Thomas Watson reviews Thieves of Bay Street, a book by Bruce Livesey that had previously received attention from the media and been praised by the National Post. The work is a compilation of stories about corporate misdeeds in Canada, all of which are already well-known. Throughout the book, Livesey establishes the thesis that the Canadian business class is extremely unethical and seeks to extract money from every available source.
He claims that the group controls the Canadian economy, perpetually disadvantaging the country’s citizens and driving away foreign investors. Watson begins his refutation of the book at this point, stating that Canada remains one of the world’s most attractive investment targets. He concurs that unethical business dealings take place often in Canada and recites the experiences that led him to leave a venture capitalism career as he blew the whistle on the illegal transactions of a company for which he worked. However, Watson then states his disagreement with Livesey’s belief that workers control the companies for which they work and the economy as a whole.
He proceeds to provide alternate explanations for some of the events listed in Thieves of Bay Street that subvert the conclusions drawn by the book’s author. The article concludes with the statement that, rather than extra protections for people who are careless with their money, better education regarding the economy is necessary. Watson ends the article with a note that, while attacking capitalism and globalization is reasonable, Livesey’s depiction of Canadian issues is overblown and distorted.
References
Watson, T. (2013). Canada isn’t rotten to the core: A review of Thieves of Bay Street. Web.