Sorry if this issue reaches you a bit late: blame holidays! I trust that you will find it worth the wait.
A number of the articles contain hyperlinks to source material on the original website where they appeared, so please use these for further information.
I believe that I have found a worthwhile set of articles from other sources to put together in this issue, (I’ve had several notes of complement on the collection in the last issue) but can I repeat my plea for more subscriber-support by way of submitting material for me to publish, including, perhaps, extracts from relevant articles from the national press, with comment – or appropriate cartoons?
Just issued: a new, 9 minute, thought-provoking video by Paul Grignon, creator of the ‘Money as Debt’ video. It’s titled ‘What the Heck is a Bailout’, and you can view it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwen2OoXLs0&feature=youtu.be
Please recommend it to others.
P.S.:Subs have had to be raised for the hard copy version, to compensate for the huge rise in postage charges from April!
We’re finally in the mainstream press...
Finally our message is beginning to sink in. Over the last couple of weeks a number of mainstream newspapers wrote about monetary reform, some even mentioning Positive Money by name. About time too!
First, an article appeared in The Economist making a few statements that could have been lifted from the Positive Money website, particularly with regards to the negligence of the authorities in allowing a massive explosion in money supply, which feed into house prices but not consumer prices, allowing the Bank of England and other central banks to claim that they had successfully managed the economy.
Then Financial Times published an excellent article by Martin Wolf, the Chief Economics editor, and a former member of the UK government’s Independent Commission on Banking, in which he openly describes the process and even suggest a solution similar to ours: “the job of managing money needs to be delegated to an independent institution.”
A few days later we spotted an article in The Independent where the author discusses the history of money creation by banks, and suggest taking the power of money creation out of the hands of private banks. And he also mentions Positive Money: “This is exactly what groups like Positive Money and Money That Works are now campaigning for. They are calling for the government to take back the power from the City and enact similar legislation to the Bank Charter Act.”
And finally we’ve been mentioned in an article in the Guardian, where Deborah Orr explains how “The big international banks manufactured money, using very simple raw materials” and continues: “The pressure group, Positive Money, explains it well.”
The Guardian article triggered a response from Daily Telegraph blogger Tim Worstall, on his personal blog, where he charmingly dismissed us as ‘loons’ (we’ve been called worse!). He put forward the simple argument that “Banks obviously can’t create money, if they did then Northern Rock would not have gone bust…” It’s a common question, so we answered with an explanation below of why it’s entirely possible for banks to be able to create money and still run out of the stuff in the style of Northern Rock.
If banks can create money, how come Northern Rock went bust?
Of course, we’re under no illusions about how much more work there is to do to get the bulk of journalists to provide some accurate analysis of the crisis and the problems with our monetary system. If you can help to support our work with a monthly or one-off donation, please do - over half of our funding now comes from individuals, which makes us less dependent on larger trusts who don’t always understand the need for fundamental reform of the financial system. The RH Southern Trust are currently matching any new donations, for the next 12 months, so if you start donating £10 a month now, they’ll match it with an additional £120 over the next 12 months!