thesis - “Competitive advantage and the advantage of competition: a theoretical analysis of national champions, learning-by-doing and spillovers”
elected to Harvard University’s Board of Overseers
ngl no idea what this means
resigned early to pursue LPC leadership
Financial Career
Goldman Sachs (13 years)
co-head of sovereign risk
executive director for emerging debt capital markets
managing director for investment banking
involved in the 1998 Russian financial crisis
Bank of Canada
deputy governer
Department of Finance Canada (senior associate deputy minister)
G7 deputy minster
oversaw controversial
plan to tax income trusts at source
TODO: What’s up with this?
lead the sale of 19% sale in Petro-Canada
not a fan
Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008 - 2013)
took this on at the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis
TODO: it began in 2007 right? so he signed on during the crisis? Jesus
at the time, youngest central banker in the G7/G20
2008 financial crisis
considered to have played a major role in avoiding the worst impact
cut the overnight rate by 50 basis points 1 month into his appointment (“epoch-making feature”)
TODO: wat
Europe increased rates while Carney anticipated the global financial contagion
held it for a year in order to boost domestic credit conditions and market confidence
also some additional liquidity
Canada outperformed G7 peers during the crisis
first of the G7 to have GDP and employment recover to pre-crisis levels
keeping the rate low also lead to a spike in housing prices/debt
said the onus was on individuals, banks, and government’s mortgage lending rules
at first glance I’m like “bro shut the fuck up, take accountability”
but also, I believe the sole responsibilities of the Bank of Canada is supposed to be (1) manage interest rates and (2) manage employment rate. So in a sense, it literally was not part of his job to care
before he left, there were calls to raise rates due to high held debt
risk-averse fiscal and regulatory environment is cited as a reason for thriving, not crashing, in the 2007 financial crisis
2012 Central Banker of the Year (amazing lol)
International organization memberships
chairman of Financial Stability Board
Governor of the Bank of England (2013-2020)
TODO: Did he quit the BoC to do this?
disagreed with previous Executive Director of Financial Stability on leverage ratios and bank break-ups
does not have “proper understanding of the facts” on bank regulation lmfao
modernized the institution, eg. more media appearances
“forward guidance policy” - don’t raise interest rates if unemployment is above 7%
encourages business lending, makes sense
lots of conditions, later considered confusing and complicated
in 2014 he warned about the UK’s housing market, saying it was the biggest risk to financial stability, and wanted to advice on the current mortgage scehem. He said the housing prices and lack of affordability of housing was due to limited supply and said Canada was building twice as many houses
LOL WHAT THE FUCK, THIS IS LITERALLY US
wasn’t worried about foreign cash buyers
TODO: was this right?
worried about high property prices, large mortgage, wanting to avoid large debt destabilizing the economy
LOL STOP
Brexit (2016) deserves its own section with more research
TODO: flesh this out
he was super against it saying it was going to cause a recession
didn’t fuck with interest rates much and restarted quantitative easing
TODO tf does this mean, I keep hearing about it
extended his stay to help manage this shit for a “smooth exit”
COVID probably deserves more
TODO: Flesh it out?
cut interest rates by 0.5% to protect economic shocks
TODO: Was this the proper decision?
Post-Governorships
one of many (not the only!) informal advisors to Justin Trudeau, notably through COVID to get out of its recession
launched the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets
involved lots of big companies, jeez. Bank of America, BlackRock, Bloomberg, Boeing, Goldman Sachs, Tata, and more (40 total)
board member of Stripe
advisor to Watershed, a climate tech company
member of board of directors for Bloomberg
UN special envoy for climate action and finance (2020)
a bit of a recent Brookfield controversy before election:
basically the company had solicited $10 billion from the federal government as part of a Canada-only asset fund, and Carney hadn’t followed standard protocol for prime ministerial advisors
but because he was employed by the party and not the PM’s office, it’s unclear if it was necessary
he wasn’t working with Brookfield at the time, it’s more like “Bro you could have said something” and him saying “Bro it doesn’t matter I don’t work there, besides no one said I had to”
Brookfield Asset Management (TODO: timeline?)
lead the ESG (environmental, social and governance) and impact fund strategy
had to backtract on a claim that a portfolio was carbon-neutral after criticisms that it was an accounting trick
Political beginnings
Harper had asked him to run as Minister of Finance, but he said it would be inappropriate going from the Governor of Canada to the Minister of Finance when the former is meant to be politically neutral
respect
the LPC asked him to run for leadership in 2013 but he declined
in 2021 supported the LPC
in 2023 supported the shadow Labour Party
in 2024, part of the taskforce which created the British National Wealth Fund
I know it’s not inherently a good thing, but I can’t help but go “hell yeah” at the thought
2025 leadership election
in January, stepped down from all executive, board and advisory positions
huge margin of victory for leadership, winning all 343 districts (goddamn)
Prime Minister of Canada (2025-present)
Appointed PM
the 9 days between being appointed and dissolving government
cancelled the carbon tax (by directive) and reversed Trudeau’s capital gains tax increase