Fixing Our Broken Economy

[marian farrell]

Debt Crisis?

Are you wondering if there is any way out of the current cycle of debt, bank bail-outs, 'austerity’ measures, more debt?

Would you like to understand how money is created and discuss a possible alternative which isn't linked with debt?

Transition Derry www.http:/transitionderry.ning.com

invite you to watch the film

'All About the Money' followed by a discussion facilitated by

Belfast Positive Money www.positivemoney.org.uk

 

Wednesday 29th February

6-8pm

Central Library

Foyle St

Derry

 

Please confirm your attendance with

[e-mail] or phone [phone]

www.http:/transitionderry.ning.com

Positive Money has spent the last couple of years thinking about how to address the biggest flaws in the banking system, and how to stop banks expanding the money supply recklessly. The ideas below are one way to do this. It’s certainly not the only way and not necessarily the best, but Positive Money believe that these reforms would be a massive improvement over the banking and monetary system we have today.

Privatised Money

We see all around that the economy is broken. We have an unemployed labour force and we have empty factories, offices and shops – everything we need in fact to produce the goods and services we need. Yet the economy seems to be unable to produce enough real wealth, for lack of money. What is going wrong? The root of the problem is the privatisation of the creation of money.

MONEY AND WEALTH

Money is not the same as wealth. Real wealth comes from people using their skills to produce goods and services that other people want. Money is a claim on that real wealth, a tally of how much wealth we are entitled to. Money is the life-blood of the real economy.

Money grows – but not on trees! Between 2000 and 2007, the amount of money in the UK doubled, but since the crash the ‘money supply’ has actually been shrinking. It is easy to see how real wealth is created, but have you ever wondered where money comes from (or where it has disappeared to since the crash)?

WHERE DOES MONEY COME FROM?

Most people assume that money is created by the Royal Mint or the Bank of England. But they’re wrong.

We now live in an almost cashless society, and less than 3% of money in the UK is notes and coins. These are created by the Bank of England, which is the only body legally allowed to create notes and coins in the UK. (In addition, three private banks in Scotland and four in N.I. are permitted to print bank notes, regu­lated by the Bank of England).

The other 97% is just numbers stored on computers, which we can use for purchases, to pay our bills and taxes, but which has no physical existence. This digital money was all created by profit-oriented commercial banks.

MONEY AND DEBT

Money and debt are created when banks make loans. If someone takes out a mortgage and buys a house, then the borrower ends up with debt, and the person who sold the house ends up with money. Neither the debt nor the money existed before the mortgage was taken out.

So banks simultaneously create ‘money’ and ‘debt’ every time someone takes out a mortgage, spends on a credit card, overdraws, or a business borrows. For every £1 you’ve got in your bank account, someone somewhere must have a £1 debt.

 

CATCH 22: CAN’T WE HAVE MORE MONEY AND LESS DEBT?

Not under the present system. Money is only created when banks make loans, so more money means more debt, and less debt means less money.

If an individual is in debt then, when they have paid it off, they have more disposable income. It may seem counter-intuitive, but the opposite is true for the nation - the more debts that are paid off, the less money there is, because the money used to repay the debt has disappeared back into nothing.

 

How do we change it?

 

Many people are angry at the banks, or individual bankers. But it is our economists and politicians who have yet to learn the new rules of play brought about by our switchover to digital money. They still work on a model of banking that has not applied in the UK for several decades!

It’s essential that we understand how money works and what effect it has on our lives. When we let banks create money out of nothing and let them decide how this new money is spent, then we end up with a society that reflects the priorities of the banks: skewed towards speculation and house price bubbles, with little investment in real businesses and jobs.

Join us in demanding a banking system that works for society, not against it.

Visit www.positivemoney.org.uk to watch a free video that explains everything you need to know about our privatised money system and how it affects your life...