Category: Banking

THE BANKS AND THE CANCER STAGE OF CAPITALISM: FROM CAUSE TO CURE | Prof John McMurtry (1997)

(Abstract)

There is a hidden war of value codes in the world today. On the one hand, there is the life code of value: Life → Means of Life → More Life (L → M of L→ L1). On the other hand, there is the money code of value: in its classical form, Money → Commodity → More Money ($ → C → $1). In its carcinogenic form, this sequence becomes: Money → More Money → More Money ($ → $1→ $2 → – $n). The latter money sequence of value is decoupled from any commitment to life function and is driven by the lending and investment cycles of banks. This paper demonstrates the carcinogenic properties of this sequence at the social level of life-organization.

The second part of the paper proposes a remedy. The first step consists in making the government-conferred privileges of banks – creating money by credit and lending others’ money stocks at compound interest – accountable to society’s life requirements. The second step consists in returning central banks to their constitutional mandate of lending to governments rather than alienating this function to private banks. The article concludes by arguing that the great obstacle to Canada’s and other countries’ economic well-being is the abdication by governments of their sovereign powers over society’s money supply, and the long cultivation of public ignorance on this ultimate issue of public policy and value decision.

John McMurtry
Department of Philosophy
University of Guelph

Bank of Montreal Distinguished Visitor Lecture, Trent University, March 13, 1997. Read More

A Selection of Articles on Modern Monetary Theory by L. Randall Wray | neweconomicperspectives.org

Table of Contents

♦ MODERN MONEY THEORY: THE BASICS
♦ Taxes and the Public Purpose
♦ CREATIONISM VERSUS REDEMPTIONISM: HOW A MONEY-ISSUER REALLY LENDS AND SPENDS
♦ Tax Bads, Not Goods
♦ DEBT-FREE MONEY: A NON-SEQUITUR IN SEARCH OF A POLICY
♦ Why Money Matters
♦ MODERN MONEY THEORY: How I came to MMT and what I include in MMT
♦ An MMT View of the Twin Deficits Debate
♦ A Conspiracy Against MMT? Chicago Booth’s Polling and Trolling
♦ A Must Read: Why does everyone hate MMT?
♦ HOW TO PAY FOR THE WAR Read More

The Future of Money | A Primer on How Money Works | Bernard Lietaer (1999)

“The only people who claim that money is not an issue are those who have sufficient money that they are relieved of the ugly burden of thinking about it.” So thought the American writer Joyce Carol Oates. This Primer will explain why now even those fortunate few should think about it.

Have you ever wondered where your money comes from? How the value of your money is determined?

Who is really in charge of your savings?

To start answering these questions, we need to understand the rules of the global money game, know who the players are and why they act the way they do. In this Primer, you will meet the key actors in our money system, and learn the essentials of the map of the current system that we will refer to later, when we explore the fundamental changes taking place in the system. Never before have monetary issues had such an influence on public policy worldwide, so this is a good time to educate ourselves about what is at stake. All of this will dramatically affect your money and your own future as surely as a radical climate change would affect the flowers in your garden.

The starting point is to become aware that “your” money really represents a partnership between you and your country’s banking system. In this chapter, you will learn how banking originated and how any form of storing value (real estate, stocks, bonds and currencies) can be transformed into additional new money by banks.

The cause of the recent series of currency crises (Mexico, Asia. Eastern Europe) will be traced to unprecedented ongoing changes in the global currency markets. Because banks have proven historically to be very fragile institutions, specialized emergency “firemen” or intervention organizations have been created: a Central Bank in each country, and on a global level the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). Their role in managing the growing instability of the global money system will be assessed. We will then return to the initial questions on how all this affects your own money and future.

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Bernard Lietaer on the Money System and Much More | Monneta | Bancor Protocol

4. May 2016, Brussels

Q 1– 0:07 – Where does money come from?
Q 2 –1:04 – Is money neutral?
Q 3 –2:41– Why is money scarce?
Q 4 –4:57– Can this monetary system work sustainably?
Q 5 –7:46– Does the financial system need growth?
Q 6 –9:11– Why are you interested in monetary-systems?
Q 7 –10:41 – Do we have just one monetary system at the moment? Like a monopoly?
Q 8 –12:32 – What would you propose regarding the monetary system?
Q 9 –15:31 – Are there alternatives to the current monetary system?
Q 10 –17:30 – Why is there this speechlessness about money-topics?
Q 11a –19:22 – What kind of behaviour does our money-system create between people?
Q 11b –21:49 – Does the scarcity of money harm only the poor people?
Q 11c –25:56 – What does money do to people and their relationships?
Q 12 –31:55 – How did you discover complementary currencies?
Q 13 –34:42 – Did the knowledge of complementary currencies effect your life?
Q 14 –35:49 – What do you think your co-author Margrit Kennedy achieved in regard to monetary systems?
Q 15 –37:33 – Are there changes to this financial system?
Q 16 –41:09 – What do you think about internet-based currencies like Bitcoin and the new technology Blockchain?
Q 17 –42:30 – You observed the global financial development for decades. What do you conclude from your experience?
Q 18 –44:34 – Where do you see practical progress concerning complementary currencies?
Q 19 –48:00 – What would you propose for countries which are in Euro-crisis like Greece?
Q 20 –49:02 – If you were in power, what would you do?
Q 21 –50:40 – What do you think about the Euro?
Q 22 –52:21 – For which task do we need the Euro?
Q 23 –55:02 – Could a currency have influence on the question of war or peace?
Q 24 –58:10 – Are there “currency-wars” or wars because of currencies?
Q 25 –59:43 – Does the money-system polarize?
Q 26 –1:01:10 – Can a national lead-currency deprive other currencies and nations?
Q 27 –1:02:00 –What is the motivation for your work?
Q 28 –1:03:45 – Do you like to give a message to the next generation?

