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Financial Times: Strip private banks of their power to create money

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Gmail Peter Burgess Financial Times: Strip private banks of their power to create money Positive Money Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 7:42 AM Reply-To: Positive Money To: Peter Another major breakthrough in the monetary reform debate!

Dear Peter,

Fantastic news: The debate on money reform goes mainstream! Last week has the leading UK economics commentator, the Financial Times’ Martin Wolf, argued that 'the power to create money should be stripped from private banks'. His article has sparked a major debate in the mainstream media and among economists, including Paul Krugman - one of the most influential economists today, in the New York Times. There has been a significant backlash from critiques and many misunderstandings (see below). But it is fantastic that this issue is finally getting attention and is being debated!

1) Financial Times’ Martin Wolf endorses Positive Money’s proposals for reform

Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator at the Financial Times: “Strip private banks of their power to create money“

“Printing counterfeit banknotes is illegal, but creating private money is not. The interdependence between the state and the businesses that can do this is the source of much of the instability of our economies. It could – and should – be terminated.”

2) Paul Krugman - New York Times

Paul Krugman, American economist, ranked among the most influential economic thinkers in the world today, has written a commentary on Martin Wolf’s article: Is A Banking Ban The Answer?

'OK, a genuinely interesting debate on financial reform is taking place. I’m not even sure where I stand. But it’s certainly worth talking about.'

Here you can read our response to his commentary:

A Response to Paul Krugman on “Is Banning Banking the Answer?”

3) More debate

Ann Pettifor, Director of Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME), Honorary Research Fellow at the Political Economy Research Centre at City University (CITYPERC) and a fellow of the New Economics Foundation, London:

Why I disagree with Martin Wolf and Positive Money

Here's our response:

A reply to Ann Pettifor: Why there will be no “shortage of money”

Josh Ryan Collins, Senior Researcher at New Economics Foundation: Sovereign money: what it is and why it matters (nef) Izabella Kaminska, financial reporter at FT Alphaville discusses the issues in two articles: Martin Wolf on funny money creation On the elimination of privately issued money Joe Weisenthal, executive editor at Business Insider has written an article with a somewhat misleading title, but addressing the 'gross misconception about what a bank does that people tend to have': Ban all the banks: Here's The Wild Idea That People Are Starting To Take Seriously Our responses coming shortly. Keep an eye on our blog.

3) Upcoming Events London - Walthamstow, Fri 2nd May Positive Money meetup Cardiff, Tue 6th May Regulation, Risk and Reform London - Greenwich, Wed 7th May Positive Money Meetup Leicester, Sun 11th May Money: Impacts, Perceptions, Actions – Workshop London - Hackney, Mon 12th May Reading ‘Modernising Money’ London - Lambeth, Mon 12th May Positive Money Meetup Huddersfield, Wed 21st May Positive Money Meetup 4) More from the Blog

From negative to positive: Money without the debt The Revolution in Economics? Economics textbooks teach a “mythological” story about what banks do, claims former bank regulator Lord Adair Turner (VIDEO, Full transcript)

Best wishes,

Ben and the rest of the Positive Money team

www.positivemoney.org

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