The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge is calling for co-ordinated interest-rate increases by the world's central banks. The Globe's David Parkinson writes that Mr. Dodge says, "Both price and financial stability would be better served by somewhat higher policy interest rates, rates that would not imply a sacrifice of employment and growth if -- and this is a big if -- fiscal policy were more expansionary." He argues the "low for long" interest-rate policies of most central banks have become too low to stimulate changes in investment and consumption. However, with the prevailing slow growth and low inflation, traditional policy dictates that central banks maintain very low rates, which in the past has been a reliable tool to restore growth and inflation. Mr. Dodge proposes that central banks should agree to act in concert to "abandon, for now, the current data-dependent paradigm to guide future rates, and simply announce a fixed schedule of rate increases" to elevate them to more normal levels over time. He says, "Such a [monetary] policy would facilitate the better functioning of financial markets and reduce uncertainty."