12-year-old girl warns banks

Watch out, Jim Cramer. A 12-year-old girl is nipping on your heels.

Victoria Grant of Cambridge, Ont. is earning a reputation as a financial pundit after her tirade against Canada’s borrowing practices went viral on YouTube. She’s already a veteran of the financial lecture circuit.

A video of her address has already attracted nearly 65,000 views since being posted a week ago. For six minutes, the casually clad youngster holds forth on the reasons why so many of the world’s countries are facing staggering debt.

Her well-rehearsed speech, delivered in a clear, youthful voice, takes aim at Canada’s modern-day financial system and champions a greater role for the country’s central bank.

“The banks and the government have colluded to financially enslave the people of Canada,” she says.

Grant lays out a brief history of the Canadian banking system, referencing obscure historical figures such as former Vancouver mayor Gerald McGeer and explaining that the Bank of Canada held primary control over government lending until the 1970’s.

Starting then, she says, governments began borrowing from private banks instead at considerably higher interest rates than those available through the central bank.

The result, Grant argues, is a rapidly increasing national debt. Her solution?

“If the Canadian Government needs money, they can borrow it directly from the Bank of Canada,” she says. “Canadians would again prosper with real money as the foundation of our economic structure.”

Mark Carney should watch out, too.

Read: Mark Carney is indestructible

Staff, with files from The Canadian Press

The Canadian Press is a national news agency headquartered in Toronto and founded in 1917.