The Bank of England has created another £50 billion of electronic money, or so we are led to believe, but where has the previous £275 billion gone?
The creation of money by quantitative easing is a bigger myth than the Loch Ness Monster. For a short analysis of what actually happens, check out this article from August last year. The claim by the BBC today that the Bank of England has injected this new money into the economy is simply not true. Likewise the analysis by Dr Ros Altman is flawed, although she is right when she says that lower interest rates mean lower incomes for those who have private pension funds. What then should be done?
Quite simply, the Bank should create this money and spend it into circulation debt-free – ask Ben Dyson. The big problem though is that the dictatorship of finance says we can’t, that other European nations can’t, and indeed that the American Federal Reserve can’t. This money – created by buying assets – is in effect giving money to the banks and allowing them to lend it at their caprice. Clearly this is utter lunacy, unless of course you are a bankster.
Prime Minister Cameron has proved that he can stand up to the banks and Europe, but the problem is that on this particular issue he hasn’t got a clue. We must get out of Europe completely, and if that leads to the collapse of the Euro, the better for all concerned.
Will this extra £50 billion do any good? It will probably do some good because the banks can’t sit on all of it, but unless and until we have a mechanism that distributes money where it is most needed – like the Social Credit of Major Douglas – any short term gains are likely to be subsumed by longer term increases in public debt.
[The above op-ed was first published February 9, 2012.]
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