tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-351667322024-03-23T10:16:41.322+00:00The Free LunchFairness with Freedom -
New Economics & The Commons themes: banking reform, credit creation, citizen's income,citizen's royalty, land value tax, green taxes, empowering the people, citizenisation,Mosaic economics, Jubilee, planning, housing, property price cycle, Henry George, wealth magnets, ecology and economicsThe Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.comBlogger346125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-35273449521270125382024-01-24T15:56:00.002+00:002024-02-18T15:24:20.098+00:00James Robertson<p><span style="font-family: georgia;">James Robertson the pioneer of alternative economics has died <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f07c5202-eeb3-466a-888a-c7459488a214?shareToken=825300e0c8376867084ac546bfbd462d" style="font-style: italic;">(Obit. The Times 18 Jan.</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/06/james-robertson-obituary"> </a></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/06/james-robertson-obituary"> <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Guardian 6 Dec 2023</span> </a><span style="color: #2b00fe;">). </span> </i>Through his writing and lobbying h</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">e drew together several strands of pioneering reform such as government reform, environment issues, money creation, land value taxation, citizen's dividend, <i>et al</i>., which are now generally known as New Economics or Green Economics. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">From </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">'Creating New Money' </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">(NEF 2000)</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> w</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">ith Joseph Huber, to his later broader-based 'Future Money - Breakdown or Breakthrough?' <i>(Green Books 2012)</i> he provided indispensable research for anyone lobbying for change from the flawed entrenched economics of the 20th century to a system more based on the common good. His life's work is accessed on his <a href="http://www.jamesrobertson.com/index.htm">website</a> which is an excellent resource for research into these and many other issues.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">He shows how the wealth intrinsic to </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">common resources generated by, or available for the use of society as a whole, such as </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">money creation and the natural resources of the earth including</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">land value,</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> are captured by special groups of people for their private use. Meanwhile people whose ordinary work, enterprise and proportionately high taxation add to the wealth flowing from those resources but often have little or no share in that wealth.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">As an example of how he helped those who were promoting the same issues I recall a Land Value Tax conference in 2006. An academic speaker had explained LVT but was perplexed as to how it might be made politically acceptable. In the lunch break I spoke to James who arrived to address the conference later and said that no one has mentioned citizen's income (or C.Dividend) as a means of making LVT more acceptable. When he spoke later he kept referring to CI and ..<i>'I will bring more detail later...' </i>and ended by giving a comprehensive view of how the new economics might be achieved with CI. It was the first time I had heard CI and LVT mentioned at a public event. Since that time the issue has become international with CI experiments being conducted. Progress is being made. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">Posted by Charles Bazlinton author: The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom. The book covers many aspects of the New Economics.</span></p>The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-6806381153127709892023-07-26T10:54:00.000+01:002023-07-26T10:54:29.773+01:00Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). The Digital Pound - Consultation. A response <p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>The Bank of England asked for comments about its idea for a digital currency: 'The digital pound: a new form of money for households and businesses'.</b> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">My submission was as follows: </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span> </span>''I disagree with the proposal for a digital
currency. It will disrupt the current banking model as this will have a
tendency to reduce funds deposited with ordinary banks which will reduce
banks'</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">scope to engender loans to
customers. The proposal for centralizing normal retail banking implicit in a
centrally controlled digital currency is a bad move and against the promotion
of the freest flow of money to viable businesses through the relationship a
bank has with its customers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span>Many people
would possibly completely, or substantially, exit from their normal
banking</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">for much of their financial
business and the existing banks will thus become weaker players in the
promotion of the many local economies that comprise the national economy.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span> </span>The nation
needs more banks of the normal current retail type and for them to be more
localized particularly when they are involved in small and medium businesses
who need credit to grow and provide employment.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span>The idea of
a central digital pound brings a danger that a central authority might, despite
the privacy enhancing procedures proposed, in the extreme be able to control
the spending freedom of every citizen for ideological or political reasons
which is obviously with our current outlook, to be avoided. The banks are good
at spotting fraud currently perpetrated and there is no need to use the reason
of central surveillance possible through a digital pound as being essential for
preventing scams.''</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Charles
