Posted by awake on 12/21/08
Last updated 12/29/08

"Corporatism" - the promotion of the interests of private corporations in government over the interests of the public.

Flaherty's advisory council

Canadians from business, academe will get a dollar a year for their help

Posted by awake on 12/21/08
Last updated 12/21/08

Garth Turner states the following...

"While the government cowers and the opposition squirms, while Stephen Harper licks his wounds and Stephane Dion contemplates rejection, while the economy disintegrates, houses devalue and Parliament is dark, there is something else for you to worry about. Something big. Disturbing.

Do you know what’s backing your money? You should. Because in the last 90 days this has changed drastically. There’s a big gamble been taken by politicians which was never explained, never debated, never questioned, and yet could affect us all.

Here is the way the system is supposed to work, and until this autumn, did.

* Our money’s printed by the Mint and backed by the Bank of Canada. The central bank is expected to hold assets equal to the amount of cash in circulation, which is more than $50 billion.
* Because our nation no longer owns gold reserves, our money is backed by the safest of securities, long-term government bonds and Treasury bills. This is what gives our money true value. At least, until recently.

But in the last 90 days, without public notice, the Bank of Canada has sold off more than $11 billion of those secure T-bills, plus cashed in billions more of its bonds. As stock market researcher John Paul Koning discovered last week, the central bank now lists on its balance sheet a stunning $32.4 billion in “other” assets, which comprise a whopping 42% of everything it owns.

That means more than two-fifths of the total assets backing our money supply is – what, exactly?

Well, let’s flip back a month to the middle of November, when finance minister Jim Flaherty announced the federal government was purchasing $50 billion in residential mortgages from the Big Six banks, following an earlier deal to buy another $25 billion in mortgages. “At a time of considerable uncertainty in global financial markets, this action will provide Canada’s financial institutions with significant and stable access to longer-term funding,” he said, adding, “with no additional risk to the taxpayer.”

So, the “other” assets the Bank of Canada has swapped for secure, near-cash holdings appear to be tens of billions of dollars in high-ratio mortgages. The money to buy those assets apparently came from the central bank, through CMHC, and ended up in the vaults of the Big Six banks. It’s also believed that the Bank of Canada has been buying up other commercial bank liabilities, such as credit card debt.

In fact, the central bank was at it again yesterday. On its web site, the Bank of Canada announced it’s buying another $1 billion in “private sector money market instruments” on Monday.

So, what are these mortgages with tens of billions that now stand behind a good chunk of our money? They are loans given to people who bought houses with little or no money down, many of whom purchased before October 15th, when it was still okay to buy a home with a 0% down payment and to take out an amortization of 40 years. The government, under intense criticism that these were Canadian equivalents of the disastrous US subprime mortgages, chucked them two months ago.

So, here we are. The Big Banks have unloaded tens of billions of dollars in potentially toxic assets to the Bank of Canada, which cashed in ultra-secure investments to hand over cash. The federal government orchestrated this in order to make the commercial banks more secure. But in doing so, what’s it done to our currency? As Koning wrote in an article in the Financial Post last week, “Our central bank has swapped a sure thing: a large chunk of liquid and non-volatile AAA-rated government debt, for a slew of ‘other’ assets whose nature remains uncertain to everyone but bank insiders, assets which are inherently more volatile and less liquid than government debt.”

That this compromising of our money supply could happen is alarming. That it could take place without citizens being told is shocking.

Why didn’t the finance minister explain his actions? Did he understand them? Where were the opposition watchdogs? What happens now if unemployment and falling house values turn some of those mortgages worthless, as happened in the US?

Let’s hope this comes to light on the floor of the House of Commons.

Oh wait. It’s locked."

__________________________

In the U.S. they are on the verge of destroying their currency and we are making great strides in devaluing ours...

Posted 12/21/08 Haystacks Calhoun NEW YORK, NY

Thanks for posting this.

Posted 12/21/08 fadestyle Walnut Bottom, PA

what is going on here? this seems too coincidental with all countries going through the same thing? lets look at all the other central banks around the world and all report on what is going on there. "order out of chaos"?

