Crises tend to reveal unacknowledged truths. In 2008, we learned that the majority of the financial wizards we had been taught to treat with awe for the previous two decades were, in fact, little more than scam artists — and rather clumsy ones, at that. The coronavirus, and resulting lockdowns, is teaching us an even… Read more
Category:
Money
We may be on the money – towards a common outlook
I have been contributing to a ‘Positive Money’ paper on the Covid-19 consequences. I have no idea if it will be accepted but I thought it would be interesting to discover how they are becoming much more ‘government money creation’ friendly! Indeed I think they suggest that they probably always have been (and, actually who… Read more
Bus companies might end up teaching us something…
I am conscious that the live performing arts sector, which is a great export earner for Britain, has, with social distancing, a major difficulty in trying to survive, and that is a sadness for all of us. Government help will certainly be needed before live performances finally become possible. But of course that is not… Read more
If the rich knew what tax was for they might actually appreciate it…
This shortish piece (below in quotation marks) arrived in my inbox a couple of days ago after somebody had viewed the excellent ‘Money for Nothing’ video. “Three questions: Why doesn’t the Labour Party explicitly adopt this approach [that money is created out of thin air and we spend and tax in fact] to tax and… Read more
Understanding the Right Wing mind – William Hague
Here is yet another article in the ‘Daily Telegraph’ – I know – people will think I read nothing else! Which is probably why I chose – just in case – to add this piece to our series on understanding the Right Wing mind. If Johnson is the after-dinner speaker as Prime Minister, then I… Read more
‘We print money digitally’ – so says the Fed
The current Chairman of the Federal Reserve bank of the USA – otherwise known as the US Central Bank, says that Central Banks have have the ability to create money digitally … and also print actual currency. This really could be not more obvious that this is THE MAGIC MONEY TREE that we have always… Read more
Rebuilding the tax base – but for fairness not finance
The New Economics Foundation (NEF) has written about rebuilding the tax base – after the pandemic. Here we have, unfortunately, a basically progressive organisation, which thinks we have to renew the tax base, because Covid- 19 suggests we’ve spent it all, and got nothing left. They mention that tax take is likely to be reduced… Read more
Forgive us our debts…
The extract below is from Fran Boait, Executive Director of Positive Money. I also should mention that she is the unfortunately defeated Labour candidate for Gloucester. We thus have no person in Parliament as far as I can tell, who thinks about money in terms other than ‘can we afford it’? Some would argue that… Read more
Solidarity
This is a word that Labour Party members often seem to use as a substitute for goodbye – or even hi! Quite why I don’t understand. But I wish they wouldn’t… It is certainly true that we need more solidarity in our communities – but in English it is unusual for an abstract noun to… Read more
Practical problems for universal income
My recent encounters with the New Economics Foundation lectures lead me to highlight some more of the ideas of Eric Lonergan. For he is, unsurprisingly in the country’s current predicament, in favour of a monthly cash handout (as I understand it as long as the lockdown lasts) to everyone to ensure the economy doesn’t collapse… Read more