On Tuesday 13th November we hosted the inaugural meeting of the Welsh Assembly’s Cross-Party Group on Monetary Reform, which was initiated by Darren Millar AM and Julie Morgan AM.
With about 7 Assembly Members present (over 10% of the membership) and numerous researchers, interns and a few members of the public, Ben Dyson explained why the common understanding of the financial situation facing local and national governments is flawed, and why, although it’s been a struggle to find £2 billion to rebuild schools, it was no struggle for banks to create up to £4 billion a week in order to fund mortgages and personal loans.
We saw how the understanding that almost all money is created by banks is being publicly discussed by senior figures at the Bank of England, the Financial Services Authority and Members of Parliament from each of the big parties. We also saw that of the additional money created by banks from 1997-2007, the bulk went into mortgages and financial markets, with just 13% going to non-financial businesses.
We presented the reforms that could deal with the problems caused by the current financial system:
1) Removing the power of banks to create money
2) Returning that power to a transparent and accountable public body (but sheltering it from political abuse)
3) Ensuring that any new money that is created is used for the public interest and does not fuel inflation.
The video of Ben Dyson’s presentation is below.
The next meeting of the Cross-Party Group on Monetary Reform will focus more on next actions and what can be done in the Welsh Assembly.