Posted 05/05/09 Mountjoy Halifax, NS, Canada

It's all "Hollywashottawoodyingtonwa" now. Albeit, though they historically represent by far the highest expense of all manner of human destruction to each of us since the dawn of time, politicians are today swift becoming mere light entertainment; jesters to be laughed out of existence, ... for fun & for profit. Once we vanish their global fiat mysticisms, 'Elites' are sunk, & they know it. They also know that objectively "precious" currencies will suddenly win the globe, & it will cost them all they've taken to survive ~ for even a while. But for now, most "unwashed-masses" still suffer the establishment's "ethics" of sacrifice, in return for a mere impossible set of perpetual, extra-generational lies & fiat promises. "Sacrifice Ethos" is a complete & total, absurd & thoroughly unfunny 2600 year old Platonic joke, initiated over 110 generations ago, & continuously orchestrated to the benefit of a very minute exploitive, predatory group who choose no conscious human higher purpose to their subsistence except that of existential, directionless, life-draining, death 'n taxes-oriented "control"; essentially supported as second-handers & enviers into whatever perpetuity we allow them (through our complicitness in their freakish destructions.) They are as low self-esteem shut-ins, wracked & disabled in the extreme by many generations of inbreeding, lack of self-creative productivity, perversions, & self-imprisonment ~ at the hands of their haughty, inane, vacuous, sociopathologic, violent egos. The queen wears no pants; ... bye-bye, quisling merlin. Well, ... Hello, Grampy Mises!

Posted 06/23/09 cosmicheretic Yorkton, Canada

This is no coincidence. The IBC is orchestrating this globally. I would not be surprised if they try to kill all the fiat monetary systems and implement a one world currency.

Posted by awake on 12/17/08
Last updated 12/21/08

Here is an exerpt from  M.Rothbards book "America’s Great Depression"

Use as a check list of really stupid moves our government will take to prolong the agony of this economic crisis.

"GOVERNMENT DEPRESSION POLICY: LAISSEZ-FAIRE

If government wishes to see a depression ended as quickly as possible,
and the economy returned to normal prosperity, what course should it adopt? The first and clearest injunction is: don’t interfere with the market’s adjustment process. The more the government intervenes to delay the market’s adjustment, the longer and more grueling the depression will be, and the more difficult will be the road to complete
recovery. Government hampering aggravates and perpetuates
the depression. Yet, government depression policy has always (and would have even more today) aggravated the very evils it has loudly tried to cure. If, in fact, we list logically the various ways that government could hamper market adjustment, we will find that we have precisely listed the favorite “anti-depression” arsenal of government policy. Thus, here are the ways the adjustment process can be hobbled:

(1) Prevent or delay liquidation. Lend money to shaky businesses, call on banks to lend further, etc.

(2) Inflate further. Further inflation blocks the necessary fall in prices, thus delaying adjustment and prolonging depression. Further
credit expansion creates more malinvestments, which, in their turn, will have to be liquidated in some later depression. A government
“easy money” policy prevents the market’s return to the necessary higher interest rates.

(3) Keep wage rates up. Artificial maintenance of wage rates in a depression insures permanent mass unemployment. Furthermore, in a deflation, when prices are falling, keeping the same rate of money wages means that real wage rates have been pushed higher. In the face of falling business demand, this greatly aggravates the unemployment problem.

(4) Keep prices up. Keeping prices above their free-market levels will create unsalable surpluses, and prevent a return to prosperity.

(5) Stimulate consumption and discourage saving. We have seen that more saving and less consumption would speed recovery; more consumption and less saving aggravate the shortage of saved-capital even further. Government can encourage consumption by “food stamp plans” and relief payments. It can discourage savings and investment by higher taxes, particularly on the wealthy and on corporations and estates. As a matter of fact, any increase of taxes and government spending will discourage saving and investment
and stimulate consumption, since government spending is all consumption. Some of the private funds would have been saved and invested; all of the government funds are consumed.15 Any increase in the relative size of government in the economy, therefore,
shifts the societal consumption–investment ratio in favor of consumption, and prolongs the depression.

