Here are some facts, they are not opinions.
Economics is as simple and as easily understood as it is honest. Likewise, economics is as complex and difficult to understand as it is dishonest. In the existing culture, there is no place for ethics in economics. All is fair in love, war and business. Economics is the study and practice of the production and distribution of the goods and services required by the human race for its survival. In the existing global scene, we over produce and fail to distribute.
The situation is this:
With modern technology we can produce far in excess of our needs. There is a tendency to over produce alongside an inability to effectively distribute what we produce. We accumulate enormous surpluses. A war of attrition develops, as producers compete with each other, to sell what is not needed or wanted. A multi-billion dollar industry, called advertising, creates a demand for what is not wanted. Odd phenomena, like global warming, are by-products of commercial warfare. But at the same time a failure of distribution condemns billions of our fellow human beings to live in dreadful poverty and they die in their millions from starvation and preventable disease. Those in power rely on genocide as the only solution.
So let us look at what has gone amiss with distribution.
Distribution beyond a barter system requires a means of exchange. We have decided to use money as our means of exchange. But we have failed to define the word 'money', so that economics is flawed and unsafe.
These are all simple, self evident facts.
A successful economy grows. If it stagnates, it is dying. Therefore, to enable economics to function, when it uses money as its means of exchange, the money supply must be able to increase without impediment, as the economy makes its healthy growth. Therefore there must be an inexhaustible supply, of what is used as a means of exchange, that can be drawn upon as the advance of the economy proceeds. The rules which determine the speed at which new money must be added to the economy must be clearly understood, easily seen, and thus easily monitored by the people. So as to see that it is done honestly. We tried using gold as our means of exchange, but the supply of gold could not keep pace with demand. We resorted to the use of tokens of gold to augment the supply of gold.
This opened the door to the dishonest broker. He came to be called a banker.
The banker invented the concept of credit to represent the idea, that there was gold somewhere being represented by credit. Thus instead of gold as a means of exchange, we had an idea, which served as a means of exchange. As you cam see, and feel, the whole business of money becomes hugely complex. So complex that people give up on it, and say they do not understand money. They then submit to fraud and you have the existing scene.
Let us see clearly what the fraud is, so that we know what we are up against and why we need an economic renaissance.
By Law, private financial institutions are allowed to create and issue new money into circulation as credit. They can claim that assets can be used to substantiate the validity of credit. This allows them to seduce governments, businesses, and private individuals into accepting credit as a loan of money.
The instant a person accepts credit as a loan, the Law states that he is a debtor and owes money.
He has to earn the money to redeem the loan, and the financier has then created money by counterfeiting money using sleight of hand.
This is modern alchemy. Instead of turning lead into gold, the banker turns credit into money. And that is fraud. This is all very simple and if you feel confused, just go back and re-read it and spot the point I lost you. We do not wish to go back to using gold as money. Gold is too heavy. The way forward is forward, not going back to Gold.
Prior to the computer we had no way to handle ideas, to store them, and turn them into a currency.
But money in the form of computer entry is ideal, provided we introduce honesty into the system. For a democracy to exist the currency must be created and issued by the Government, which must be of the people, by the people and for the people. This is all important, because whosoever creates and issues a nation's currency has absolute power, dominion and sovereignty over that nation.
Whoever it is, that has this privilege, controls everything. He, or they, are above the Law, above Parliament, and actually constitute a financial dictatorship.
That dictatorship, which now exists, needs all its power to control the Press, and the media, in order to hide from view what is actually going on. That power will have been used to make the practice legal, but that does not make it honest.
It is, in fact, a very evil regime run by an evil elite.
A whole upper strata of society came into existence to serve this dictatorship. The culture, the whole civilisation has become corrupt and the practice becomes world-wide Globalisation is the phenomenon we are addressing Therefore the whole practice of money must be available for public scrutiny, so that we know it is all honest and above board. The Treasury is the most secretive department of the Government.
The Bank of England is the most secretive and private bank in the world.
There is no place for ethics in that set-up. But it could be different, and we could reform the monetary system so that we use money, instead of debt, as our currency. That would be a fundamental change. The whole subject of economics will become very easily understood by everyone. So easy to police, that dishonesty would vanish.
To summarise:
We need a competent and reliable means of exchange. We need to be able to distribute, to the whole human race, the quality of life that is now obtainable. No difficulty at all. Our only real difficulty is in confronting the extent of evil in the existing system. It takes a very brave man to confront evil. But evil melts like butter in the sun, when confronted with courage.
Addendum.
About 25 years ago, I was working with Arthur Lewis M.P., forming up an All Party Committee at the House of Commons, seeking a Freedom of Information Act, with reform of the Official Secrets Acts. One of my jobs was to seek out abuses of the Official Secrets Acts, with which to make media coverage, for the need to establish a right for the citizen to know the truth. There were very many abuses, but the most important were in the field of finance. I discovered that our currency is not created and issued by the Government, but by private financial institutions, such as banks. It took me many years to obtain that data for use without violating the Official Secrets Acts Now I can use it, but the data is so unbelievable, and is such very bad news for very powerful vested interests, that it remains a secret. But not an official secret, for I have it in writing from the Government, and can therefore use it.
The whole purpose of this briefing sheet is to tell the people of this country of the enormous advantages that would benefit each and every one of them, if this abuse of the financial system, were fully exposed and corrected.
www.monetaryreform.org
About the Author
Dr Hamlyn is a founding member of the Royal College of General Practitioners, a veteran of WW II, retired farmer and practicing medical doctor. He is a prolific and articulate voice on the subject of monetary reform.