# The Monarchs of Money - CBC (Neil McDonald)



## dubmac (Jan 9, 2011)

Interesting news article hosted by Neil McDonald on CBC tonight (Monday) - not sure who saw it - but I found it quite sobering. The article shone light on the extend to which central bankers are punishing savers (like me!)
Makes me want to go hide under my bed with respect to the future, but then I saw what people in Greece and Cyprus are contending with..(yikes!).
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/04/26/f-rfa-macdonald-power-shift-savers.html
One individual (the guy with the Biiiggg yacht) suggested that there isn't just one "Bubble" (ie: stock market, home values in parts of Canada etc) due to artifically low interest rates - but many! and when one pops, well....long way down.
Is this just shock journalism by the CBC - (I sure hope so!)


----------



## Jim9guitars (May 5, 2012)

I think we are headed for some bad trouble, here's an article from Rolling Stone magazine that's not encouraging either:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politic...ed-the-biggest-financial-scandal-yet-20130425


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

dubmac this is an excellent article to bring to everyone's attention. Would you be able to post the whole series? we would all be so grateful!

however i for one don't really see a whole lot in this article that's new. It is instead a first-rate summary of what has been talked about for years & years, including here in cmf forum.

in november 2008, when the US was financially breaking apart, the first thing barack obama said after he was elected was that he would initiate QE (i think it was QE2) the very afternoon of his inauguration.

in washington, the language & stance of outgoing president george bush immediately began to accommodate the new regime.

not that my opinion would matter in the slightest, but i agree with mark carney. The alternative to QE, even repeated QEs if necessary, would be extreme social collapse. Widespread bankruptcies & massive unemployment on a scale no person alive in the western world has ever known. Riots. Severe urban violence. Fires. Arson. Not enough police. Or violent fascist police gone out of control. The tinderboxes of the 3rd world would ignite as well, since their markets would be decimated.

the unspeakable horror is that it's far less disruptive to deprive the elderly of some $$$ than it is to deprive younger persons & especially youth of some $$$. Because the elderly are never going to be violent about it.

still, for folks planning retirement, i don't see any reason to hide under the bed. Surely it's possible for any sensible person to figure out some of what's going on & take precautionary measures? surely it doesn't take any brains to know that, for the entire past decade, a traditional preacher's investment portfolio of middle-of-the-road balanced funds plus some GICs has not won, but has perhaps even lost against inflation?

put another way, surely it was possible to see, in the spring, summer & fall of 2009, that solid dividend paying common stocks like bce & cnr were far better investment deals than any interest-bearing paper?

these days i am asking myself if it is not possible to see that the battered commodity & resource sector is currently offering long-term opportunities in oil, coal, metals & precious minerals? it's early days yet, but resource sector collapse is traditionally the last stage of an old economic cycle/first stage of new economic cycle, depending on what kind of language a person uses.

i see something like cmf forum, where many persons try to help each other out by writing about their thrift habits, their housing struggles, their car purchase & maintenance techniques, their savings innovations & even their positive independent investment techniques, as a way to guard against going forward into a grim japan-like twilight of 2% annual returns after the age of 50.


----------



## dubmac (Jan 9, 2011)

humble_pie said:


> dubmac this is an excellent article to bring to everyone's attention. Would you be able to post the whole series? we would all be so grateful!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss6v5XFsDkk

here we are HP - 
I am not under my bed as I write this article - a tad dramatic I agree - but your response is well written, and I'm getting more informed. I thought it was interesting how the series producers referred to QE money as "a drug" that the economy "the patient" needs to stay healthy. I feel more aware and knowledgeable on a few matters.


----------



## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Like it or not, there are only two ways out of this situation: debt defaults, or financial repression (QE, low interest rates, negative real rates). Either one, creditors/savers are hurt, and debtors are rewarded. The former is more of a short, sharp shock, while the latter is more drawn out. Pick your poison.


----------



## newfoundlander61 (Feb 6, 2011)

I watched it last night and for me it was an eye opener. Makes you wonder if a Global Meltdown is on the horizon.


----------



## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

The author or a new book called _The Great Deformation_ spoke on the Lang O'Leary Exchange Show at 7:00 pm EST and talked about the dangers and true impact of artificially low interest rates.
Great interview.
It will probably be posted on CBC.ca within the next few hrs.

