—as productive contributions. Since Canada adopted the UN’s revised System of National Accounts in 1968, these rent-seeking payments have been classified as value-added income, inflating GDP without improving real productivity or well-being. Vision 21 contends these are “subtrahends” that should be deducted, not added, to measure true national wealth. A reformed GDP should distinguish earned from unearned income, prioritizing tangible contributions from wages, small businesses, and production over speculative financial gains.
2. Ending Derivative Trading
Since the 1980s, derivatives—complex financial contracts like futures, options, and swaps—have introduced systemic risk and instability into Canada’s economy. Their speculative nature, combined with leverage, has amplified financial fragility during crises such as the 2008 mortgage collapse and 2022 inflation spike. The vast, opaque derivative market now exceeds stock and bond markets in scale, making systemic risks harder to assess. Vision 21 calls for banning derivatives to prevent financial contagion and ensure public stability is not held hostage to speculative losses.
3. Canada Needs Postal Banking
Canada’s major banks earned $51 billion in profits in 2024, while nearly a million Canadians remain unbanked and many face predatory payday lenders. High fees, branch closures, and rising household debt underscore systemic exclusion and inequality. Vision 21 proposes reinstating postal banking, which Canada had until 1968, leveraging Canada Post’s 6,400 locations—60% in rural areas—to offer low-cost, accessible financial services. These would include savings and chequing accounts, low-interest credit, and eventually mortgages and business loans. This model would emulate successful postal banking systems in countries like the UK and France, prioritizing fairness and universal access. It would also provide a pathway for Canada Post whose once lucrative parcel business has been decimated by private courier companies.
4. Creating a Public Investment Bank
The Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB), established in 2017 as a Public-Private Partnership vehicle, has failed to meet efficiency, transparency, and community needs, while primarily de-risking private investors. Vision 21 calls for replacing it with a Public Investment Bank funded by public capital. This institution would prioritize durable, climate-conscious infrastructure, provide low-interest loans to municipalities, cooperatives, Indigenous enterprises, and renewable projects, and be governed by diverse public-interest stakeholders. Unlike profit-driven P3s, it would fully account for environmental and social costs, focusing on long-term public benefit over short-term returns.
5. No Bailouts for Speculators
In the event of another financial crisis, Vision 21 insists on protecting insured personal deposits and Canada Pension Plan assets but refusing bailouts for speculative losses from high-risk financial activities like derivatives or leveraged real estate investment. Public funds should not underwrite the poor judgement of private actors; moral hazard must be observed. With inequality worsened by decades of financialization, taxpayer resources should be directed toward public priorities such as healthcare, education, Indigenous rights, and public infrastructure—not to indemnify failed, speculative bets.