Neil Macdonald: The 'monarchs of money' and the war on savers
Power Shift: First in a series on the rise of the central bankers and the global imposition of cheap credit
Quietly, without much public fuss or discussion, a new ruling class has risen in the richer nations.
These men and women are unelected and tend to shun the publicity hogged by the politicians with whom they co-exist.
They are the world's central bankers. Every six weeks or so, they gather in Basel, Switzerland, for secret discussions and, to an extent at least, they act in concert.
Watch Neil Macdonald's full documentary The Monarchs of Money tonight on The National at 10 p.m. /10:30 NT
The decisions that emerge from those meetings affect the entire world. And yet the broad public has a dim understanding, if any, of the job they do.
In fact, these individuals now wield at least as much influence over the lives of ordinary citizens as prime ministers and presidents.
The tool they have used to change the world so profoundly is one they alone possess: creating money out of thin air.
There is an economic term for this: quantitative easing. More colloquially, it's called printing money.
Since the great economic meltdown in 2008, these central bankers have probably saved the world's economy from collapse, and dragged it into the unknown at the same time.
The amounts they have created are so vast as to be almost incomprehensible — trillions of dollars in pounds and euros, among other currencies.
At the end of 2012, the balance sheets of the world's largest central banks, those of the G20 nations and the eurozone, including Sweden and Switzerland, totalled $17.4 trillion US, according to Bank of Canada calculations from publicly available data.
See the surge in central bank holdings, the printing of new money, beginning in the spring of 2008 with the bank bailouts and the acquisition of long-term securities to keep interest rates down. (International Monetary Fund)
Article & Documentary at link:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/04/26/f-rfa-macdonald-power-shift-savers.html
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As below so above; As above so below
Power Shift: First in a series on the rise of the central bankers and the global imposition of cheap credit
Quietly, without much public fuss or discussion, a new ruling class has risen in the richer nations.
These men and women are unelected and tend to shun the publicity hogged by the politicians with whom they co-exist.
They are the world's central bankers. Every six weeks or so, they gather in Basel, Switzerland, for secret discussions and, to an extent at least, they act in concert.
Watch Neil Macdonald's full documentary The Monarchs of Money tonight on The National at 10 p.m. /10:30 NT
The decisions that emerge from those meetings affect the entire world. And yet the broad public has a dim understanding, if any, of the job they do.
In fact, these individuals now wield at least as much influence over the lives of ordinary citizens as prime ministers and presidents.
The tool they have used to change the world so profoundly is one they alone possess: creating money out of thin air.
There is an economic term for this: quantitative easing. More colloquially, it's called printing money.
Since the great economic meltdown in 2008, these central bankers have probably saved the world's economy from collapse, and dragged it into the unknown at the same time.
The amounts they have created are so vast as to be almost incomprehensible — trillions of dollars in pounds and euros, among other currencies.
At the end of 2012, the balance sheets of the world's largest central banks, those of the G20 nations and the eurozone, including Sweden and Switzerland, totalled $17.4 trillion US, according to Bank of Canada calculations from publicly available data.
See the surge in central bank holdings, the printing of new money, beginning in the spring of 2008 with the bank bailouts and the acquisition of long-term securities to keep interest rates down. (International Monetary Fund)Article & Documentary at link:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/04/26/f-rfa-macdonald-power-shift-savers.html
________________________________________
As below so above; As above so below
