Supplement
No. 16May 9, 2020
Discussion of Government Borrowing
from
the Financial Oligarchy and Other Imperialist Public-Private
Partnerships
• Who Benefits from Government Debt to the Financial Oligarchy?
• Canada's
Federal Debt
• Foreign
Ownership of Government Debt
• Statistics
Canada on the Role of Government in Canada's Economy
• Service
Charges Paid on Government Debt
• Banks of
the Global Financial Oligarchy
For Your Information
• How the
Bank of Canada Creates Money for the Federal Government:
Operational and Legal Aspects
• Government
of Canada Securities
• Official
Government Information on the
Economic and Fiscal
Situation
Comment
• How the
Imperialists Misuse the Word "Capital"
Government borrowing from private lenders of the
financial oligarchy further concentrates wealth, power and
control in fewer hands. This is a feature of state imperialism,
where the financial oligarchy uses governments and the agencies
of the state to defend and extend into every cell of the economy
and society the power, wealth and control of the dominant
oligarchs.
The federal, Quebec, provincial and territorial governments
collectively owe the global financial oligarchy around $1.3
trillion. This amount is projected to rise dramatically with
public borrowing from private lenders during the present crisis.
The question has to be posed forcefully: Why do governments
borrow from private lenders? Much of the borrowed money is then
channeled back to the private lenders in bailouts to their
companies and in government funded projects such as big
infrastructure projects and ongoing business arrangements through
imperialist public-private partnerships in almost every sector,
such as the service sectors of education and health care, and the
various levels of the police and military. When Canadians think
of public health care, they generally do not realize that the
financial oligarchy profits from much of the sector through
selling pharmaceuticals and supplying, at a hefty price, whatever
material hospitals, require to function including the
buildings.
The question should be posed: if the oligarchs have all this
available cash to lend to governments, why do they need bailouts
and why do they not invest the money they control directly into
their own or other businesses and the economy?
As the article in this week's issue of TML Weekly "Foxes in the Henhouse -- Who Decides Where
Bailout Money Goes?" reveals, the U.S. and Canadian public
authorities are putting powerful members of the financial
oligarchy in control of where much of the trillions in pandemic
bailout money are to go. Corruption is endemic to the present
direction of the economy and it must be stopped!
To put the situation in perspective, the servicing of the
public debt to the financial oligarchy is only marginally less
than the total corporate income tax paid to governments. Small
and medium-sized companies pay the vast majority of corporate
income tax, which is based on their declared profit. The big
companies of the financial oligarchy are notorious for hiring
armies of tax accountants to avoid paying taxes using shell
companies, offshore tax havens and other corrupt methods. Working
people through personal income tax, sales taxes and user fees pay
the vast majority of taxes. Corporate income tax accounted for
only 15.2 per cent of federal government revenue in 2018-19, much
of it from small and medium-sized companies, while personal
income tax was 49.3 per cent of the total with sales taxes making
up much of the rest.
Canadians should discuss why the current direction of the
economy uses the state and its governments to pay the rich and
does not serve the people as a matter of principle. Should the
use of public institutions and money by powerful and already
wealthy global individuals and their companies not be considered
criminal corruption of the worst kind? Should this corruption not
be stopped as a first step in a new pro-social direction for the
country?
Many
commentators make much about the inequalities of Canadian society and
the domination of the one per cent over the rest of the people and the
inability of those currently in control to solve social problems and
end the regular economic crises that occur. Working people are made to
bear the burden of social problems and the recurring economic
crises while the financial oligarchy carries on with handouts
from governments to ensure their private empires survive along
with their vast personal wealth and luxurious lifestyles.
Canadians should think about a new direction for the country
that makes illegal the use of public funds and institutions to
pay the rich and their private companies. After all, working
people through their work on the means of production create the
value in the economy. They are the necessary human factor for the
economy to function. Should not their well-being and the health
of the economy and society and the social and natural environment
be the overall aim of a modern economy? Why in this 21st century
is the aim of what is now a completely socialized economy still
maximum private profit for the few?
The private companies would not exist without buying the
capacity to work of educated and healthy workers. Those workers
create the social wealth but have no control over how the wealth
is used, where most of it goes or the essential aim driving the
economy. This lack of control and outdated aim are major reasons
why problems are not solved and a new direction not discussed or
acted on, and instead governments flog a dead horse by paying the
rich.
