"Anyone who believes in indefinite growth in anything physical, on a physically finite planet, is either mad - or an economist". Kenneth Boulding, JFK's environmental adviser.
Yes money can grow indefinitely, but it is not a physical thing. The amount of money that exists continues to grow, as it must because of interest, but the amount of actual useable resources does not. Therefore our priority must be to make the best - sustainable - use of them.
Don't be sidetracked by talk of deficit reduction. Reducing the deficit is only reucing the amount of money that's added to the National Debt in a year.
Showing posts with label national debt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label national debt. Show all posts
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
The country
UK Prime Minister David Cameron, in his New Year podcast, said that of the current financial crisis, "this is not the Government's debt, it's the country's debt." Presumably "the country" is the same "the country" that is "held to ransom" whenever there's a strike.
This, I assume, is another way of saying "we're all in this together". We are, but some up to their ankles and some up to their necks. I assume that the PM is not talking about private debt - such as many of us owe for mortgages and on credit cards - but money that the Government has borrowed from the banks. We'll all be paying it back through our taxes to the Government, but surely it is still the Government's debt?
Many argue for monetary reform, and in particular the government taking back the sole right to issue money, which should be taken back from the banking system, which creates money from thin air by writing a debt on one side of its balance sheet and an asset on the other. To the asset is added the interest the debtor must pay, but as all money comes from banks, the interest must be paid from more loans.
This, I assume, is another way of saying "we're all in this together". We are, but some up to their ankles and some up to their necks. I assume that the PM is not talking about private debt - such as many of us owe for mortgages and on credit cards - but money that the Government has borrowed from the banks. We'll all be paying it back through our taxes to the Government, but surely it is still the Government's debt?
Many argue for monetary reform, and in particular the government taking back the sole right to issue money, which should be taken back from the banking system, which creates money from thin air by writing a debt on one side of its balance sheet and an asset on the other. To the asset is added the interest the debtor must pay, but as all money comes from banks, the interest must be paid from more loans.
Thursday, 17 June 2010
Financial 'musical chairs'
The cut backs in the public sector are only of course to deal with the government debt (aka National debt), which is reduced by cutting spending and/or increasing increasing taxes. But governments have tried various ways to get spending of their balance sheets - most famously privatisation in the 1980s and PFI in the 1990s (roughly).
The thing is all money is owed eventually to a bank, with interest. This is the same in the public and private sectors. There isn't enough money in existence to pay back the loans and the interest, so someone has to go bust. It's financial musical chairs as we chase money around in ever faster in cyclical consumption.
National debt is a bit of a misnomer - it should include all the money everyone owes.
The thing is all money is owed eventually to a bank, with interest. This is the same in the public and private sectors. There isn't enough money in existence to pay back the loans and the interest, so someone has to go bust. It's financial musical chairs as we chase money around in ever faster in cyclical consumption.
National debt is a bit of a misnomer - it should include all the money everyone owes.
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