A Reality We Wouldn't Want to Live in
23 August, 2011This article published in The Automatic Earth, 22nd August 2011 is quite long, but well worth reading, here is a short extract: It's a thin line beteeen comedy and tragedy. From time to time, quite often actually, stories pass before my eyes that make me think: did I really just read that? Was that serious? Like I [...]
UK Household Finances Are 'Worse Than During Height of Recession'
23 August, 2011Household budgets are deteriorating at a faster rate than during the height of the recession in early 2009, according to The Telegraph, 22 August 2011 Almost 40pc of households saw their finances deteriorate between July and August, compared to just under 6pc that reported an improvement as Britons were hit by rising prices and a squeeze on [...]
RBS Invests in Cluster Bombs
23 August, 2011The Royal Bank of Scotland is one of the high-street banks that is investing hundreds of millions of pounds in companies that manufacture cluster bombs – despite a growing global ban outlawing the production and trade of the weapons. The others are Lloyds TSB, Barclays and HSBC, according to The Independent, Tuesday 16th August 2011 The Amnesty International is campaigning trying to stop [...]
Can Positive Money help fix a fatally flawed banking system?
19 August, 2011An article was published in Ecologist, 17th August 2011, here is an extract: Banking reform might sound like something of a departure from the green agenda but Dyson believes it underpins everything ecologists hold dear. Tackling climate change, corporate responsibility and transitioning to a post-peak oil, low-carbon society are all, he believes, virtually [...]
Would you credit it? How money is lent into existence
19 August, 2011In Financial Times, 18th August 2011 there was published a letter from Dr. Michael Reiss: Sir, The phrase “credit crunch” has been widely used to describe the freeze in lending that can occur at the tipping point of economic bubbles (for example “Spanish banks turn off the credit taps”, August 12). This is, however, misleading [...]
Crystal Balling about the Economy
18 August, 2011Here is some crystal balling about the economy from Simon Dixon: Banking reforms time has come and so has our time. So here is how I think this is going to pan out: 1. The US credit rating downgrade is the first step towards a public opinion that people are not as willing to lend to government [...]
Interview with Ben Dyson – What is the Main Flaw with the Banking System
18 August, 2011On Regulations, Basel III: "Basel III is like the government requiring all cars to have airbags and than saying "now we can turn off the traffic lights, because everybody is protected." How long have we got? "The economy and the banking sector right now is on a life support machine and it depends on how long [...]
Money Reform Bill in the US Congress
18 August, 2011US Congressman Dennis Kucinich is making major progress with re-introducing the money reform - jobs bill into the US Congress. Dennis Kucinich wrote to colleagues to enlist support for his dramatic, new, concrete plan to get Americans working again, rebuild the rumbling infrastructure and to take control of the monetary policy from private banks to [...]
Are we heading for a second global financial crisis?
16 August, 2011An interesting article was published in Guardian, Wednesday 3 August 2011 that shows the mainstream coming around to the idea that an out of control financial sector might not be such a great idea after all. ...there is a two-part economy in this world. There's the real one – the one where you and I live [...]