Should not private companies be told that they live or fall on
their own merit? Further to this, they should be told that they
must pay for all the social programs, public services and
infrastructure that make possible their economic activity and
without which they could not exist. Public funds should be used
exclusively to fund social programs and public enterprise and
services. Public funds going to private enterprise should be
banned as criminal corruption just as public borrowing of private
funds from the global financial oligarchy should be banned.
Stop Paying the Rich! Stop the Corruption!
Increase
Investments in Social Programs and Public Enterprise and
Services!
Let's Discuss!
Government debt is
mostly held by the private institutions of the financial
oligarchy. In lending money to
governments, the dominant oligarchs of the ruling elite
benefit in several ways.
The rich can park their money in a safe haven for a short or
long term and even receive
interest for doing so. This is particularly important for
the rich during crises such as the
current COVID-19 pandemic when other investments are risky
or they have pulled money out
of the stock market and have excess cash on hand. The
government in turn provides bailouts
and buys company paper securities that are not saleable at a
particular time to private buyers
because of the risk involved. The oligarchs have it numerous
ways! This is the public-private partnership in action to serve the rich.
The government receives money from this private borrowing
that is then used in pay-the-rich
schemes as handouts to the financial oligarchy and its
businesses. Examples are the handouts
to large corporations during the pandemic or the recent
federal government's $4.5 billion
buyout of the Trans Mountain Pipeline and the Alberta
government's $7 billion injection of
funds into the Keystone XL pipeline project. Both those
projects could not raise private
investment funds. Government money is routinely used to
finance large infrastructure projects
in which the biggest private construction and management
companies participate and gain
guaranteed profits.
The existence of government debts is used for propaganda
purposes to reduce spending in
social programs that directly benefit the people.
Governments and their mouthpieces in the
media scream that they need $60 billion yearly to service
the public debt held by the financial
oligarchy, which constrains and even contracts spending in
social programs. What a
self-serving farce!
The necessity to borrow from private interests is presented
as the only alternative for
governments to raise money as the financial oligarchy
considers taxation of the value its
workers produce within its private business interests as
detrimental to the economy. A
compliant media it controls do widespread propaganda for
this regressive view.
The financial oligarchy refuses to pay for the public
infrastructure it uses that benefit its
business activities, such as public highways, bridges, public
education and health care and
mass transit etc. The building of the infrastructure makes
huge profits for big business while
much of the payment for these necessary investments in a
modern economy fall to the public
purse without revenue returning to the governments from the
economic activity they engender
and the value they produce.
The issue is never broached in the imperialist media and
education system that government
debt to private interests is completely unnecessary,
wasteful and harmful. The state could
borrow from itself and repay the debt from the added-value
workers create in an expanding
and stable economy. If the government used the money
borrowed from itself to invest in
public enterprise then the increased value and income from
those enterprises would quickly
repay the debt and more, making the increased value
available for investments in social
programs as well as providing stable employment for workers.
The financial oligarchy refuses to recognize its social
responsibility towards the working class
that it employs and that payment for its capacity to work
must include its constant healthy
reproduction. The working class fulfils its duty to work and
has the right to receive payment
for the use of its capacity to work from birth to passing
away at a modern acceptable standard
of living.
This means in practice that the economy must continue
payments for the capacity to work of
the working class when unemployed or unable to work due to
injury, sickness or old age as
long as workers fulfill their duty to be available for work
when able and called upon. For this
arrangement to work, the financial oligarchy must recognize
that at this time in history it
controls the economy and as such bears the social
responsibility to ensure the rights of the
working class are guaranteed and maintained at all times. If
the dominant ruling oligarchs
refuse to recognize and fulfil their social responsibility
to the working people, then the ruling
elite must be forced to step aside so the people can build
the New.
If the working class gains control of the economy, then the
relation between the duty to work
and the rights of the working class assume an entirely new
dynamic within a new aim for the
economy to serve the people and to activate the human
factor/social consciousness to
humanize the social and natural environment.
Stop Paying the Rich!
No to Government Borrowing
from the Financial
Oligarchy!
Government debt to private investors has long been a
regressive feature of the
imperialist economy. The working class must expose the
ways in which the financial
oligarchy benefits from lending its money to governments
and propose a new direction for the
economy that favours the working people.