Bazlinton 30 June 2023</i></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the Financial Times article </span></span></span><i><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/53b48346-1802-4164-bbdc-ccdc034fa9ec"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">'Central Banks </span><span style="font-family: georgia; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>should not be blind </span></span></span></b></span></a></i><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/53b48346-1802-4164-bbdc-ccdc034fa9ec"><span style="color: black;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">to the threats posed by CBDCs'</span></i> </b></span></a><span style="font-size: large;">(</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">25 July </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">2023) <b>Eswar Prasad </b>author of <i>The Future of Money</i> also warns about digital money.</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: red; font-family: arial;">Posted by Charles Bazlinton 26 July 2023</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-8022846087106850242023-03-15T11:53:00.002+00:002023-03-15T11:55:20.425+00:00Budget alternatives: Richard Werner on Digital Currencies & A New Financial System <p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is set to announce 12 regional growth projects with low tax and other investment incentives (ex-PM Liz Truss wanted 200 zones). The decentralisation idea is a good one to spread new economic growth beyond the south-east into the regions but it misses a key factor in economic decentralisation - that of the money supply. The ultimate is to have local banks which create money where everyone needs it - where they live in their local area. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Professor Richard Werner in this new</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9gTyfe9N7A">YouTube video discussion</a> '<i>Why we need a New Financial System'</i> in discussion with Oliver Studd and George McNee, says that digital currencies have been around for decades and ordinary licensed banks have been creating digital currency as they create bank loans for their customers. He </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">also adds to the current debate that central banks should create digital currencies for their monetary system (this starts at 15min on the video).</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> He says that this would be a dangerous development which in giving everyone a current banking account with the Bank of England leads to a possibility of centralised surveillance and control of their spending. Do we trust that good central bank governance would always prevent such a move? In setting a centralised bank system for every citizen the normal banking system would be fundamentally changed for ever says Werner. Such a strong pull towards centralised banking for all would weaken the normal business model of current banks who need the deposits and relationships of their customers. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The banking currency produced by them was always <i>digital</i> as they did not print bank notes for the loan: Bank Digital Currency - BDC. The only change now is to add Central to the acronym - CBDC and herein lies a danger. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Werner says that in earlier times in Germany, monasteries would act as bankers until they were secularised and farmers, for instance, would have difficulty with their credit needs. What happened to remedy this was the creation of local community banks designed to operate in specified localities. Now, nearly 200 years later the widespread Sparkhassen banks, the co-operative banking system and a sound locally-originating economy is a testimony to the practicality of the solution of locally created money. Britain was also a pioneer of local savings banks around the same time. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">But small local banks grow and are bought up by larger banks who tend to like to deal in large loans for large customers, leaving smaller business customers overlooked. There is a need for many small banks to be created. These preferably will have a common-good profit motive and protected through a majority charity ownership holding which distributes bank profits to local good causes and needs. This ownership model locks in the common-good theme preventing private predatory takeovers of small successful profitable banks.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Decentralisation is needed more and more and the fundamental way to do it is to encourage the creation of local banks. Growth for special regional zones is a start but why not target support to enable the decentralisation of the money supply to every 'local zone' by encouraging lots of tiny local community bank start-ups where the small and micro business are? Everyone knows that such businesses create the jobs and wealth. What's not to like Mr Hunt? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"> </span></p>The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-47294072292359802722022-08-03T16:18:00.003+01:002022-08-03T16:18:45.985+01:00Sunak vs Truss: Debt, Inflation and Levelling Up <p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Conservative leadership contenders ask: When does the Covid-induced public debt start to get paid off? What about inflation if we reduce taxes to ease household finances? How do you achieve levelling up?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A FT letter writer <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6c0fede1-94ba-471a-89b0-29e2a56b1c5a" target="_blank">Mark Hofman in August 2020</a> said that in the example of Japan which has had huge public debt levels for a long time:</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span> <span> </span><i>'government bonds held on the balance sheet of the Bank of Japan are effectively the Japanese government owing the bond debt to itself...so why not put a line through those<span> </span>entries on each side of the balance sheet? The level of debt would be reduced without the <span> </span><span> </span>taxpayer having to pay anybody anything, and with nobody being poorer.' </i></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If there is a possibility of inflation due to this he says it can be resolved by raising the reserve requirements of commercial banks at the central bank (in the UK's case - the Bank of England). He asks: Why consider the conventional way of paying off this debt with taxes for generations, when there is a better way? <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Beware of suggestions that governments are like households and must not spend beyond their income. Householders are not like that as they cannot create their own money whereas sovereign govenments, with careful monetary control can do so safely, as Hofman describes. