Bank of Canada is bleeding the economy, just like 19th-century doctors bled patients

Jim Stanford is economist and director of the Centre for Future Work. David Naylor is a physician, clinical epidemiologist and former president of the University of Toronto.

In the 19th century, before scientists understood the causes of most acute and chronic diseases, doctors routinely treated illness by bleeding their patients. Using an array of gruesome techniques (from deliberate wounds to the application of leeches), clinicians thought they could restore a patient’s health by eliminating impure blood.