To cover the additional government spending during the
present crisis, governments estimate
they will have to borrow around $315 billion from private
sources. This will cause
government debt to expand greatly and become fodder in the
imperialist media attacking the
necessity to increase investments in social programs and
public services, which the people
require for a modern cultured standard of living. The
working class must prepare now to
denounce the hysteria that will arise from the increased
deficits and debts of all the
governments. Working people must not allow the imperialist
propaganda to go on without
exposing and denouncing it and showing how in fact the
financial oligarchy benefits from
state debt in so many ways. Organize and fight for a new
pro-social direction that favours the
people!
No to Government Borrowing from the Financial Oligarchy!
Stop Paying the Rich! Increase Investments in Social Programs
and Public Enterprise
and Services!
Note
Public government debt to the global financial oligarchy
and the associated
servicing costs keep growing year after year. As the
figures reveal, the growth is greatest
following the regular economic crises such as those of
2008, 2014 and the projected billions
to be borrowed this year.
Click to enlarge
Following WWII, Canada's federal debt grew steadily between
5 per cent and 10 per cent per year until 1975. For the next 12
years it grew on average over 20 per cent per year. It surpassed
$100 billion in 1981 and continued upward reaching $500 billion
in 1994.
With the economic crisis in 2008, the federal debt jumped by
$5.8 billion surpassing the $600 billion mark by 2012. The
current crisis is predicted to add the largest amount ever in
debt to the private lenders of the financial oligarchy.
Table 1: Federal and Provincial Nominal Net
Debt in 2007/08
Compared to 2019/20 ($ billions)
Province/
Territory |
Net Debt
2007/08 |
Net Debt
2019/20 |
Change
($ billions) |
Change
(%) |
BC |
23.9 |
44.5 |
20.6 |
86.3% |
AB |
(35.0) |
36.6 |
71.7 |
204.5% |
SK |
5.9 |
12.0 |
6.1 |
104.2% |
MB |
10.6 |
25.8 |
15.2 |
144.3% |
ON |
160.0 |
353.7 |
193.7 |
121.0% |
QC |
124.7 |
172.5 |
47.8 |
38.4% |
NB |
7.1 |
13.8 |
6.8 |
95.6% |
NS |
12.1 |
15.3 |
3.2 |
26.1% |
PEI |
1.3 |
2.2 |
0.9 |
66.6% |
NL |
10.2 |
14.0 |
3.8 |
36.9% |
FED |
516.3 |
793.7 |
277.4 |
53.7% |
FED+
PROV |
837.0 |
1,484.2 |
647.2 |
77.3% |
Sources: Figure 1; calculations by authors. Fraser Institute
The global financial oligarchy owns the government debt of
the countries within the U.S.-led imperialist system of
states.
In 1960, four per cent of the Canadian government debt was
held by foreign investors.
From 2009-2010 to 2013-2014, the amount of the debt held by
foreign investors passed from 15 per cent to 27 per cent with a
peak of 30 per cent in 2012-2013.
This compares with percentages of foreign investors from the
global financial oligarchy holding debt in most of the G7
countries. In 2013-2014 foreign ownership of government debt was
64 per cent in France, 65 per cent in Germany, 48 per cent in the
United States, 33 per cent in Italy, 29 per cent in the United
Kingdom, and 8 per cent in Japan.
The general government sector is an important component of
Canada's economy, representing roughly one quarter of economic
activity. In 2009 it accounted for $345 billion of final
consumption expenditure and $72 billion of gross fixed capital
formation expenditure, together comprising 26.6 per cent of gross
domestic product. In that same year average employment in
educational services, health care, social assistance and public
administration was 3,792,968 persons, equivalent to 26.0 per cent
of total employment.
Servicing charges paid on government debt held mostly by
private institutional interests of the global financial oligarchy
varies with the governments involved and the type of
security.
Note: CGG stands for the consolidated Canadian general
government (CGG), which combines the federal,
provincial-territorial and local governments.
PTLG stands for the consolidated provincial territorial and
local governments (PTLG).
In 2018, the CGG paid 7.4 cents in interest charges for every
dollar of revenue received, down slightly from 7.5 cents in 2017.
Interest expenses accrued on debt liabilities totalled $61.3
billion for the year. (Commonly called debt charges in government
accounts.)
Despite an increase of 56.1 per cent in total
liabilities
since the 2008 financial crisis, the ratio of 7.4 cents per dollar of
revenue is significantly down from 10.1 cents per dollar of revenue in
2008 due to historically low interest rates on
the outstanding debt to the financial oligarchy.