This book just became #1 on my reading list


----------



## Jim9guitars (May 5, 2012)

See, now, I posted here a few months ago about how things were better years ago when interest rates were high and several people here went all "no no no" on me. Could these be the 1 percenters in the crowd trying to protect their take? I'm sorry if this sounds conspiratorial but what else can I say?


----------



## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Jim9guitars said:


> I'm sorry if this sounds conspiratorial but what else can I say?





HaroldCrump said:


> This book just became #1 on my reading list


"David Stockman tells the story of the recent crisis, and takes direct aim at the conventional wisdom that credits government policy and Ben Bernanke with rescuing Americans from another Great Depression. He refutes widely held myths about the Reagan years and the demise of the Soviet Union. He covers the growth and expansion of the warfare state. He shows precisely how the Fed enriches the powerful and shelters them from free markets."

Sounds like my kind of book. It's kind of a scary reality when what was mostly brushed off as crazy conspiracy theories of a few years ago is even being acknowledged in the mainstream. CBC Radio was reporting concerns on the Fed printing money I almost drove off the road. A little bit of faith in humanity was restored


----------



## dubmac (Jan 9, 2011)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/04/29/f-rfa-macdonald-power-shift-growth.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/04/30/f-rfa-macdonald-monarchs-money-secrecy.html
I didn't watch this episode, but thought I'd post the news article on the topic anyway.


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

extremely valuable series. I am so grateful to dubmac for faithfully posting up all of these links.

what impresses me is the high quality of the journalism involved. Neil McD has managed to sit with & talk to at least one cardinal - mark carney - from the central bank cartel. Other luminaries like christine lagarde may or may not be represented by those svelte legs in high-heeled black leather pumps that we keep seeing getting into & out of elevators.

the videography is superb, too. Every image counts.

i'm waiting, though, to hear about impacts on younger people in greece, spain, even italy. As they realize there will be no jobs & no livelihood for the rest of their lives. Amost a century ago, fascist leaders arose when desperate circumstances like these dragged on.

somehow i'm not brimming w sympathy for rich british retirees in cyprus who are in a snit about the lockdown on their cypriot bank accounts.


----------



## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

humble_pie said:


> i'm waiting, though, to hear about impacts on younger people in greece, spain, even italy. As they realize there will be no jobs & no livelihood for the rest of their lives. Amost a century ago, fascist leaders arose when desperate circumstances like these dragged on.


Desperate times call for desperate measures. Why must we associate drastic change with evil (fascism)? What about that Révolution française? What about that American one as well? Young desperate people supporting a few progressive thinkers. There will probably always be radically inferior and superior ways to operate. Without a stable system the border is nothing but a line in the sand, and money is just paper. Let's face reality what exactly makes the Canadian economy so _heavenly superior_ to that of Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal and the list gets longer by the day... Every social political system in human history has eventually run its course. I'd wager the next one may just be written in 普通話 Unless some radical thinking (forget fascist) western leader does emerge


----------



## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

HaroldCrump said:


> The author or a new book called _The Great Deformation_ spoke on the Lang O'Leary Exchange Show at 7:00 pm EST and talked about the dangers and true impact of artificially low interest rates.
> Great interview.
> It will probably be posted on CBC.ca within the next few hrs.
> 
> This book just became #1 on my reading list


Looks interesting, thx for the heads up on this book.


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

One comment that was posted to the CBC documentary as follows.............

_"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
Thomas Jefferson 


"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning".
Henry Ford


"Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and manipulates the credit of the United States" 
Senator Barry Goldwater (Rep. AR) 


"Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce."
Banker Paul Warburg


"Let me issue and control a nation's money, and I care not who writes its laws" 
Bankster Mayer Amschel Rothschild


Some people think the Federal Reserve Banks are the United States government's institutions. They are not government institutions. They are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign swindlers" 
Congressional Record 12595-12603 


We have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks 
Congressman Louis T. McFadden


History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance. 
James Madison_


----------



## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

^ that is the theme of Ron Paul's book _End the Fed_
It was published about 3 years ago just when Q/E was really taking off, so you should be able to find a used copy, or borrow from the library.


