Latest / Kvetch & Release / 610 CKTB PM Carney is Canada's Chief Financial Risk Officer

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610 CKTB PM Carney is Canada's Chief Financial Risk Officer · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We're talking about the Prime Minister's recorded message to Canada
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: that he delivered over the weekend, and we played here yesterday,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: you know with Katie Perry's boyfriend. We've seen Sonny ways,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: we've seen the selfies. However, my next guest, you know him,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: you love him. He says that Era is dead and buried.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: He calls the new Prime minister the Chief Risk Officer
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: of Canada. John Letke from the cavech and Release blog
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: is with me now. Good morning John, Good morning Jeane.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: So you wrote this piece basically saying Canada has stopped
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: being a country and has started being a corporation under
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Mark Karney. So is it a government or a hostile takeover?
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: You know, I wouldn't say it's a hostile takeover, but
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: it's a government that's being operated in a very different
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: way due to the realities that we're dealing with right now.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: It's a different universe than the one that we lived
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: with under Justin Trudeau and field good politics into COVID
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: supply chains. Now we're dealing with a Trump shakedowns. So
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: what the fact that we've got a banker with the
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: accountant urgency of coming in to go through things lined
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: by line. I think is actually really useful right now
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: to have things looked at as a corporation.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: You said we traded a community organizer for a boardroom
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: banker because we realized we're in a mobster shakedown. That's
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: a pretty heavy duty metaphor, John Well.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's true. The second Trump term right now
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: is not going well, and it's not due to policy shifts.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: This is a continental shakedown. We spent years with our
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: guardrails down playing that feel good politics. The global economy churned,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: but it turned into a back alley scrap. So anyways
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: is dead, it's buried, it's behind us, and we don't
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: need a cheerleader right now to make us feel good.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: We need that chief risk officer, the cro someone with
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: a backbone who can manage the barbarians that are really
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: at the gate right now with clinical accountant see urgency.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: The vision isn't lofty ideals, Gene. We're talking about making
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: sure the country is still solvent at Monday's opening bell.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: You know you mentioned this forward guidance video was an
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: audience for one and that was Donald Trump. Do you
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: honestly think the guy who prides himself on supposedly, the
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: art of the deal is going to be intimidated by
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: a central banker's spreadsheet.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: No, definitely not. And it's probably bringing a calculator to
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: a knife fight to a certain extent. But it's also
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: bringing a diversified portfolio to a negotiation with a vulture speculator.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: And that's something that Trump does understand. The video wasn't
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: an academic lunk lecture. It was a high stakes bluff.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Trump respects leverage, he respects winners, and Carney is showing
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: mar A Lago and the White House that Canada is
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: not a cornered animal anymore. We're willing to play ball,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: but we're also willing to walk away from the table.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: He's signaling that he knows what the value of the
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: assets that we have are. He's willing to walk away.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: He's not intimidated by the art of the deal theater.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: He's showing Trump firsthand that if he tries to squeak us,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: he's squeezing a guy who knows where the exits are.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Are we bringing a calculator to a knife fight?
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: You know, maybe maybe a little bit it could be.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm hedging back and forth on this idea.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Sometimes calculators can be pretty pow powerful.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Though. Yeah, in your connection release article here you use
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: this phrase. I'm not sure what it means, regulatory red
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: wedding regarding the right. Pierre Paulo to Pauliev and the
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Tories are calling Carney an unelected elite? Are they right
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: or wrong?
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: The unelected elite line, that's just political fan fiction. They're
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: throwing spaghetti at the wall and it is sliding off.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: They're trying to paint a working class guy who rows
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: up to run two of the world's most powerful central
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: banks as some kind of a scion. That worked on
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: Trudeau because of the pedigree, it fails on Carney because
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: of his performance. Well, Pauliev recycles the populis tropes that
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: maybe started to work a couple of years ago go
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: with then started to falter. Carney is deconstructing the Ledger
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: with a magnifying glass. He's not playing these partisan games.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: He's conducting a forensic audit of the country, our trade
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: alliances and where we need to go. The noise of
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: the peanut gallery is not going to change the math. Jeane.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Now you bring up this interesting comparison, the shareholder versus
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: the citizen. Now you wrote that it's refreshing to be
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: spoken to as a shareholder rather than I guess we
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: can say a subject. But you know what, if you're
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: a shareholder, you don't care about cash flow, you do
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: care about debt, but what you really want to see
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: as a dividend. So how does this prime minister produce
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: a dividend for Canadians?
