Do you think the current financial system isn’t working in the interests of society? You’re not alone. Meet the campaigners working towards a fairer system, reads Guardian on 11th June 2013
Guardian has asked five people who are all trying to make the financial system fairer and easier for us all to understand about their efforts. One of them was Ben Dyson, founder of Positive Money:
What are you doing? Campaigning for money creation powers to be taken away from the banks and returned to the state.
Why is this so important? About 97% of money is created by banks, meaning they decide who to lend to and at what rate, and they don’t handle the money in the interests of society. Money should be spent out, sustainably, into the real economy by the government, rather than lent in a way which creates debt to banks that people can’t service. Money underpins most aspects of the economy, society and ecology, so making this change will see money going into the things that matter in society.
What is needed to progress? Ultimately, a change in legislation to return the power to create money to the state. This could be updating the 1844 Bank Charter Act.
Who do you bank with? I’m with Nationwide for my current account – they are not perfect but I like that they are mutually owned. I have my savings in Triodos – they are very transparent.
The other four people featured in the article were:
- Fiona Brownsell, co-founder of Tusmor – a consultancy working with new entrants into the banking sector
- Catherine Howarth, CEO of ShareAction – a charity promoting responsible investment by pension funds and fund managers
- Jamie Hartzell, founder of Ethex – a not-for-profit ethical investment intermediary
- Daniel Webb, founder of goodmoney – an organisation that is exploring alternative “complementary currencies”
You can read the whole article here.