"Bernanke declares war on Canadian economy"

"Did you smile or cheer
when U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
announced Quantitative Easing III...?

He just declared war on your job,
and the whole Canadian economy.

...so did the European Central Bank,
the central bank of the Peoples' Republic of China and others.

All of them are engaged in the same practice.

They're printing money.

Gobs of it, in programs that have no end point.

Some are doing it to apply stimulus to revive their economies.

Some are doing it to play extend-and-pretend games...

For a country like Canada, with an economy in reasonably good shape,
a government that's not out of control,
banks that are healthy and dependent on exports,
it's a declaration of war.

The game everyone else is playing is "beggar thy neighbour."

All this excess cash, whatever its stated purpose,
is designed to bring their currencies down.

Like a see-saw,
as they push their currency down the ...Canadian currency goes up.

...It kills our exports...

...we could play the game:
Mark Carney could drop our interest rates to zero,
and print money like it's going out of style.

The government could launch a larger Economic Action Plan II
and rack up the deficits.

Both would lower the Canadian dollar.

It would also send the price of a litre of gasoline and a week's groceries
through the roof
- food and fuel have gone up 35 to 40 per cent
in the countries that are playing the "print and hope" game
-- and anyone living on a fixed income,
or anyone planning to collect their pension,
would be in deep trouble.

It's hard to live on zero interest..."

Bruce Stewart via Mish