In one way or another, money affects almost everything that happens on the planet.
If we want to deal with the big social, economic and environmental challenges that we’re
facing today, changing the nature of the money we use is where we have to start.
Right now we have a problem.
More than 97% of all the money in our economy is created by
banks, when they make loans.
Most of this money goes into house price bubbles and gambling on financial markets.
This has lead to ever widening inequality, the highest personal debt in history and house
prices that very few people can afford; before even mentioning the financial crisis.
But 3 simple changes to the way that money and banking works could make a huge difference.
These 3 changes would give us a more stable economy, with more jobs, less personal and
government debt, and a solid footing to begin tackling the environmental crisis.
So, what do we need to do?
Firstly, we need to take the power to create money away from the banks and return it to
a democratic, accountable and transparent process.
History has shown that when banks have the power to create money, they create too much
in the good times, causing financial crises, and too little in the bad times, making recessions
and unemployment even worse.
They put most of the money that they create into house price bubbles and financial speculation,
and only a small amount into businesses outside the financial sector.
We simply don’t think that we can trust banks, who are hardwired to chase short-term
profits, with something as powerful as the ability to create money.
And it’s not enough to regulate them; regulators have repeatedly failed to keep banks under
control.
There’s no reason why they should get it right this time around.
But we can’t trust politicians with the keys to the printing press any more than we
can trust the big banks.
Instead, we need a new committee that decides whether and when to create new money.
This committee would need to be accountable to Parliament and sheltered from vested interests.
They would ensure the right amount of money is created – not enough to cause bubbles
and a financial crisis, but not so little that it causes a recession.
Secondly, we want to see money created free of debt.
Right now, banks create money when they make loans, which means that for every pound in
your bank account, someone else must be a pound in debt.
It means that almost all the money in the economy is effectively ‘on loan’ from
the banks, and we have to pay interest on nearly every pound that exists.
If we try to pay down our debts, money disappears from the economy, making it harder for others
to repay their own debts.
Instead of letting banks create our money, the state could create it, free of debt.
And instead of lending money into the economy through mortgages and loans, it could be spent
into the economy.
This means that new debt-free money would stimulate the real economy, create jobs, and
make it possible for ordinary people to start paying down their debts.
Finally, we want to see money come into the real economy before it reaches financial markets
and property bubbles.
If newly created money was used to fund public spending or cut taxes for ordinary people,
then that money would start its life in the real economy.
It would create jobs and support businesses, instead of getting trapped in financial and
property markets.
There are real challenges facing us over the next 40 years, such as how to provide for
a growing population, a changing climate, and increasingly scarce natural resources.
Right now it’s impossible to solve these problems because money – which affects almost
every aspect of our lives – is broken.
We need to fix it, and get a money system that works for society rather than against
it.