Category Archives: Federal Reserve Bank

Obama To G-20: Print More Money, Don’t Make It

Barack Obama, Debt, Democrats, Economy, Europe, Federal Reserve Bank, Foreign Policy, Free Markets, Political Economy

The following is from my new, WND.Com column, “Obama To G-20: ‘Print More Money, Don’t Make It'”:

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel is not returning U.S. President Barack Obama’s calls.

I’m being theatrical. Obama is demanding that Germany pull its weight in the global-recovery effort by aping the US: spending more and producing less.

Here are the providential orders verbatim, via the WSJ:

“U.S. President Barack Obama [has called] for Germans to aid the global recovery by spending more and relying less on exports.”

It is not only Germany that Obama wishes to knee-cap economically, but Canada, Japan and China too. Given that big-spending Americans exist at the sufferance of the frugal, productive Chinese, I don’t quite know how this would work.

“Ms. Merkel countered that Germany’s growth and employment are rising—and therefore the world’s fourth-largest economy has no reason to rethink its dependence on its powerhouse industrial sector and large trade surplus.” …

The Obamarxist-Merkel contretemps are a prelude to the upcoming “Group of 20” summit in Canada, where, by the looks of it, the US (once the economic engine of the world) will bicker with Germany, China, Canada, and Japan (nascent economic powers) to cut back on their robust exports and match its level of government and household debt. …

The complete column is “Obama To G-20: ‘Print More Money, Don’t Make It.'”

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Canada Rising

Canada, Conservatism, Debt, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Political Economy

The Left will tell you it’s “regulation” that accounts for Canada’s strong banking system and solid economic growth. Nonsense on stilts; conservative financial practices account for the fact that Canada’s “economy grew at a 6.1 percent annual rate in the first three months of this year. The housing market is hot and three-quarters of the 400,000 jobs lost during the recession have been recovered.” (AP)

Canadian banks “aren’t as leveraged as their U.S. or European peers.” And I imagine that they did not aim to make home owners of those who cannot afford homes, and give credit to those who are not creditworthy.

The other day, CBC front man, Peter Mansbridge, reported approvingly on a Fed interest rate hike intended to prevent the distortions and the overextension that our artificially low interest rates are perpetuating. On American TV you’d have someone come on to give the Keynesian line to the contrary; government must stimulate; make up for sluggish demand, keep rates low. The CBC, as left as they come, did not present the “another side” to the interest rate hike story—-and rightly so.

There is only one correct economics, and it’s not the Keynesian kind.

Canucks Protest … Global Bank Tax

Canada, Debt, Economy, EU, Europe, Federal Reserve Bank

The Canadian government, not the American one, “will ‘resist’ a bank tax, Industry Minister Tony Clement said Tuesday as ministers fanned out across the world to raise opposition to the proposal for avoiding another financial crisis. ‘Canada is, and will remain, opposed to a tax that would penalize financial institutions that remained strong and prosperous while many of the world’s banks failed,’ Clement told a press conference with Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon.”

Clement said the bank tax would “encourage risky behavior” if it is used to create a bank bailout fund and “reward bad behavior” of those institutions responsible for the recent financial crisis in the first place.
As well, it would “unduly burden” Canadian banks and put them at a “competitive disadvantage” to other financial institutions.

As the AP reported a while back, “while the U.S. has seen 81 banks fail in 2009 alone, Canada has not experienced the failure of any major financial institution. There has been no crippling mortgage meltdown or banking crisis north of the border, where the financial sector is dominated by five large banks.”

I’ve often contended that if it cut back on its interventionist policies, Canada could become an economic giant. It has natural resources and a highly educated population. And as David Frum (another Canuck) reminds in this excellent piece (via alternativeright.com): Canada has an immigration system that doesn’t tolerate a tsunami of illegal alien illiterates, as does it adhere to a strict point system that benefits the country.

More HERE about the global regulatory regime debated by our oracular governors.