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">On levelling up: Change how tax is raised by levying a small annual charge on the value of all land, including the value of the land footprint of all homes. At the same time any tax raised in this way would be allowed against a personal income tax liability. For many homeowers the total charge would not change. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Benefits would accrue:<br /></span></span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> House price rises - now with a land value levy - would slow or fall and homes become gradually more affordable since speculation would be damped down and a steadier market would encourage first time buyers. </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Homes would become less attractive for pure investment rather than for living in personally. Recent governments just subsidise
new buyers which raises the price of homes and brings developers more
profit. The crazy price boom continues. <br /></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">More homes would be built as development would be encouraged - for example a house with a large plot would be built on to share the land value levy over new, extra homes. Or an extension to create a separate rentable flat. New homes would be built to low carbon standards. </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Countryside would be preserved. </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Renters would be helped as the land charge would be on the landlord. Landlords would be anxious to have their property occupied at lower rents rather than keep homes empty waiting for increased rent. <br /></span></span></li></ul><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Levelling up at a stroke, for many. Those who are </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">land rich and </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">income poor, thus short of cash, would be allowed to defer payment until they sell the home. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The young would be able to consider buying and homeownership would increase. Older people in large homes would be nudged into downsizing. The increasing wealth divide between homeowners and renters would ease.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For the common good w</span></span>e need such monetary and taxation policies. Which candiate, or party, will grasp these choice fruits? </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Posted by <a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/">THE FREE LUNCH - FAIRNESS WITH FREEDOM</a> Charles Bazlinton<br /></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <i> </i> <br /></span></span></p>The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-88664270748996357782022-06-04T14:27:00.008+01:002022-06-06T14:26:43.382+01:00Jubilee - A very suitable word?<p><span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Great words get borrowed and highjacked for quite different purposes. 'Jubilee' was originally </span><i>'a year of emancipation and restoration' </i><span style="font-size: medium;"> (OED) in ancient Jewish history when people who had lost their family land through debt and poverty went back to it with all debts wiped out. It was a time of great rejoicing and was </span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">unmistakably</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">in</span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">troduced by people going through the land blowing ram's horn trumpets announcing</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span><b style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">'Proclaim Freedom'.</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It was the ultimate levelling of wealth from the time of the previous Jubilee after which some people had prospered whilst others fell into poverty. See the Bible: </span><i>Leviticus 25:8-10.</i><span style="font-size: medium;"> The purpose of Jubilee was to reset the economic imbalances and was pointedly </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">political. It restored control to t</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">he people.</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">There were not to be kings to accumulate wealth to themselves and their court, and the repetition of cycles of Jubilees would guard against permanent accumulations of land control and enable the poorest to become self-sufficient again. You were not able to purchase land ownership rights, only the harvest rights for limited years. The system guarded against anyone assuming kingly status through wealth which would endanger freedom and the common good. </span></p><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Amazing enlightened times! The entire Jubilee year was to be a holiday. </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Our recent Jubilee celebrations, whilst fairly acknowledging that our Queen as Head of State has been a </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">benign</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> and gracious </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">holder of the office, achieves nothing in the spirit of the original Jubilee for ordinary people. Apart from one day's holiday. </span></span></div><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Maybe news from Ukraine will point the way to a revival of a people-centred Jubilee ideal? Alexander Rodnyansky, a Cambridge Professor, is now Economic Adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine and <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/famine-is-part-of-russias-strategy-zelenskys-economic-adviser-on-putins-tactics">The Spectator</a> 4 June 2022 reports: </span></p><p><i><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span> </span>'he says he is interested in establishing universal basic income throughout Ukraine: a fixed cash payment for residents rather than a network of welfare benefits which leads to inefficiencies in the system...We could be the first.' </span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"> </span></i></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Jubilee years have been celebrated - quite bizarrely given the origin - for some centuries to note an</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">niversaries of rule by monarchs. Why not a people's Jubilee in the spirit of the common good? We are not able to re-apportion land ownership in our day but land values are identifiable and could contribute to a universal basic income. See elsewhere on this Blog as to how it could be done. Recapturing the <b>'Proclaim Freedom'</b> spirit of the original idea with a Peoples' Jubilee by establishing a </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Universal Basic Income (</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">also know as </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Citizen's Income) is needed. </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">posted by Charles Bazlinton, 4 June 2022 Author: <a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/thebook/index.html"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom.