Campaign for Monetary Reform – News from Switzerland

The organisation for Monetary Reform in Switzerland, MoMo – short for Monetäre Modernisiering meaning Modernising Money – has recently renovated its website which we encourage you to visit here.

In addition, the MoMo team has created an entirely new website in support of the monetary reform initiative it plans to launch in Spring 2014.

Switzerland is politically unique in this regard as the Swiss Constitution provides a political instrument known as the Volksinitiative (Peoples’ Initiative) which enables Swiss citizens to launch an initiative aimed at changing specific provisions within the Swiss Constitution. To do so requires first of all the collection within an 18 month period of 100’000 valid signatures in support of the initiative. Should this hurdle be surmounted, the initiative would then be put to a national vote.

Preparations for the spring launch are well under way, including the draft proposed amendments to the Swiss Constitution. In a nut shell, the proposal extends the Swiss Federation’s existing exclusive right to create coins and notes, to also include deposits.  With the full power of new money creation exclusively in the hands of the Swiss National Bank,  the commercial banks would no longer have the power to create money through lending. The Swiss National Bank’s primary role becomes the management of the money supply relative to the productive economy, while the decision concerning how new money is introduced debt free into the economy would reside with the government. As is evident from the foregoing, the MoMo monetary reform initiative is essentially based on the monetary reform advocated by PositiveMoney.

For those interested in following the developments of the campaign, or who would like to understand the detailed provisions, including those relating to the transition period,  please refer to the campaign website.  The website is in German so language will present a limitation for many of you. Nevertheless, we do encourage you to visit the website and if you have specific questions, to leave a message in English. Someone from the team who speaks English will get back to you. The biggest challenge for the team at this stage of the campaign is to find the needed help and financing for signature collection. The minimum amount of funding required for a successful campaign is estimated to be 150’000 CHF or just over 100’000 GBP. Although, this is a non-UK initaitive, should the MoMo team succeed in putting such a fundamental reform proposal to a national vote, this would be a momentous achievement for the monetary reform movement in Europe and across the globe.  All eyes would be fixed on Switzerland, because success for this small but significant player in the financial arena would inevitably have a ripple effect in other countries.