December 1, 2008 (LPAC)--Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney complained that the financial "crisis marks the reversal of a decades-long transition from a bank-denominated to a market-denominated financial system," and claimed that "this threatens to intensify the global economic slowdown." Carney made these statements in an article in the November 30 Financial Times. Writing in the turgid style so beloved by central bankers, he states that "central bankers should consider acting as market-makers of last resort by becoming a counter-party to a broad range of market participants." Translated into English, that means that the central banks should the bookies for the global derivatives market, overseeing the bets and guaranteeing their payment.

The Financial Times picked up Carney's theme in its Dec. 1 editorial, in which it touts the importance of the "shadow banking system," that off-balance-sheet netherworld dominated by the multi-quadrillion-dollar derivatives market. The FT said that while Carney's idea was "controversial," he "is right to lay down this challenge. His peers should dare to take it up."

This is the latest in a series of barely disguised calls in the Brutish press for governments to bail out the derivatives markets, a trap which would lead the governments, and civilization, to doom. Carney is a former Goldman Sachs banker, appointed to his post just over a year ago.