LYTLE: Prime minister's book leaves a lot to the imagination... his

This past week I took the time to read the book “Value(s)” by our droopy, elbows-up prime minister. Was he not our prime minister, I would have given it a pass. It was a moderately interesting read but it left me feeling that something was not quite right about his arguments. His recent campaigning mimicked his writing. What he said in chapter x was not repeated when discussed again in chapter y. His central argument is that a market economy should reflect appropriate values that go beyond dollar returns and bank balances. And our current market economy does not reflect appropriate values. .But who determines the values to be pursued? The author? Given Mark Carney’s proximity to the World Economic Forum, I bridled at his reference to the COVID-19 pandemic as an experience from which to choose suitable values. For example, I won’t be happy owning nothing. I am still wondering if that kind of ambiguity is a sign of good writing or a distorted mind.Much of the first hundred or so pages was a walk through the history of the study of economics with a focus on the development of the modern meaning of value. For example, what gives value to gold? Does the metal hold intrinsic value or is its value notional depending upon its relative scarcity? It is an interesting question, but one hundred pages was rather more than I could take. I don’t remember how many times I fell asleep reading those pages of turgid prose. I wasn’t unhappy to be reminded of the similarities between the arguments of Adam Smith and David Ricardo but nor did I find it stimulating..Rather than bore you with a book report, let me use one issue as emblematic of my unease with Mr. Carney's arguments. In those first one hundred pages, Mr. Carney remarked uncritically about the two pamphlets written by 18th century Scottish banker John Law. Mr. Law offered a theory of finance and argued for the creation of a central bank. He was a bit ahead of his time. In the second two hundred pages, in the context of his description of how wonderfully the Banks of Canada and England handled the financial crisis of 2008 (somewhat self-referentially, he being governor of the Banks of Canada and England during this time,) he remarked on the failure of the Banque Royale in 1720. What Mr. Carney didn’t do was connect the financial theories of John Law to his governorship of the newly created and quickly failed French Banque Royale and the scam known as the Mississippi Bubble. That is a shocking omission that stimulated all my Spidey senses..The central bank and fiat money theories of John Law are debated to this day and reasonable people can disagree whether Law was a charlatan and gambler, or a misunderstood practitioner of the dismal science. At least he died in poverty and didn’t get a bonus for destroying the French economy. I wish something similar could be said for the many bank speculators who brought us the debacle of 2008.Much of Mr. Law’s central bank theories have been recently given new life as Modern Monetary Theory (MMT.) Every sovereign state, the argument goes, owns its currency and so can expand the money supply to meet the demands of its deficit financing. Countries can’t go bankrupt, doncha know. It is a seductive idea, but it usually results in serious inflation, which is a bummer and can be career-limiting for central bankers like Mr. Carney. Unless they write books about Value(s) apparently..What do financial events of 300 years ago have to do with Mark Carney as Canada’s banker-prime minister? Just this. I find it disconcerting that Mr. Carney did not accurately link John Law the financial theoretician to John Law the wrecker of the French economy. Nor did he link the Banque Royale fiasco with today’s Modern Monetary Theory. Does he agree with the MMT theorists? His willingness to blow out Canadian government spending without providing the guidance of a budget that shows where the money will come from, causes me heartburn. And don’t get me going on his unbridled support for a central bank digital currency. Having read his book, I am afraid that the values of Mr. Carney do not align well with mine. Did I read somewhere that Albertans are considering becoming an independent state? It might be time.

LYTLE: Prime minister's book leaves a lot to the imagination... his

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