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is the one hundred billion dollar question, multi
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: hundred dollar dollars question for my generation, specifically the tired,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: priced out, pissed off. Quite frankly. Being treated like a
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: shareholder though, is actually a promoted promotion from being treated
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: like a subject. We've got a leader who is telling us, hey,
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: the ship's taking on water instead of blowing smoke up.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Are you aware the risk? Yeah, it's if this restructuring
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: only saves the c suite executive class who gets the
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: jet set to the country club. When it all falls apart,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: my generation is going to be holding an empty bag.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: The corporation won't just fall, it's going to burn. But
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: if the dividends don't actually meet the people who can't
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: afford rent or groceries or gas. Right now, that hostile
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: takeover won't be coming from America and Trump, That'll be
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: coming from within.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: You know, two of the biggest trading areas in the country,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: not just Ontario, the Detroit Windsor border and the Ontario
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Niagara Falls New York State border. You're suggesting that Carne
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: is basically building a shield for the rest of the
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: world against the US. So how does that play out here?
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: How does it play out Windsor Detroit? Can we really
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: afford to be the world's shield when we're so integrated
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: with America? Regardless of what you know Carne said over
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: the weekend, Trump bad, Trump bad, USA bad, They remain
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: our big trading partner, period And listen.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: I agree and disagree with your last guest, former PC
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: leader Tim Hudak there. So we've got to be real
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: about this. We're not going to decouple from the US,
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: just like we can't decouple from our lungs or our
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: heart windsor can't decouple from Detroit. These are non starters.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: We're so integrative. We are the Canary and the trade
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: coal mine down here at the end of the four
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: oh one. By turning Canada though into the HMCS Middle Powers,
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: which is what Carney is doing, he's building a diplomatic shield.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: We're becoming the safe harbor for every other country terrified
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: of US protectionism, and that's giving US sovereignty through leverage,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: and we're seeing other countries line up to sign trade
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: deals with US. So just as we were the shield
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: for the US's unpalatable actions throughout the world and the
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: past to other countries, the role has flipped and we've
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: become that shield for lesser countries as well. So we're
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: becoming an essential broker in this relationship. Here, it's a
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: wedge from being flattened by Washington.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting our Prime Minister fancies himself as
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: a bit of a hockey player. You end your piece
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: with a nice hockey metaphor. Three seconds left, game tide
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: banker has the puck. What happens if Carney misses the shot.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: If he misses, the franchise is over, not just the playoffs. Here,
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: we're watching a total pivot from the parliamentary democracy, as
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: I said, to technocratic premiership. After that we go back
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: to what things used to be, or it's going to
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: get worse. But right now, the average voter Gene doesn't
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: care about the inside baseball of how Carney got the
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: puck to mix metaphors. They care about the clock is
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: bleeding out. They care about that we're down a point.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: He's acting like a CEO hired to save a bankrupt firm.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: But there's no chapter eleven when it comes to a country.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: If this clinical, cold bread approach can't blunt the tariffs
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: and kickstart growth, I don't know what the plan B is.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: It's we got to figure that out. He's got to
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: figure that out. We've put our eggs in his proverbial basket,
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: and I hope he figures it out, because if he
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: doesn't score, the global party is history and the country
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: is going to be in a structural freefall.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, listen quickly on another item here, because I got
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: to get to the butter turt guy. I just learned
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: this morning that US President Donald Trump is going to
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: be at Saturday's White House Correspondence black tie dinner, and
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: he's going to give a speech to all the news
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: outlets that he makes fun of and has sued and
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: with the case of ABC and CBS each paying him
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: sixteen million bucks. I cannot wait until Saturday night. This
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: is going to be spectacular.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: This is going to be incredibly interesting to see. I
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: believe what he was, and he's obviously invited there as
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: the president. Things have changed a lot in the past
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: year in the US media landscape in terms of ownership
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: and consolidations and you know, sort of threats from the
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: FCC itself. I heard a FCC chair Brendan Carr is
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: going to be there as well. Yes he is a
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: guest of CBS, so which is interesting in its own right.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: But I mean, hey, why not go rub up to
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: the guy who regulates whether or not you're on the
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: air or not. It'll be interesting. Pour yourself a shot
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: a whiskey if that's the kind of thing you do,
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: have a joint or just sit back and be ready
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: for some laughs, because it'll be a spectacle.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Sure will. I'm looking forward to it, big Tan. Well,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: we'll probably talk about it next week. And you have
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: a good day. Thanks for this today. Cheers J There
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: he goes John Letckey. He writes for the Covets and
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Release blog. He always has a great story to tell.