The federal government paid 7.0 cents in interest for every
dollar of revenue received in 2018, compared with 6.5 cents for
PTLG. Quebec (9.9 cents), Manitoba (9.6 cents) and New Brunswick
(7.1 cents) spent the most on interest per dollar of revenue in
2018.
The working class should not overestimate the importance of
the banking system and related institutions, as the financial
oligarchy invariably does. Almost all produced goods and services
within the imperialist economy must be sold before they can be
used. The necessity to circulate all goods and services in the
imperialist commodity economy as exchange-value before being used
means that currency and electronic services to realize
commodities are important. This places a high degree of
importance on the financial institutions, which in reality are
not productive and require value from the productive sectors to
operate. A new direction for the economy where goods and services
are produced according to a plan, are used directly as produced
and needed and do not have to circulate would eliminate much of
the current role of currency and other means to realize goods and
services.
Under imperialism the banks and other institutions of the
financial oligarchy have extended their role into parasitic
activities of the worst kind. These activities mostly deal with
the re-division of already-produced value increasingly
disconnected from the actual production and circulation of goods
and services and should be viewed and denounced as criminal
corruption.
The primary role of banks is to act as a repository of the
value the working class has produced through work. From this role
the banks can serve as a clearinghouse for the circulation and
exchange of goods and services in cash, cheques and
electronically. As a holder of value, they also have a role as
lender of already-produced value to individuals and
businesses.
Banks have long strayed from their primary role into
speculation and other parasitic activities aided by governments
through the proliferation of stock and commodity exchanges.
Through an insider arrangement, the owners of the Toronto Stock
Exchange some time ago were given the exclusive right to handle
the sale of government securities greatly expanding their cartel
now called TMX Group.
Banks have been accorded the right to create money by lending
in practice far more than they hold in deposits. The creation of
money should be a public activity controlled exclusively by
government, which should be completely transparent and for which
the public authorities in charge are fully accountable. The
creation of money through the private banks of the financial
oligarchy is a practice that serves the narrow private interests
of the rich and goes against the broad public interests of
working people. The ruling elite have even put a target of
creating yearly price inflation of at least 2 per cent for goods
and services so that the price the working class receives for
selling its capacity to work is constantly under downward
pressure and workers are forced to play catch-up to maintain
their standard of living.
The working class should demand that all special rights
accorded banks through legal regulations and charters be
rescinded and that governments at all levels sever their
relations with the private financial institutions. This includes
the severing of any relation with private lenders and
institutions with regard to government borrowing. Governments
should borrow from themselves when necessary without any
connection whatsoever with the private institutions of the
financial oligarchy. The repayment of government debt to itself
should be based on the working class creating new value from its
work within the Canadian economy. Public government borrowing
must be completely transparent and justified and for which the
public authorities are accountable.
All servicing of outstanding government debt must cease
immediately. A public investigation should be conducted as to the
legitimacy of the public debt, why and for what purpose
governments sold securities to private institutions of the
financial oligarchy, and how much has already been repaid in debt
charges. The inquiry should decide how much of the principal
should be paid. Absolutely no new interest should be paid under
any circumstances for existing debt and absolutely no new
securities should be sold to the private institutions of the
financial oligarchy.
Public service banks should be formed that serve their primary
role as repositories of value, clearinghouses for the circulation
of goods and services and to lend money to individuals and
businesses. The working class and its collectives should withdraw
their savings from all private institutions of the financial
oligarchy and deal only with public banks or those financial
institutions that the working class may organize itself.
Banks should be viewed as providing a public service to the
economy and people over which the people must exercise control
and demand accountability. The working class provides banks with
value as money through their individual savings and checking
accounts and in other collective ways such as pension funds. The
demand that banks operate in an open and aboveboard manner free
of corrupt practices can be accomplished if workers themselves
exercise control over their savings and financial institutions
and public banks are created and forced to be transparent and
accountable for their actions.
Discussion should begin on how to mobilize the savings and
pensions of the working class to serve the interests of working
people and society and not the narrow private interests of the
financial oligarchy. Discussion and actions on the front of
banking forms part of the movement for a new pro-social direction
for the economy outside and in opposition to the control of the
financial oligarchy.
For Your Information
- Excerpts from Penny Becklumb and Mathieu Frigon, Economics, Resources and International Affairs Division -
Note that for the purpose of this publication, "money" means bank
deposits. For the complete document click here.
This paper explores the operational and legal aspects of how,
by buying newly issued federal government bonds and treasury
bills, the Bank of Canada creates money for the federal
government. Information about how private commercial banks create
money is also provided.
