Email your MP – Now is our chance to get a Money Commission set up by Parliament
9 April, 2016Last year I reported about the Bank of England Bill, which is passing through Parliament. This bill provides us with a unique opportunity. It is a chance to turn the attention of politicians to the broken money system - and make our campaign for a Money Commission heard. Today, I have some very exciting news. The bill [...]
Mission of a Money Commission
30 January, 2016Over the past few weeks, we’ve been busy meeting MPs from across the House of Commons. We’ve asked them to raise in Parliament how our monetary system is contributing to problems like the housing crisis and financial instability. In particular, we’ve been asking MPs to table an amendment to the Bank of England and [...]
Bank of England data shows that UK economy remains unbalanced
5 January, 2016GDP might be growing, but new figures released this week show some cause for concern. Data about the state of the UK economy in the 12 months to November shows consumer borrowing and mortgage lending rising at their fastest rate since the financial crisis. At the same time, manufacturing and exports are projected to fall. [...]
The UK has not examined how its monetary system operates since 1930s
22 December, 2015Earlier this week, we saw the first tentative sign that monetary policy might be heading back to normal. By incrementally raising rates, The Federal Reserve began a long process which, it hopes, will eventually see the US economy wean itself off cheap credit. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has promised that the UK economy [...]
Vince Cable: rising debt and cheap money risk an economic storm
17 November, 2015Former Business Secretary Vince Cable was famously one of the only senior parliamentarians to predict the last financial crisis. And he’s sounding the alarm bells again. Writing in the Independent, Dr Cable is issuing a dramatic warning that “severe economic storms” may soon threaten the UK economy. He writes: “Even if Britain were in great [...]
Bank of England Bill
29 October, 2015The Bank of England and Financial Services Bill is currently making its way through the upper house. On Tuesday, its second reading was introduced by Cabinet Office minister Lord Bridges. The bill makes various changes to the Bank’s transparency and governance arrangements. Most significantly, it aims to integrate the Bank’s monetary policy and macroprudential functions [...]
Labour announces Bank of England review
9 October, 2015Labour’s annual conference yielded some big news for money reformers last week: the Shadow Chancellor announced a review into the mandate of the Bank of England. For the first time since the 90s, a major party is questioning how the Bank of England controls money creation in the UK economy. Positive Money supporters can be [...]
Shadow Chancellor should look again at the case for strategic QE
3 August, 2015The Labour Shadow Chancellor Chris Leslie has been making waves this morning with his criticism of leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn’s plan for ‘quantitative easing for the people’. His intervention provides a good opportunity to address some common myths about the proposal. First and foremost, it's important to realise that this idea has the backing of many mainstream [...]
Douglas Carswell on Question Time: Rein in banks’ ability to create credit
12 June, 2015This week has seen the UK’s major banks begin a concerted fight-back against regulation intended to make the banking system safer. And there’s some sign that politicians are minded to listen. Mark Garnier, a Conservative MP on the Commons Treasury Committee said, “We cannot keep using them as a whipping boy for political one-upmanship.” In [...]