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

the more i look closely at the Monarchs of Money video - i've only been able to find one video through black mac's links - the more i see how artfully this series has been engineered to present one side of the story only.

there is merit to its point(s) of view, of course. There is extraordinary merit to showing the masses how a tiny cellule of elite central bankers may be altering the planet for generations to come.

but as journalism goes, this series of articles & especially this video is heavily biased against the QEs. It's not objective in the least. It's docudrama.

the CBC has always been known for leftwing bias. For some reason, editors & producers have embraced the slant of QE effect upon retirees. We're shown almost nothing about how or why successive QEs have failed to restart a global economy.

we're shown a lot of plushy leather chairs being drawn out from tables in luxe boardrooms. We're shown truncated torsos strolling on expensively-clothed legs with elegantly-shod feet. These are actors who were filmed because no actual central bankers - other than canada's mark carney - or their employees would, apparently, agree to appear.

in fact i got fed up with watching small pods of armani-clad derrieres tiptoe through chandelier-lit corridors. We're supposed to be impressed with all the hush-hush?

i have special doubts about the 2 principal talking heads who were carefully selected to head up opposition to QE in the video. These 2 were idolized, presented like deities with titan-like powers to interpret & condemn QE to the masses.

in reality, Mark Grant & Ros Altmann are minor finance professionals who were given absurd halos in the CBC video. They are, respectively, a flambuoyant florida-based institutional investment dealer with zero higher education but a fondness for flashy yachts & cigars; & a superannuated british pension fund manager who appears to have been recently sacked from her job, possibly because of her long-time opposition to Bank of England policy.

plus some obscure, wornout - in fact haggard - "writer" who tsk-tsks QE.

& that's it. For the positive side, other than clips from a superficial interview with canada's carney, we're only shown a weary Don Johnston, once a liberal finance minister & former head of the OECD. Johnston likes global QE, thinks it is working, says it helps him to sleep at night.

music througout this video is dramatic & mournful, like a dirge. Helps to set the tone.

where are the leading economists? where are the central bankers other than carney? what about Mark Draghi, Christine Lagarde? why aren't they speaking? all we see are solemn portraits or partial glimpses as they pass into & out of cabinet hearings.

all in all, the Monarchs of Money video is a magnificent piece of pseudo-journalism. Even i was taken in at first glance. But it doesn't give me any reason to hide under the bed. Mark Grant can take his big fat cigar & go jump in his yacht.


----------



## dubmac (Jan 9, 2011)

So, you agree that it is shock journalism to some extent - a docudrama designed to shock viewers and mismanage facts at the expense of be factual.


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

I might have agreed with humble pie's assessment, if not for Mark Carney's cheeky non answers to some straight forward questions. The bankers "we know better than you" attitude was clearly evident in parts of that interview.

The interview was clipped..........but he did say what he did say, and it was readily apparent that he has little or no concern for savers and pensioners who are getting crushed................to save banks and corporations.

Speaking of corporate buyouts...............as a former GM worker, I was an enthusiastic supporter of the bailouts to the auto manufacturers because I believed it would save decently paid jobs for future young Canadians.

I just viewed this video.........and I am now embarrassed by my support of GM.

They took the bailout money, paid a pile off their obligations to the pension funds, and skated out the door with all the jobs.

Shame on them.............and shame on us for letting the politicians give our future away to the corporations.

The Chinese must be in fits of laughter over how easy it was to conquer the west.

All it took was the promise of access to a "big" market. 

They knew the greedy just couldn't resist the temptation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Lvl5Gan69Wo


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

Not much discussion on this forum about the Bangladesh factory collapse, involving Loblaws "Joe Fresh" brand of clothing in the tragedy.

Loblaws has received a lot of bad publicity from the tragedy, and now they promise to watch their suppliers carefully.

Yea, like they didn't know the workers were in an unsafe building earning 14 cents an hour.

Really?..............Did they ever think to ask a worker there?

Or maybe they typically send orders for millions of dollars over to some place in Bangladesh and hope some products come back.

As if.......................