In its 2011 Budget, the Government of Canada announced its
intention to borrow $35 billion over the next three years in
order to increase its deposits with financial institutions and
the Bank of Canada by about $25 billion and to increase liquid
foreign exchange reserves by US$10 billion. The intention was to
ensure sufficient liquid assets to cover at least one month of
the federal government's net projected cash flows, including
interest payments and debt refinancing needs.
In response, the Bank of Canada announced its intention to
increase from 15% to 20% its minimum purchases of federal
government bonds. The Bank of Canada's purchase of federal
government bonds is a means by which the Bank creates money for
the Government of Canada.
The Bank of Canada helps the Government of Canada to borrow
money by holding auctions throughout the year at which new
federal securities (bonds and treasury bills) are sold to
government securities distributors, such as banks, brokers and
investment dealers.
(Typically, private interests purchase 80% of the newly issued
bonds and treasury bills) while the Bank of Canada itself
purchases 20% of newly issued bonds and a sufficient amount of
treasury bills to meet the Bank's needs at the time of each
auction. These (Bank) purchases are made on a non-competitive
basis, meaning that the Bank of Canada does not compete with the
distributors at auctions. Rather, it is allotted a specific
amount of securities to buy at each auction.
The Bank of Canada's purchase of government securities at
auction means that the Bank records the value of the securities
as a new asset on its balance sheet. The Bank simultaneously
records the proceeds of (the government's) sale of the securities
as a deposit in the Government of Canada's account at the Bank,
(which becomes) a liability on the Bank's balance sheet.
No paper evidence of a bond, treasury bill or cash is
exchanged between the Government of Canada and the Bank of Canada
in these transactions. Rather, the transactions consist entirely
of digital accounting entries.
Since the Bank of Canada is a Crown corporation wholly
owned by the federal government, the Bank's purchase of newly
issued securities from the federal government can be considered
an internal transaction. [This contrasts with the U.S. Federal
Reserve, which acts as the Central Bank but is owned by a cartel
of big private banks. TML Ed.]
By recording new and equal amounts on the asset and liability
sides of its balance sheet, the Bank of Canada creates money
through a few keystrokes. The federal government can spend the
newly created bank deposits in the Canadian economy if it
wishes.
The Bank of Canada's creation of money for the federal
government is achieved through de facto loans from the Bank to
the government.
The Bank of Canada Act gives the Bank the power to "buy
and sell securities issued or guaranteed by Canada or any
province" as well as the power to "accept deposits from the
Government of Canada and pay interest on those deposits."
Those two provisions empower the Bank to create money through
the direct purchase of Government of Canada securities at debt
auctions.
Private Commercial Banks Also Create Money
Private commercial banks also create money when they purchase
newly issued government securities as primary dealers at
auctions. (They do so) by making digital accounting entries on
their own balance sheets. The asset side is augmented to reflect
the purchase of new securities, and the liability side is
augmented to reflect a new deposit in the federal government's
account with the (private) bank.
(Also) every time (private) banks extend a new loan, such as a
home mortgage or a business loan (they create money). Whenever a
bank makes a loan (to a business or individual), it
simultaneously creates a matching deposit in the borrower's bank
account, thereby creating new money. Most of the money in the
economy is, in fact, created within the private banking
system.
A key similarity between money creation in the private banking
system and money creation by the Bank of Canada is that both are
realized through loans to the Government of Canada and, in the
case of private banks, loans to the general public.
One difference between the two types of money creation is that
there is no external limit to the total amount of money that the
Bank of Canada may create for the federal government. The amount
of money that a private commercial bank is permitted to create
depends on the amount of the bank's equity relative to its
assets, which is set by the banking regulator in guidelines.
Another difference is that the creditworthiness of the
borrower is the key factor in the decision by a private
commercial bank to provide a loan to a private entity, while this
is not a factor in the Bank of Canada's decision to lend money to
the government.
Both private commercial banks and the Bank of Canada create
money by extending loans to the Government of Canada and, in the
case of private commercial banks, (also by) lending to the
general public.
The Bank of Canada's money creation for the Government of
Canada is an internal government process. This means that
external factors, such as financial markets dysfunction, cannot
cause the federal government to run out of money.
