A video of Victoria's talk at a recent conference of the Public Banking Institute in Philadelphia has been posted on You Tube by her father. Her ideas are no doubt influenced by her father as well.
Her speech is noteworth for the clarity of argument and being simple and straightforward. Grant points out that until the 1970''s the government borrowed money directly from the Bank of Canada. However now the government borrows from private banks and thus has to pay interest to them. Canadian taxpayers are thus having to paying interest on these loans for private banks' profit instead of borrowing directly from our own central bank. The reason for the change is obvious. It provides greater profit for private capital.
Grant's argument is not new. George Crowell writing for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives last year argued that borrowing directly from the central bank “would make available tens of billions of dollars that are urgently needed to rebuild our public infrastructure, protect our environment, and strengthen Medicare and other social programs so vital in meeting human needs.” However it would not provide the banks more profits from interest!
Critics argue that the move would cause inflation as the government would print money whenever it liked. But was there greater inflation before the earlier practice was stopped? Imagine even a Green Party representative comes out for the bank ripoff. Ard Van Leeuwen a Green Party of Canada activist said:"At zero percent interest we would actually be subsidizing, and hence encouraging, government borrowing," So would that not be a good idea to encourage green energy projects? I have included the You Tube speech. See also this article.
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