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SEVEN DEADLY INNOCENT FRAUDS OF ECONOMIC POLICY | WARREN MOSLER (2010)

OVERVIEW

Seven Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy

  1. The government must raise funds through taxation or borrowing in order to spend. In other words, government spending is limited by its ability to tax or borrow.
  2. With government deficits, we are leaving our debt burden to our children.
  3. Government budget deficits take away savings.
  4. Social Security is broken.
  5. The trade deficit is an unsustainable imbalance that takes away jobs and output.
  6. We need savings to provide the funds for investment.
  7. It’s a bad thing that higher deficits today mean higher taxes tomorrow.

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A Selection of Articles on a New View of Money and WHY it Matters | Modern Money Theory

Introduction to an Alternative History of Money Author(s): L. Randall Wray Download: Working Paper No. 717 http://www.levyinstitute.org/publications/introduction-to-an-alternative-history-of-money This paper integrates the various strands of an alternative, heterodox view on the origins of money and the development of the modern financial system in a manner that is consistent with the findings of historians and anthropologists. As… Read More

The Brutal Dictatorship of US Foreign Policy, NATO and the Petrodollar Recycling Scheme Still Not Seen

This was the gospel reading for church today that brought into sharp focus the system value disorder still not seen and unspeakable as it pertained to regime change of “brutal dictators” from Iraq to Libya to Syria and now Venezuala. What stood out for me was the saying, “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?”

At once, I recognized that a beam is part of the foundation of a house and a splinter is a product that is produced when work is done on the beam such as cutting with a saw and shaving the edges so that the parts of different beams fit snuggly with each other.

What if, the social destabilization and humanitarian crises (the splinters) we are seeing in socialist countries that are rich in oil and other resources and who had uncoupled from the US dollar, are the result of the brutal dictatorship of US foreign policy, NATO and the US Petrodollar Recycling Scheme (the beam)? Unless and until this US “brutal dictatorship” beam is removed from their eyes, they would be blinded from seeing the social destabilization and humanitarian crises splinters of their own making, which serve to create designated enemies for their continued “brutal dictatorship” projects.

Three recent article come readily to mind which I have reproduced below along with other links for further study.

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The Paradoxes within Capitalist Democracy Spelled Out by the Zen Economist Rob Urie | www.counterpunch.org

“A social taxonomy that supports the division of political power from economic power is necessary to pose capitalism and democracy as compatible. In the liberal frame, a government that determines when you wake and go to sleep, how you dress, which speech is acceptable, and which isn’t and what you will spend the overwhelming preponderance of your time and life’s energy doing, is totalitarian. In this same liberal frame, if your employer determines these, compliance is freely chosen. The social violence of ‘property’ is the initial condition from which this free choice proceeds.”

“The term ‘Democratic Socialism’ proceeds from a dubious distinction between political and economic democracy. The myth it appeals to is that American democracy reflects the popular will in ways that more straightforwardly hierarchical political systems don’t. The paradox of capitalist democracy has always been the assertion of flat (equal) political representation in the presence of hierarchical economic distribution. Being white, propertied and male were the initial conditions for American suffrage. As late as 2016, functional suffrage was a proxy for economic class. Real democracy begins with economic democracy.”

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FINANCE FOR A REGENERATIVE WORLD | JOHN FULLERTON

Since its founding, Capital Institute and its collaborative network have been on a journey in search of a path that leads beyond today’s unsustainable economic system and the finance-dominated ideology that drives it toward an economy that operates in service to human communities without undermining the health of our biosphere and all life that depends on it.

Along the way, we discovered a new way of thinking about economics—an approach aligned with the latest understanding of how the universe and its living systems actually work. We call this approach Regenerative Economics, defined as the application of nature’s laws and patterns of systemic health, self-organization, and self-renewal to the vitality of socio-economic systems.

The seeds of emergence of Regenerative Economies in response to the escalating and interconnected social, economic, and ecological crises that jeopardize all we hold dear is a most hopeful development. Yet the promise of such emergence at scale demands we ask a single, vital question:

What would Finance look like if it were to operate genuinely in service of healthy human communities, and without undermining the long-term health of the planet in the process?

Drawing upon an insider’s understanding of the world of high finance from Capital Institute Founder and President John Fullerton, as well as the principles and patterns of sustainability found throughout living systems in the real world, Finance for a Regenerative World provides a frank assessment of our flawed finance ideology, and a bold, principles-based framework for the future of Finance.

The transition toward a regenerative world is a collective effort that is already underway. To promote collaborative review and comment on this paper (and the ideas it introduces) Finance for a Regenerative World is being released in four acts:

Act I: Context and Implications of the Regenerative Paradigm for Finance

Act II: The Failures of Finance

Act III: Towards a Regenerative Finance and a New Investment Theory

Act IV: An Agenda for the Reform We Need

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