Note: In managing its balance sheet, the Bank of Canada
acquires Government of Canada securities to offset its
liabilities, which consist mainly of bank notes in circulation
and deposits. The Bank typically acquires a fixed percentage of
the amount of nominal bonds being auctioned, with the amount of
treasury bills purchased reflecting the Bank of Canada s balance
sheet needs at the time of each auction. Generally, the Bank of
Canada s holdings of financial assets are driven by its role in
issuing bank notes. The issuance of bank notes creates a
liability for the Bank, the largest on its balance sheet.
Government of Canada deposits typically represent the second
largest liability for the Bank.
The federal government and those of Quebec and the
provinces and territories use financial instruments to borrow
money from the global financial oligarchy. Institutional
investors of the global financial oligarchy purchase the
available government securities. Retail or individual purchase of
government savings bonds was discontinued in 2017. Even prior to
eliminating savings retail bonds, they only represented less than
one per cent of the purchased securities.
Technical Guide (Government of Canada Securities)
Excerpts from here
Fixed-Coupon Marketable Bonds
Effective October 1995 Government of Canada marketable bonds
are issued in global certificate form only whereby a global
certificate for the full amount of the bonds is issued in fully
registered form in the name of CDS & Co., a nominee of the
Canadian Depository for Securities Limited (CDS), (a division of
a private cartel called TMX Group - Ed). The bonds must be
purchased, transferred or sold, directly or indirectly, through a
participant of the Debt Clearing Service, which is operated by
CDS, and only in integral multiples of $1,000 (face value) . All
Canadian-dollar marketable bonds are non-callable and pay a fixed
rate of interest semi-annually.
Note: CDS Clearing and Depository Services Inc. (CDS) is a
subsidiary of the Canadian Depository for Securities Limited, a
for-profit corporation owned by the TMX Group. CDS owns and
operates CDSX, implemented in 2003, which clears and settles
eligible exchange-traded and over-the-counter equity, debt and
money market transactions. CDS's depository service provides
facilities to deposit and withdraw depository-eligible
securities, manage related ledger positions, and use these
positions for various business functions.
TMX Group claims assets of over $10 trillion. Found at
https://www.tmx.com/tmx-group/tmx-group-companies
Legal Terms and Conditions for Government of
Canada Domestic Nominal Bonds
Domestic Nominal Bonds
(the "Bonds") are securities issued by the Government of Canada
pursuant to Part IV of the Canadian Financial Administration
Act ....
Status
The Bonds constitute direct,
unsecured, and unconditional obligations of Her Majesty in right
of Canada ("Canada"). Payments of principal of and interest on
the Bonds are direct charges on, and payable out of the
Consolidated Revenue Fund of Canada. The Bonds rank pari passu in
all respects amongst themselves and with all other securities
issued by Canada and presently outstanding.
Interest
The Bonds shall accrue interest from the issuance date
("Issue") to the date immediately prior to the maturity date
("Maturity"), as specified in the Specific Terms, inclusively
....
Redemption
Canada will redeem the Bonds
at par on Maturity. The Bonds are not redeemable prior to
Maturity.
Registration
The Bonds are registered only in the name of CDS & Co., as
nominee of CDS Clearing and Depository Services Inc. ("CDS"), and
are held by CDS in its record entry securities clearing and
depository system. The Bonds are not represented by physical
certificates but only by book entries in the records maintained
by CDS. Interests in the Bonds held by participants in the CDS
system (each, a CDS Participant ) are represented through book
entries in accounts established and maintained by CDS for each
such CDS Participant, in accordance with the practices, rules,
and agreements of CDS. CDS Participants may in turn maintain on
behalf of other persons accounts in which such persons interests
in the Bonds may be recorded.
Title, Transfer
Canada may treat CDS &
Co. as the absolute owner of the Bonds for the purpose of
receiving payment and for all other purposes. No beneficial owner
of Bonds (each, a "Bondowner") will be shown on the records
maintained by CDS other than a Bondowner who is a CDS
Participant. The Bonds must be purchased, transferred, or sold
directly or indirectly by or through a CDS Participant and all
rights of Bondowners must be exercised through such CDS
Participant.
Treasury Bills
Effective November 1995 all new issues of Treasury bills are
issued in global certificate form only whereby a global
certificate for the full amount of the Treasury bill is issued in
fully registered form in the name of CDS & Co., a nominee of the
CDS. Treasury bills must be purchased, transferred or sold,
directly or indirectly, through a participant of the Debt
Clearing Service, which is operated by CDS, and only in integral
multiples of $1,000 (face value) ....