</span></a></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><br /></p>The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-42414036238508166842021-12-06T17:33:00.006+00:002021-12-06T17:40:22.151+00:00<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Merryn Somserset Webb favours land value tax</span></b><br /></span></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In a philosophical article in Saturday's FT (<span style="color: red;"><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/679f4e05-fe46-4458-bb31-805503c0d238">4 December 2021</a></span>)</span></span> Merryn Somerset Webb writes that she 'favours land value tax' as she explores aspects of ownership and capitalism. She refers to land wealth as communal wealth. The article is about how selfish we allow our society to be.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Owners of land are gaining as 'house prices' keep booming everywhere. People and firms are putting their wealth increasingly into property and prices are responding - upwards. Just take note that every building deteriorates so the gain is in the underlying land value. Lloyds Bank's new chief Charlie Nunn is hoping to quadruple <i>'the budget for its private home rental market' </i>(<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1de87bf6-e791-489b-962c-578471af4509">FT 6 December 2021</a>) which is great for landlord rents and the bank gains the security of the underlying land value gain but not the renters. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Value in land is largely dependent on location, which is about the ease with which work can be found nearby, such as rail links, good roads, business employment, etc. These things are nothing to do with the land owner's skill - but rather utility providers' provision of good services and such things as planning permission. The land owner can make a desirable </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">valuable </span></span>house which takes cost and ingenuity but the land value is quite outside their ability to make any individual difference to, land value is a gift from society, the community around. It's just that owners get the gain but renters don't. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This quite unfair situation has another facet for end of life social care. The current plans (<a href="https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/government-proposals-social-care-system">see Kings Fund</a>) are for there to be an £86,000 cap on care charges. The scare is that homes may need to be sold to pay for care at some point. Will a home be safeguarded? </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">A much fairer method of paying for care is to tax land value. Almost every piece of land with or without a house or building on it has value and a small percentage tax charged every year would go to providing end of life care for all. Those with the higher priced property would pay more which would be proportional to the gain in value that society has created on their land. In the setting of land value tax a allowance below which no land value tax would be payable would be set, so that many poorer homeowners would be land tax exempt. Renters who will never have any prospect of land value gain and thus no land tax, would gain the universal state-provided care but not be charged at any time. Home owners would be paying over some of their lifetime property gains for their later life care as they pay the tax. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">These ideas should be seen in the context of wider tax reforms where income tax paid would be allowable against a liability for land value tax. A gradual tax shift from tax on wealth gained through work onto community inspireded wealth would happen. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Fairness comes through using community inspired wealth to pay for community needs.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Charles Bazlinton. Author: The Free Lunch- Fairness with Freedom</span> </span></span><br /></p>The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-10216511082432069332021-05-08T17:39:00.007+01:002021-05-08T22:40:56.509+01:00Hartlepool levelling up: Was that it?<p><span style="font-family: georgia;">What did 'levelling up' mean in the Hartlepool swing to the Tories? The Hartlepool constituency</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">, </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">returned a Tory MP Jill Mortimer, <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/politics/who-is-jill-mortimer-four-things-should-know-about-hartlepools-new-mp-3228221">'farmer and business woman'</a>,</span> after a 50 year run for Labour. That day was also </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">the vote for the Tees Valley mayor and Ben Houchen won a resounding victory. Perhaps the Mayor Houchen factor was at work. Perhaps it was that in </span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> Hartlepool with the </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Labour </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">candidate still an EU fan who wants a second referendum, and with Hartlepool very strongly Leave, maybe that prompted the strong rejection. Who allowed that to happen? <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Ben Houchen, in winning his first Tees Valley contest in 2017 as a Tory promised to nationalise the local airport which he did and it created many new jobs. Nationalisation is a policy borrowed from Labour. Houchen has always said he is locality oriented and the use of socialist policies shows he is a non-ideolgical Tory. The Boris-Rishi government has supported his Tees Valley projects - including environmental climate change schemes - by directing spending to the area. Also Treasury North, which is a partial government departmental move to Darlington, is a rather </span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">socialist, </span>state planning idea. It probably helps in all these local changes that Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak holds a nearby constituecy. