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Professor Laurence Kotlikoff tells us that if we use Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) which requires corporations to acknowledge debts as they accrue that America's debt is 211 trillion dollars and not the more than 16 trillion in outstanding Treasury bonds. The real shocker is that our debt grew by 11 trillion dollars in 2011. That is $916,666,666,667 a month. There are 31,536,000 seconds in an ordinary year (60x60x24x365). This works out to $347,705 a second.

%u201CWhy do we consider banks to be like holy churches?%u201D

Now, consider that since 2008 the American people have told the US Government not to use taxpayer money to backstop Wall Street's recklessness. Had DC allowed Wall Street to take their lumps from the mortgage-backed securities fraud and fail, to be replaced by more responsible financial leaders, we would already be headed out of this mess the way Iceland is.

The Bank is made up of a Governor, Deputy Governor and twelve directors. The directors are chosen by the Minister of Finance with the approval of the Governor in Council and the twelve directors are responsible for the appointment of a Governor and Deputy Governor with the approval of the Governor in Council. The Deputy Minister of Finance is a member of the board but he has no vote!! There is no provision in the BoC Act for the appointment of elected representatives to the board of the Bank.

16 Feb 2012 : Column 1016 5.20 pm Lord James of Blackheath: My Lords, I hope the minute that that has taken has not come off my time. I do not wish noble Lords to get too encouraged when I start with my conclusions but I will not sit down when I have made them. I will then give the evidence to support them and, I hope, present the reasons why I want support for an official inquiry into the mischief I shall unfold this afternoon. I have been engaged in pursuit of this issue for nearly two years and I am no further forward in getting to the truth.

Instead of depositor money being used to stimulate economic activity in the private sector by lending to businesses and consumers, the banks are helping to fund the growing federal deficits. This re-allocation of resources has a negative long-term impact on the economy. Depositor money is not being used for productive purposes like building manufacturing plants and making other investments that will create jobs and grow the economy. It is being spent by the government, which consumes in the present and does not invest for the future.

The Big One is coming soon, bigger than the 2000 dot-com crash and the 2008 subprime credit meltdown combined. A huge market blowout. And as Bloomberg-BusinessWeek predicts: "The results won't be pretty for investors or elected officials."

Organised by the Bank for International Settlements last year, the two-day talks are shrouded in secrecy with high-level security believed to have been invoked by law enforcement agencies. Speculation that the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Dr Ben Bernanke, would make an appearance could not be confirmed last night. The event will be dominated by Asian delegations and is expected to include governors of the Peoples Bank of China, the Bank of Japan and the Reserve Bank of India.