When I was 5 years old, my dad took me to the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce to open my very first bank account. It was a big deal for me. I had been to the bank many times before with my dad. I loved those trips. I was fascinated with the little passbook that the bank teller updated every time you made a transaction. When I was a kid, this was how you kept track of where your bank balance was. You would go into the bank, and the teller would update your passbook with your recent transactions. I was so excited to get my own passbook. Every month, I looked forward to going to the bank and getting my passbook updated. With each update, I could see how much interest I earned on my savings account. Even as a kindergartener, I got a thrill from seeing my money grow on its own. Those monthly interest payments were a great incentive to keep depositing my allowance in the bank. And in the early 1980s, that savings account kicked out a nice return on my little principal balance. We actually got paid for keeping our money at the bank. My kids are never going to see a passbook like mine. That makes me a little sad. But what makes me really sad is that they'll never see their savings accounts reward them with interest income. Because of that, they have no incentive to save. That is a dangerous lesson for their generation - a lesson created by central bankers who, with their low interest rates, are clearly determined to turn us all into spenders, not savers. |
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