> And where does the B of C get the money from?
Where does money usually come from? (ie. the private banks?). The COMER folks argue that banks *create* money... the bank of canada used to create most of the money, but now it is the private banks. The COMER folks simply think this should be shifted from private interests to public ones...
> If it's from the printing press, then you're playing inflationary games.
Wouldn't that be the case only if there was no intention of paying off the loan? Otherwise the transaction is balanced. Borrow a million and then pay it back, with the interest going into the public coffers.
> Might work some stimulative magic in the short run, but not for long. Why not
just tax rich people?
Taxing the rich is great, but I don't see the point in taxing the rich if we're just going to give it back to them (sitting on the board of private banks) in the form of interest on loans. It's like shuffling around the deck chairs on the Titanic.
The Canadian debt is largely owned to private banks with interest rates as high as 20%. Why are we paying interest to private institutions when we could pay it, instead, to a public institution? This scare about inflation seems foolish in this regard. Why is a public bank bad and a private bank good? I don't get it, but I'll admit, again, that I'm completely ignorant about all of this.
What about a 1-1 swap - from private to public. This wouldn't be funny money at all - it would simply mean that we owe ourselves the money instead of owing others - or is it that we don't trust the government to abuse this, so we need to field it out to private interests because they can be trusted? (ouch!) I guess the key here would be how the private sector and international interest reacted to this move toward self-determination (selfish?-determination).
still baffled, ken