Colin Bartlett’s letter in the Nov. 7, 2013 edition of the NEWS demanded I explain how our national debt could be funded by our own national bank — I suspect he thinks it ridiculous. Well, Bank of Canada year books recorded precisely that process here for 40 straight years, prior to the system being abruptly abandoned after decades of declining debts in 1975. Also, many very successful nations around the world fund themselves today, believing that a nation’s money supply should be a national utility, not a private banker’s fiefdom.
Their national assets are also capitalized through bonds, but the interest doesn’t go to private bondholders — it reverts to the nation. The security is the same, although put to better use — witness widespread private bank gambling failures five years ago.
National assets don’t have to be marketable. In Canada ice-free deep water ports on both coasts, a willing and educated work-force, and vast natural resources are permanent, enormously valuable assets on which to issue national credit to ourselves. Instead, we sell valuable resources into foreign ownership through trade deals which are a form of culpable stupidity.
So, why were our debts privatized after 40 years of successful practice? Silence. Then, why are no records to be found in our national archives (refer to ex-cabinet minister Paul Hellyer’s three-day search last winter)? Again, silence. Well, what proportion of our un-payable debt is due to accumulated interest on borrowed interest, now costing $63 billion a year? Absolute silence. And why does no major party ever challenge the system? Some do, but it’s quickly shut down.
Bartlett’s opinion that government debts are due to “Canadians demand for more and more spending” ignores the $2 trillion or so of revenues paid away for interest since privatization, and it’s great national achievement — chains of deficits and bigger debts under every administration.
I would recommend Ellen Brown’s book Web of Debt from the library and Googling “Bank of North Dakota” to anyone with an open mind.
Russ Vinden
Errington