The Government of Canada also periodically issues cash
management bills (CMBs). CMBs are Treasury bills with maturities
of less than three months (they can be as short as one day) used
as a source of short-term financing for the Government. CMB
auctions can take place on any business day, typically for
next-day delivery, but on some occasions for same-day
delivery.
Treasury bills are priced at a discount. The return to the
investor is the difference between the purchase price and the par
value.
Government of Canada Real Return Bonds
Government of Canada real return bonds (RRBs) pay semi-annual
interest based upon a real interest rate. Unlike standard
fixed-coupon marketable bonds, interest payments on RRBs are
adjusted for changes in the consumer price index (CPI). The CPI,
for the purposes of RRBs, is the all-items CPI for Canada, not
seasonally adjusted, published monthly by Statistics Canada
....
At maturity bondholders will receive, in addition to a
coupon interest payment, a final payment equal to the sum of the
principal amount and the inflation compensation accrued from the
original issue date, i.e. final payment = principal + ((principal x
reference CPI on Maturity / reference CPI on Issue) - principal).
These bonds must be purchased, transferred or sold, directly
or indirectly, through a participant of the Debt Clearing Service
and only in integral multiples of $1,000 (face value).
Canada Bills
Canada Bills are
promissory notes denominated in US dollars and issued only in
book-entry form. They mature not more than 270 days from their
date of issue, and are discount obligations with a minimum order
size of US$1,000,000 and a minimum denomination of US$1,000.
Delivery and payment for Canada Bills occur in same-day funds
through JPMorgan Chase Bank New York.
Primary distribution of Canada Bills occurs through four
dealers: CIBC Wood Gundy Inc., Credit Suisse First Boston
Corporation, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and RBC Dominion Securities
Inc. Rates on Canada Bills are posted daily for terms of one to
six months. Canada Bills are issued for foreign exchange reserve
funding purposes only.
Canada Notes
Canada Notes are promissory notes usually denominated in US
dollars and available in book-entry form. They are issued in
denominations of US$1,000 and integral multiples thereof. At
present the aggregate principal amount outstanding issued under
the program is limited to US$10.0 billion. Notes can be issued
for terms of nine months or longer, and can be issued at a fixed
or a floating rate.
The interest rate or interest rate formula, issue price,
stated maturity, redemption or repayment provisions, and any
other terms are established by the Government of Canada at the
time of issuance of the notes and will be indicated in the
Pricing Supplement. Delivery and payment for Canada Notes occur
through the Citibank, N.A.
The Government may also sell notes to
other dealers or directly to investors. Canada Notes are issued
for foreign exchange reserve funding purposes only.
Cross-Currency Swaps
A cross-currency swap agreement is a contract in which
one party borrows one currency from another party and simultaneously
lends the same value, at current spot rates, of a second currency to
that party. Cross-currency swaps of domestic obligations are a
cost-effective
alternative to foreign-currency-denominated bond issues as a
means of meeting the Government's targets for longer-term foreign
currency funding.
Finance Canada Publications
- Budgets
Bank of Canada Publications
- Financial Statistics:
information about the Bank of Canada rate, exchange rates, money
market yields, GoC bond yields, etc.
- Weekly Financial
Statistics: updated
weekly.
Economic Research Sites
The following
links are to sites of organizations or other entities that are
not subject to the Official Languages Act. The material
found there is therefore in the language(s) used by the sites in
question.
Primary Distributors
- BMO Nesbitt Burns: Economic Research
- Canadian
Imperial Bank of Commerce: CIBC Economics and Strategy
-
Deutsche Bank: Research
- Merrill Lynch: Research
- Prudential: Dr. Ed
Yardeni's Economics Network
-
RBC Dominion Securities: Global Markets
- Royal Bank:
Economics
-
Scotiabank: Expert Research and Analysis
- TD Bank: TD Economics
Comment
The imperialists have debased the word "capital." Their aim
is to make the parasitism and decay of the imperialist economy
appear as normal and capable of producing new value without the
working class. The impression is given that the imperialists can
create new value or social wealth out of nothing without setting
in motion the working class in productive work.
The fleecing of others of the already-produced value they
possess or the re-division of already-produced value is presented
as making money or creating new value. This glamorizes the
parasitism of the stock market, other Ponzi schemes, gambling
activities and the forcing up (or down) of the market prices of
already-produced value such as oil or even land to suit narrow
private interests.
The aim of the debasement of the language is to eliminate the
working class in the collective and individual consciousness as
the necessary human factor in the production of new value within
a relation with already-produced value and those who control
it.
