16 April 2013

Fixing the Banking System for Good

Merry Christmas from Positive Money 🎄 What a year it’s been!

Responses to the recent Cypriot banking collapse have shown that there is still a huge lack of understanding about how banks work and therefore a lot more educational work and awareness building to take part in. Read below to find new publications, videos and interesting events which give support for this work. Please share them with your friends.

1) Conference “Fixing the Banking System for Good” – Free LIVE STREAM

A very interesting conference takes place TOMORROW (Wed 17th April) in Philadelphia, USA. Some big senior figures in the economic, monetary, and financial worlds, including Adair Turner, Laurence Kotlikoff, Michael Kumhof, will be discussing fundamental solutions to current global monetary and banking problems.

You can watch this event free online from your office or home.

(The event starts at 1:30 pm (GMT), M Kumhof at 3pm, L Kotlikoff at 3:45pm, A Turner at 6:30pm, Full agenda here)

2) Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP on Positive Money

Watch a video message from Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas for Positive Money supporters here:

“There is no doubt that our financial system and the ecosystems on which we depend are at the point of collapse. We can tackle both problems simultaneously if we’d only admit their interdependance. If we’d only recognize that how we spend money and how we create money, has an impact on our environment.”

3) New publication: The Positive Money Proposal

This new document presents on 34 pages a plan for monetary reform, that is described in much greater detail in the book Modernising Money.

The reforms are outlined from the perspective of an individual, a commercial bank and the central bank. The proposal gives also an accounting perspective and describes a method for transitioning from the current monetary system to the reformed system.

This is a more technical explanation of the reforms, intended for economists and people with an understanding of banking. Some of you may prefer to read the Plain English proposal.

4) Book “Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources”

A new book Enough Is Enough from the Centre for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy identifies reform of the monetary system as one of the necessary changes that must be made to deal with the ongoing environmental crisis.

With a foreword by Professor Herman Daly, who also wrote the foreword for Positive Money’s book Modernising Money, the book states that: “Globally, we are overusing the earth’s finite resources, and yet excessive consumption is failing to improve our lives. It’s time for a new kind of economy.” and lays out a visionary but realistic alternative to “the perpetual pursuit of economic growth—an economy where the goal is enough, not more”.

5) Fixing Our Broken Money System – New York, 12 May

This event organized by the American Monetary Institute will bring together true experts that have dedicated much of their lives to solving the problems that are inherent with the system we currently use. More info here

If you or someone you know will be in New York during the time of the event, stop by and take part in the discussion!