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

dubmac said:


> So, you agree that it is shock journalism to some extent - a docudrama designed to shock viewers and mismanage facts at the expense of be factual.



it's very slick docudrama alright. But i don't think necessarily wrong. Because the answers are not in yet.

what i felt was misleading was loading the Nay side with flashy Nay-sayers while only hauling in ageing Don Johnston to speak so very dryly on the mildly Yea side. Yes i realize it is an extremely dry subject. But the best journalism is supposed to be objective.

all in all i'm glad the video exists. The issues it presents are issues people should & must think about. I'm disappointed that the consequences of global financial collapse - which QEs are designed to avert - were not discussed in the least.

these would be incredibly more disruptive than i personally believe people realize. It's not a question of a few bonds default, a few banks go under, hey presto the global financial system gets reset & emerges spiffy new. I think the far right that talks like this is preposterous. I think there would be wars, famine, chaotic social breakdown, widespread leftwing & rightwing anarchy (eventually they become the same thing), disruption of trade patterns, endlessly wandering power failures, water failures, violence, revolution, spotty totalitarianism, spotty fascism, perhaps even the end of democracy as we have known it, now that extreme terrorism is blossoming.

it's silly to talk about the american revolution as a sweet little revolution of idealistic youth. The american revolution was rich, clever, well-educated colonial landowners throwing off the mercantile & taxation stranglehold of great britain. Most revolutions are hideously & disgustingly bloody.

so i don't like the video, but i admire the video as a piece of j-craft. I think its artfulness is splendorously conceived & gorgeously executed, even if it is one-sided.


----------



## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

^ Off-topic, no?

I agree that the CBC piece was a bit slanted and melodramatic. I didn't really agree with it. I don't think they were being dishonest, but they were playing up the impact on savers. This aspect is perhaps not focused on enough when discussing the impacts of QE, so I thought that alone redeemed the piece. And I forgive the melodrama as this is a boring subject, aimed at a mass audience.


----------



## Toronto.gal (Jan 8, 2010)

Other than the Fifth Estate/The Lang & O'Leary shows & maybe a couple others, I avoid CBC like the plague.


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

sags the carney interview would have been heavily edited to show only the fragments where the ex-BOC governor is looking guardedly at journo neil mcDonald & waiting to hear what zinger the arch-cbc-leftwinger is going to lob at him next.

i didn't think carney was cheeky at all. He & the cbc have known each other intimately for years now. Carney knew in advance what kind of interview it was going to be. Polite, aloof, not friendly. So he was mostly ready.

it appears he wasn't 100% pre-set for the pressure questions on sabotaging the elderly, though. I liked the entertaining moment when carney caught onto mcDonald's drift. His eyes gleamed. Is this about you? he asked the journo. Are you worried about your own savings?

touché.


----------



## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

I'm going to miss Carney--he's been a more interesting than average BoC Governor.


----------



## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

QE is supposed to bring us down as gently as possible. Sure, if you're near sighted or checking out in 20 years anyways.

I think it is the obvious choice for the central bankers and for the present masses. I also think it's extremely irresponsible and immoral in the long term. What incentive is there for anyone to look that far ahead anyways? We are now acknowledging our failure and sweeping it under the rug for someone else. Instead of surgery, we are just going to pump the economy with morphine and go to the beach. I have no sympathy for the retirees. They plundered irreplaceable resources while blindly handing their wealth back to the few. The kids are the real victims of this charade but they don't pay for CBC. Printing money backed by nothing only ensures we will burn up all finite resources sooner. The Fed cannot print us cheap and easy energy out of thin air. Then what?

At some point people will have to face reality and go through the pain of resetting the system. I think it will be exponentially worse the longer it takes.


----------



## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Financial repression works, too. It just takes longer.


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

To get anything done.............there would first need to be a political revolution in the US.

The day after the last election is over, the Republicans and Democrats are on the election trail for the next one.

To implement the structural systemic changes necessary would require a dictatorship...........or at least a Parliamentary majority.

It isn't just the economy in the US that is broken. So is their political system.


----------



## dubmac (Jan 9, 2011)

sags said:


> To get anything done.............there would first need to be a political revolution in the US.
> 
> It isn't just the economy in the US that is broken. So is their political system.


http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...oters-think-armed-revolution-might-be-needed/

check out this article - 30% in the US believe that an armed rebellion is the only way to solve the problems in the administration.....I'm going back under my bed now...:hopelessness:


----------



## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

Thanks Harold....sounds like a great read.


----------



## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

If polling shows anything, a large % of Americans are uninformed idiots who will believe anything.


----------



## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

Andrewf, I once gave some Canadian Tire money to a woman in South Carolina, she thought it was real CDN $.


----------



## gimme_divies (Feb 12, 2011)

andrewf said:


> If polling shows anything, a large % of Americans are uninformed idiots who will believe anything.


Is this a coincidence?!?

Good job for the CBC to have the guts to question the powers that be - even though they are only scratching the surface.


----------