The working class faces the issue of who controls the
already-produced value with which it can produce new value. Under
the imperialist system, the working class does not control the
already-produced value and cannot enter into a relation with the
value in a manner that suits working people and their families
with an aim to meet their needs and that of society. At present,
the working class enters into a social relation with an alien
class or not-working class (financial oligarchy or imperialist
class) that controls the already-produced value. This social
relation is called capital.
The social relation capital is in crisis and needs to be
replaced. The economic base of the social relation continually
falls into crisis. Look at Alberta. For years, the imperialists
in control of the already-produced value have said that the road
to prosperity is for workers to produce more and more oil for
shipment to the U.S. and beyond and this would secure their
future. The result does not match the hype. Alberta is in crisis
and workers face 25 per cent unemployment, businesses face
bankruptcy and the people face the wrecking of social programs
and public services. The imperialists in control refuse to admit
that the direction and aim of the Alberta economy have to
change.
The energy oligarchs cannot even control the market price of
the precious natural resources the workers produce and are giving
them away for a song to the U.S. imperialists. The response of
those in control cannot be considered serious but only
self-serving in the extreme. Firstly because they refuse to admit
the imperialist system has failed and is in one crisis after
another. They deny that the sellout of resources and their
refusal to build a dynamic diverse pro-social Alberta economy are
wrong and must be changed. What a joke to suggest the way out of
the crisis is more of the same and endless handouts to the
self-same energy oligarchs through buyouts of their failed
projects such as the Keystone XL and Trans Mountain pipelines,
and public payments to clean up the mess they have left behind
such as orphaned wells.
The economic meaning of capital describes an unequal social
relation between those who control already produced value and the
working class, and that relation is in crisis and needs to be
overcome with a new relationship of working people directly with
already produced value.
Those who currently control already produced value are
supposed to buy the capacity to work of the working class and put
workers to work producing the new value the people and society
need for their existence. The social relation in action can
produce new value when workers are engaged in productive work but
the working class has no control over how the new value is used
and the relationship is in crisis and need of replacement. The
aim of those in control for maximum profit is in contradiction
with a modern socialized economy that needs cooperation and
planning and an aim that favours the working people and social
and natural environment not the narrow private interests of the
few in control.
Already produced value, such as a factory, machine, oil or its
representation in money, cannot produce new value on its own
outside a social relation with the working class. For the working
class to open a path to its emancipation it must seize control of
the already produced value and enter into a new social relation
with it without the interference and control of the not-working
class (financial oligarchy or imperialist class).
Use of the Term "Capital"
The suggestion is not to use the term "capital" unless it
specifically and clearly refers to the social relation between
those who control already-produced value, the not-working class
(financial oligarchy or imperialist class) and the working class,
which sells its capacity to work to the not-working class in
control of the already-produced value. Otherwise, as in most cases,
the terms value, wealth, money, social wealth, means of
production should be used.
Note
The term stock market "capitalization" is
meant to give the impression that money or "capital" invested in
the stock market can produce new value when the stock price goes
up outside of a direct social relation with the working class or
even any direct relation with any means of production.
Conversely, the impression is given that value is lost when the
stock price, its market price or "capitalization," goes down.
Even the term human capital is bandied about without any
thought as to what it means other than perhaps potential value of
some sort under the control of the not-working class (financial
oligarchy or imperialist class).
This misuse of the word capital debases thinking on pensions
as well. The social value within pension and many mutual funds
represent the savings of workers of value they have already
produced. Instead of that social wealth being put to work in a
social relation with workers to produce new value within the home
economy, it is mostly invested in the stock market or sent
abroad. When the stock price goes up, everyone congratulates the
managers of the fund as somehow creating new value. But this
hides the truth that the stock price going up does not mean that
workers have produced new value corresponding to the higher stock
price and the company owns that much more already produced value
and the shares represent that new value.
When shares are purchased on the stock market, the money goes
to the seller of the shares; it does not go to the company listed
as being behind the stock. The only time the purchase of stock
goes to the company directly for investment is through an initial
public offering or when the company issues more stock.
When a company buys back stock and delists the amount of stock
it purchases, the company in effect disinvests value or drains
value from the company, sending it to the sellers of the shares
thus reducing or weakening the amount of already-produced value
at the company's disposal to enter into a social relation with
the working class, possibly to produce new value.
(To access articles individually click on
the black headline.)
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