(6) Subsidize unemployment. Any subsidization of unemployment (via unemployment “insurance,” relief, etc.) will prolong unemployment
indefinitely, and delay the shift of workers to the fields where jobs are available.

These, then, are the measures which will delay the recovery process and aggravate the depression. Yet, they are the time-honored
favorites of government policy, and, as we shall see, they were the policies adopted in the 1929–1933 depression."

Posted by awake on 12/13/08
Last updated 12/29/08

Hopefully we can get the Canadian C4L group here into action mode soon. The precise, focused action of a few, can have a dramatic result if done in a peaceful and spirited show of intellectual resourcefulness. We should be looking for Province Leaders soon and from there take to coordinated efforts in contacting MP's as well as sending DVD information disks to our Local reps of parliament. Educating them , as well as any of those who are willing listen, is of primary concern. -Thought crossing- It would be hard to argue, that Canada is in many ways , a moderately Socialistic country. Many, including myself, have been taught to love it and all of it's manifestations in our societies institutional framework - even to the degree of Nationalistic arrogance. However,what I have come to learn, through my short time studying the Austrian School of Economics is this; Socialism, at any degree, is merely a stop over in the departure from freedom on route to our most unwelcome destination - fascism. Although it has been a slow journey thus far, we are moving along none the less. It is even easier to see that with all of the economic upheaval that is unfolding before us, I fear it will accelerate beyond what we have known.This leaves us all with the responsibility to act - for when we know better we must do better... I leave this thought of mine with a quote of a sound voice , in its time, lost in the wind... "The form and timing of the collapse is yet to be determined; the event itself is certain. This crisis will come, as others have, because we refuse to face up to reality and live within our means." – Ron Paul, 1984

Posted 12/13/08 Tom Leser Melbourne, FL

CC4L, gotta love it! Is it true that about 90% of Canada's population lives near the borders with the United States? If there's a decent C4L movement in Canada that leaves quite a bit of uninhabited land that would be fertile grounds to head to as a "Free Nation Project". Granted it's cold, but it's better to be cold, free, and alive, than the alternative.

Posted 12/14/08 celticreeler Rolla, MO

Godspeed!

Posted 12/14/08 DixieCanuck Stoney Creek, Canada

I absolutely agree and have started to work with the Libertarian Party locally. It's either them or the Freedom Party and the libertarians seem to have a bit more legitimacy. There's other avenue's available as well including this site. Getting some Precinct Leaders for Canada is a priority and I may do so myself soon. We need a group on the ground which is why I've chosen the Libertarian Party but like most freedom fighters in Canada, they're scattered and weak. Perhaps an influx of Canadian C4Lers into the party can gets things going. We've started a Hamilton area monthly gathering to expand into my area and I plan on being a candidate if there is no Libertarian running in the next election for my area. It's really easy to be a candidate and doesn't cost much. I intend to write up a guide for being a candidate in Canada for Canadian C4Lers at some point in the future. There may be better options and I'll be open to them but for now, I think this is the best way for the message to be heard. I personally think that a full slate of Libertarian candidates and convincing the Independent libertarian MP Andre Arthur to join the party would get them into the national debates like the Green Party did. The WeAreChange people have several chapters in Canada and have some interesting ideas but they may be a little extreme. I did like they're confrontation of former PM Paul Martin over the North American Union though. @ tleser Yes it is true about Canada's population and I've had that very same thought about it as a "Free State Project". If you take a closer look at the election results across the country, some areas are decided by very few votes. A political migration could have serious and immediate effects here.

Posted 12/18/08 mikeyc3 halifax, Canada

I'm in! I live very close to Mount Saint Vincent(NDP/neo-Lib heaven), and we desperately need a liberty movement here. My guess is that it will take some time here in Halifax, but places in Alberta , New Brunswick and maybe rural Ontario could have immediate success. Let me know people, and I will work till my back breaks.

Posted 12/19/08 pszcz1 North Vancouver, Canada

I think it is feasible, though difficult, to impregnate the Conservatives with these ideas. The economic intuitions are there, though views on personal liberty stagnant.