Dear editor,
Re: Coal will not solve debt problem (Record, Jan. 6).
Ms. Alexander claims that, 鈥淐urrently our federal budget is about only eight per cent spending and actually around 92 per cent debt repayment.鈥� The reality is almost exactly the opposite.
According to the Statistics Canada website, total federal government expenditures for 2009 were $242,867,000,000 and included $18,584,000,000 for debt repayment 鈥� approximately 7.6 per cent.
Ms. Alexander may be confusing debt (money borrowed) with expenditures (money spent) 鈥� or maybe she is just confused, since the rest of her letter doesn鈥檛 make much sense. She seems to think that the federal government could eliminate its debt simply by creating more currency units.
I suggest she check out what a $100-trillion Zimbabwe banknote will buy. (Hint: not much!)
She also appears to believe that commercial banks can issue Canadian currency (only the Bank of Canada can do this) and that Canadian governments could somehow borrow money without paying any interest on it.
Try explaining that to the millions of people invested in Canadian government bonds, Canada Savings Bonds, and Canadian bond mutual funds and ETFs.
I do accept her statement that she 鈥溾�� was not educated either鈥� if it applies to elementary economics!
Bill McLeod,
Courtenay
