The 'Harper Government' And The Financial Stability Board

A growing Empire; doubtless; while we dream,
And know that that the King of Heav'n hath doom'd
This place our dungeon, not our safe retreat
John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II, Lines 315-317

Well folks, the optics on this one are really greasy and seeming to only to get more so into the future. The 'Harper Government' has realized its goal of getting "our" central banker to be the head of the Financial Stability Board. Not that Mark Carney has enough to do as the head of the Bank of Canada! I am sure that most Canadians would sleep much better if the pretty Mr. Carney stayed home and stuck to his knitting! I am sure that all of you in the know of such things have carefully perused all the copy in the Globe & Mail and I am sure in all the other better sheets and tomes. I am sure you have some problems with this appointment...

Bank of Canada - Ottawa, Ontario

First of all considering the mans working past, this is certainly going to raise many eyebrows among the citizens of every involved state in the world. It will soon become apparent that the choice of an unaffiliated academic is always the best and safest choice for the job of Central Banker in any country. Having come from very high up in Goldman-Sachs just doesn't look very good. To me it looks like the said outfit has a foot right inside the government of a nation-state and now they are planning to get the inside goods on every other possible customer and / or competitor! Hide the silver folks...

Now I have read today something about a central banker from a country that doesn't have any banks big enough to fail (i.e. Canada!) is going to be over all the other mega nations that have very many said such banks? Does this even make any sense? Why in heavens name would the 'Harper Government' risk this?  What is in it for us? The Opposition is beavering away, and the Oracle of Ottawa would so much love to help!

Has anyone thought to read the act? D'uh! The Bank of Canada Act, Chapter B-2, especially section 6 para- 2 especially! Which states "The Governor and Deputy Governor shall be persons of proven financial experience and shall devote the whole of their time to the duties of their offices under this Act or any other Act of Parliament." Has there been an Act passed recently that will allow our Central Bank Governor to devout all this extra time for other peoples problems? Has the Bank of Canada Act also been suitably amended? Sounds like a wicked Question Period on Monday!

Why doesn't he just free up a ton of time and suggest the only sane thing, and that is bring back the old regulations? Why doesn't someone stand up and grill the shit out of the wee blue finance minister as soon as possible on this fiasco?? And if not, when are we planning to change the name of Canada to Goldman-Sachsada???

Should Mark Carney Resign?

The liar wants to be believed, but lying undermines the foundation for credibility.
Randal Marlin, Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion, p. 149

This all boiled up this morning as I was relaxing in the secure bunker on a cosy Saturday morning hitting the CTV news channel to catch up on the world events. As ugly chance would have it, I walked right into that phone interview with wee Jim Flaherty , Canada's present leprechaun of Finance. Well things did not seem to be going too good, the wee minister was straying far from his "talking points" and what came out of is mouth had the sound of a panicked man. Thank God it was Saturday, the stock market was closed in Toronto, and we all know that when wee Jimmy starts yapping about the economy the market starts shedding points as he is talking!

Chase this....

Lets put all this into proper context. We have our wee Finance Minister constantly babbling to anyone who will listen about things he doesn't know shit about. I am still in shock from that interview around 2008, when he practically openly admitted he never owned a stock in his life! With a background in motor vehicle accident and personal injury litigation Canada is no doubt well represented at the G20 meetings. With the head of the International Monetary Fund being headed by an anti trust and labour lawyer woman from France I guess this makes wee Jimmy look one up!

Bank of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario....

 But what is really cooking this taxpayers chicken is that Mark Carney seems to be always somewhat nearby at usually less then arms length distance. That interview of our Bank of Canada governor sitting in the Prime Ministers office with wee Jimmy for the photo-op in the 'Harper Government's vain attempt to make me feel better still leaves me somewhat pukey at the very thought of it! That should have never happened. The governor of the Bank of Canada is always to be at "arms length" and should never appear in situations or photo-ops that in any way make him look to appear like a Fisher-Price pull toy at the end of a short string... I mean I am just going on tradition here, can you think of any example from the past governors where this has happened even once?

In closing it seems to me that some young NDP member should stand to his / her seat in Question Period and ask a few questions. Such as; when is a partner of a large investment bank no longer a partner? What connections should a Bank of Canada Governor have, if any? Should a major investment bank that was once an employer of a present government official be allowed to pitch any business at all? Should a present Bank of Canada Governor be allowed to be a member of the Group of Thirty while he is holding office as a central bank governor? 

A little more "background"...