1) Debate on Newstalk Radio
Newstalk Radio have previously published an article of ours ‘So Where Does Money Come From Anyway?‘ and our contact there is very keen to get a debate going on the pros and cons of monetary reform. They are currently going through our list of potential speakers from both sides of the argument.
2) Letters in the Irish Examiner, The Irish Times and The Irish Independent
James McCumiskey was busy sharing his views on the Cypriot levy on bank deposits with various newspapers. The same letter was published in the Irish Examiner, the Irish Times and the Irish Independent (Scroll to the bottom for the Indo). Amongst other things James wrote;
‘’The fundamental problem with our banking system is that in the eurozone, UK and Euroland, private banks create 97pc of the money supply.’’
3) Article in the Irish Independent
We have some good contact with Irish Independent columnist Brendan Keenan and he agreed to write a little on our two-tier banking system. We’ve politely corrected him on how misleading it is to concentrate on the ‘ECB printing money’ as he often does and we’ve explained that most of the money the national central banks of the eurozone create is electronic central bank money and this isn’t in general circulation.
With this in mind Brendan wrote an article which included the following:
‘’One might suppose that experts would at least agree on the nature of banking and money, but apparently not.
There are pressure groups arguing for a new definition of money-creation, based on bank lending.
Without getting into the mind-numbing details, part of the argument is that the money being supplied by central banks is the wrong kind of money, and not suitable for recycling into the real economy.
What is needed, they say, are borrowers, which would allow the banks create money from new loans. That presents an obvious difficulty, in a world already awash with debt.’’
While Brendan’s analysis was small it’s a start and we keep him regularly updated.
4) John Water’s articles in the Irish Times and talking on RTE
John Waters is very much on board with our analysis and he has written some articles on this issue in the past. He has been criticised for getting involved in economic issues when he hasn’t studied the subject. However what has been very encouraging is that most of the comments on his articles where in full agreement with his analysis that the creation of money by banks was a big problem in our society.
He spoke a little about the fundamentals of money creation on RTE’s The Saturday Night Show. View here (John starts at 37:54 mins)
He has also written several articles on the topic.
Three weeks ago he wrote:
‘’In the 1970s, the politicians extended to the banksters the powers and prerogative to become the creators of money’’
5) Complaint on Bank of Ireland’s slogan
You may have seen or heard Bank of Ireland’s slogan ‘We have credit available and we want to lend’. We feel this is a very misleading as Bank of Ireland would create any credit it lends at the time of the loan. We explained this to the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland but they felt the complaint was better dealt with by the Central Bank of Ireland who are now dealing with it. While we’re not hopeful it will lead many places it seems if you go far enough you can change things. The BBC recently admitted a video it made on ‘How do banks work’ was ‘misleading’ and removed it from their website.
6) Sensible Money on RTE’s Prime Time TONIGHT (9th Apr 2013)
We submitted a document to RTE outlining specific comments on The Frontline and Prime Time which we felt were misleading. We’ve updated and forward it to them periodically. We’ve been invited to attend the audience of tonight’s show where we will be given a short time to explain how the monetary system has lead to us paying higher taxes. While it’s not the ideal topic to work our analysis in it’s great that RTE are taking some note of our analysis. The show starts at 21:35.
7) Submission to the Oirachtas Joint Committee on European Union Affairs
The Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Union Affairs had a public consultation on Ireland and the future of the European Union. We submitted Ireland and the future of the European Union: Updating the banking system to the digital era which first of all explained how directly banks create/destroy money and the consequences of this system. We concluded with how the eurozone could transition towards the modern variation of full reserve banking which we’re proposing.
8) Evening Talks in UCD and UCC
Paul gave evening talks on Updating the Money Multiplier to The Commerce & Economics Society in University College Dublin and a similar talk to the Economics Society in University College Cork. One of the presentations was filmed by supporter Steve Kerr and you can click on the links below to view each section.
Where does money come from?
Why is there less money during a recession?
Problems with the money multiplier model of banking
The consequences of the debt-based monetary system
Why is this recession so unique?
9) Meeting with Sean Fleming TD and Paschal Donoghue
The House of the Oireachtas Committee on Public Accounts produced a report on the crisis in the domestic banking sector. It contained a number of inaccuracies which conformed to the idea that banks fund loans from other people’s deposits. When banks lent more than they had on deposit the explanation offered from the report is that the difference was funded from through interbank lending. This demonstrated that the 13 TDs involved just don’t fully understand the two-tier money system in which banks may lend central bank money to each other but they create the type of money the lend to non-bank borrowers. Inaccuracies included:
10) Possible Conference on Monetary Reform
Paul was due to meet Professor Ray Kinsella in UCD to discuss the possibility of a conference on fundamental reform of the monetary system. However the meeting didn’t take place and Ray has proved had to contact since. Graham Barnes from Feasta is keen to help organise it and it is back on the agenda. We will keep you informed of any major developments on this through e-mail but you can also keep up to date through facebook / twitter.
11) Karl Whelan to update his TARGET2 paper
Paul met professor Karl Whelan in May 2012 and they eventually agreed on how the monetary system actually worked. However they failed to agree that it was a problem for the economy or society. Karl is a highly respected economist and he wrote a much cited paper TARGET2 and Central Bank Balance Sheets which analysed the eurozone’s TARGET2 system of money transfer between the national central banks. It contained the following misleading sentences which Karl has agreed to correct in his next revision:
12) Meeting with David McWilliams
Paul will have a meeting with the influential economist David McWilliams tomorrow. After politely correctly David over some of his articles for over a year he’s finally started to take note. It should be an interesting meeting and it would be great to have him write about our analysis of the debt crisis.
13) Our Article in Village Magazine
We had a 700 word article on the monetary system published in today’s edition of Village magazine. You’ll have to buy a copy to read it.
14) New Books on Monetary Reform
Positive Money launched their book Modernising Money at their conference 2013. It’s a fantastic resource which explains the issues with the monetary system in as simple terms as possible in its overviews but as technical as you like in the details. It also explains the proposal very well and answers some concerns that arise from the proposal.
Fair Money Ireland are proposing very similar reforms to Sensible Money with the added condition that any money created by the central bank be distributed evenly amongst the adult population. They launched a new book which we haven’t read in full yet so cannot comment.
15) Other Articles of Interest
‘’In most countries, about 3% of our money originates from government-owned mints that make notes and coins. The rest is digital and created by private banks, out of nothing, when they issue loans. When we go to a bank to take out a loan, the bank does not lend its own money or that of its depositors.’’
‘’As banks create the amount borrowed, but not the interest to be paid on that loan, there is now more debt in the world than money. That means there must be an increasing amount of lending to pay off debts plus interest while maintaining the amount of money in circulation, which means economic activity must continually increase. Otherwise, as debts are paid off, so our money supply shrinks, which leads to defaults, foreclosures, bankruptcies, unemployment, depression, and, history shows us, then crime and extremism.’’
The German Business Daily Handelsblatt published an excellent article written by Norbert Häring entitled “Is It True That Savers Are the Banks’ Creditors?”
16) Talk in Thurles
Paul, Tony, James and Kevin
Sensible Money