Do not be deceived by the statement – we’ve run out of money – there is an alternative to austerity

The current economic debate amongst most politicians is there is a need for austerity because we’ve run out of money. Cameron recently said ‘there is no magic money tree’, he lied the Bank of England is an organisation with money creation powers. Now both the Eds, Miliband and Balls, have said that a future Labour government will have 'less money to spend' and as a consequence will have to continue the Coalition's austerity programme.

Modernising Money - The Way Out of Austerity

The current monetary system still continues to fuel a social and economic crisis, and although the media coverage doesn't give us much hope, there is a way out of it!
  The government claims its run out of money, it has too many debts so it has to cut spending. Is this right? Is it true? No is the answer.

Negative interest rates - more madness?

Another day another mad idea to get banks lending (but wasn't lending the cause of the crisis?)
  The basic idea is that the Bank of England (BoE) starts charging for any surpluses held by banks who have accounts at the BoE. Currently the BoE has to pay interest to the Banks.
  All of banks and building socities have to hold accounts at the BoE - to make sure that all transactions in the economy are balanced up at the end of a day and so that as the lender of last resort they can inject money into a failing bank (electronically).

UNISONActive Analysis - Downgrading Osborne's economic strategy

There seems to be mood of delight on the left about the downgrading of the UK government's credit rating. This an error and a misleading outlook.
  Why? Firstly it gives Osborne the cover for further cuts to public spending and destruction of public services, he will argue that to win back economic credibility further action must be taken to reduce the debt and debt payments.

Banking on safety?

Retail banks aren’t safe: Politicians fool themselves and us to think otherwise.
Day after day more and more scandals erupt from our banks, RBS the state owned bank, has been fined £390m for involvement in interest rate manipulation. In the face of scandals like these, the political debate about structural banking reform has intensified. Last week, George Osborne committed to forcibly breaking up banks if they do not ring fence “risky” investment arms from their “safe” retail divisions.

Icelandic Parliament investigating stopping banks creating money!

Is Iceland – the island with just 300.000 citizens – going to be the first country seriously questioning the privatised money creation and considering Full Reserve Banking proposals (the requirement to hold £1 on account for every £1 lent out)? It seems that it might well be the case:
http://www.positivemoney.org/2012/12/icelandic-parliament-investigating-full-reserve-banking/

Osborne's Austerity Exposed As Lies - Treasury Stops Paying Interest on QE bonds

In a move of enormous cheek and deceit the Treasury has changed its accounting rules so it does not have to pay the Bank of England £35bn in interest payments on the government bonds the Bank bought, by creating electronic money, for its Quantitative Easing (QE) programme.

Why is there so much debt?

Positive Money blog has uploaded a video which explains that there is so much debt because almost every pound in the economy has to be created by a bank and lent to us. There has to be as much debt as there is money, and the more we borrow, the more money there will be. It’s actually impossible for the public to reduce their total debt as long as banks are allowed to create money as debt. Watch here:
http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/consequences/debt/

Dont believe the lie that we've run out of money

How can you run out of money when its created by using a computer? For far too long we've been conned by the idea there is a finite amount of money and that if we borrow more the 'markets' will bring a government down. This is a total pack of lies. Here we link to an article by Ann Pettifor of the New Economics Foundation which supports UNISONActive's assertions that money creation should be used by our government to support the economy, public services, jobs and infrastructure and without paying interest to the bankers: http://www.classonline.org.uk/blog/item/the-chicanery-of-this-weeks-economics

Analysis - We can bring the recession to an end without more debt, no cuts and no new taxes

For all the nation's economic woes, the debate seems stuck on tax hikes for the rich or more borrowing from the bankers - we need a new and permanent solution. Just like the one being debated on MSN money, yes that's right Microsoft News Money - http://money.msn.com/investing/no-debt-no-cuts-no-new-taxes we should be debating these issues at the TUC congress this week!

Privately-Owned Banks Create and Destroy Money at Will

John Waters, writing in the Irish Times, has been discussing the power of the banking sector. Pertinent for a country bought to its knees by bankers who created the country's greatest property speculation bubble on the back of their money creation powers, destroying pensions and public services when the banks failed: ‘When you extend to bankers the power to create money ex nihilo, you can hardly be surprised if they start to believe themselves superhuman’ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/0727/1224320884392.html

IMF Releases A Discussion Paper On Banking and Monetary Reform - A Revolutionary Act!

We’ve been in a state of mild shock since last Saturday. We discovered one of the strongest advocates of monetary reform and full reserve banking in the institution where we would least expect it. The international Monetary Fund (IMF)has released a discussion paper “The Chicago Plan Revisited” that supports the proposals of US economist Irving Fisher – using state of the art economic modelling.

The Madness of Barclays - What's inside their accounts?

Barclay’s were the first to fall on their sword and disclose their manipulation of interest rates for their own profit, nothing you wouldn’t really expect, if you give bankers the power to set their own interest rates then they are not going to do it for charity are they?

It's no surprise that banks fix interest rates - 15 things you didn't know about money!

As everyone scrambles to condem Bob Diamond and his Bollinger bankers let us step back and consider its no great surprise...this is not the actions of a few corrupt people but the system of private money creation as debt...so here are 15 things about money that will help you understand why this so called scandal happens and will continue to happen unless the system is radically reformed:

Central Banks Fire Up the Printing Presses

On the eve of Greek elections, Europe's central bankers are hoping to avert a financial panic by signalling their readiness to create money to support banks. While continuing to use austerity programmes and attacking the living standards of working people. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18444253

Money Supply Reform - Child's Play

Money supply reform, the contention that governments, not banks, should create and lend a nation’s money—has rarely even made the news, except on UNISONActive - so this is a first. Victoria, a 12 year old Canadian, managed to frame the message in a way that was so simple and clear that even a child could understand it.

The money illusion is in a Greek crisis

There aren't many words in economics that provoke as much fear and unease as a bank run. That spectre looms in Europe, as we learned yesterday that depositors in Greece withdrew almost $900 million from the country's banks on Monday.

That giant pile of withdrawn cash comes from regular Greek citizens, as well as buys orders from Greek banks for German bunds, according to Greek President Karolos Papoulias. Papoulias also warned of "a great fear that could develop into a panic".

97% owned - a must see new film

A brilliant new Positive Money documentary explains how our money system works. Watched 65,000 times in the first 14 days, this is the first UK-based documentary to explain the fundamental flaws in our monetary system. You can watch the film online here or attend a screening, so far planned in Sheffield, London and Richmond (North Yorkshire)

Mervyn washes his hands of history? It's not my fault says the Guv'nor

UNISONActive Analysis: Sir Mervyn King has admitted that the Bank of England should have "shouted from the rooftops" its concerns about the looming economic disaster back in 2007 as he warned that Britain's recovery from recession would be a long, slow process. But a shrill cry of “it wasn’t me Guv it was that Gordon Brown” just isn’t good enough: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/
newsid_9718000/9718062.stm While accepting that "no one could quite bring themselves to believe that in our modern financial system the biggest banks in the world could fall over", the Governor said the Bank had been aware of the precarious position of institutions that were lending too much.

Goldman Sachs Takes Over the ECB - Fight Back

We've reported before on Goldman Sachs ability to place people at the centre of our political and economic structures so that they can shape the world for bankers. Well we can now tell you that the European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi, former vice president of Goldman Sachs Europe, was able to approve a 500 billion Euro bailout for European banks without asking anyone’s permission.