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Freemarket conservatives wanting small government (don't move but <i>reduce</i> the Treasury?), low borrowing and 'let the market rule' are rare these days. Covid-19 financial support has meant Tory central government money is now always on tap for lots of schemes. The (allegedly) penny pinching austerity gloom of the Cameron-Osborne era is well gone, and now seen merely as anti-Labour sound bites, but which helped dampen expectations of government-directed productive investment which now the New Tories are unashamedly borrowing from Labour. But remember: the high priestess </span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">of the free market, </span> Margaret Thatcher secured a deal for<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><a href="https://buy.motorious.com/articles/features/308942/margaret-thatcher-nissan-sunderland">Nissan in Sunderland</a></span> </span>in the 1980s with a special central government money deal for Nissan. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">So the Conservatives are doing what is needed to remain in power whilst favouring neglected voters by boosting their local economy with cash handouts. Old fashioned pork barrel politics, as ever. The latest scheme is the </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-community-renewal-fund-prospectus">Community Renewal Fund</a> </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">which will share £220m with 100 favoured places in a year and five of those are the five towns of the Tees Valley. Red Tories are in town.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">The problem with such politics - sensible enough given the limited vision - is that only some groups of voters are favoured rather than producing a fairer outcome for all. Under Old Labour it might be such as union members, managers of state institutions, and home renters; under Old Conservatives it might be shareholders, capitalists eager for state grants and </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">home owners.</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">When will overall fairness prevail? Instead of a hope that a trickle-down of government money may come my way via my Mayor, why not each citizen respected as contributer and beneficiary of a good recovering economy? The previous blogpost on <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2020/11/universal-basic-income-fasten-seatbelt.html">Universal Basic Income </a></span> illustrates how that idea of a payment to everyone unconditionally is well researched to be affordable - 'revenue neutral'. Even better an extra measure would be the funding of UBI to include land value tax charged on the land value underlying all homes, and allowable against income tax, along with a reform of council tax. Renters would benefit as they would pay no charge, the landlord would. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">We need a re-set in our politics and economics in favour of fairnes for all, not just for instance the homeowners who are benefitting from a housing boom. That would be better levelling up. Our society is becoming increasingly divided as defined by owning or renting a home. Renters are being sidelined as they have no unearned nest-egg accumulating on the value of the land with their house as homeowners do. We all contribute to our economy as we work and run things and a healthy economy raises house (actually land) prices, but that value is soley due to land ownership. Too bad if you rent your home, no level playing field </span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">for you </span>from your contribution, it all gravitates down to the owner. What's fair in that?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Posted by Charles Bazlinton author <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</a></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;"> </span></span></span></span></p>The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-54271719059055604272020-11-05T09:47:00.004+00:002020-11-13T11:17:04.939+00:00Universal Basic Income: 'Fasten the seatbelt before hitting the wall' - Ronnie Cowan MP<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span>Following 100,000+ votes for the petition in favour of Universal Basic Income <span style="color: #000dff;"><a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2020/03/another-tory-policy-basic-income.html">(this blog March 19 2020)</a></span> a Parliamentary debate was held on October 13th in Westminster Hall . </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span style="font-size: medium;">The <a href="file:///C:/Users/Charles/OneDrive/Documents/0000%20FOLDERS%20FOR%20DAILY%20BACKUP%20to%20A%20or%20B/A%20RESEARCH%20folder%20A%20RESEARCH%20folder%20A%20RESEARCH%20and%20DATA%20RECORD/8.1%20Citizen's%20Income/CDP-2020-0096.pdf">Debate Pack</a> for this gives a clear overview of the idea of a non-means-tested benefit (like the long-standing Child Benefit) and should have prepared the Minister for Work and Pensions, Will Quince for a considered reply to the request. But he was scathing in his response. </span><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><span><i><span> </span>' </i></span><span><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">when
we even begin to think about introducing a UBI, we see that not only would the cost be astronomical, but the Government would have to increase taxation
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><i><span> </span>'Surely
the Finnish model demonstrated that people rejected precarious work and that employers had to increase pay and model terms and conditions. It is just not
the case, that<span> </span>the Finnish model suggested a disincentive to work.'</i></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The cost of UBI has been carefully assessed by the <a href="https://citizensincome.org/faqs/#Affordable" target="_blank">Citizen's Income Trust</a> to be affordable. 'Strictly revenue neutral' is their phrase. It is very easy to rubbish a scheme by choosing a high UBI rate and showing it is unaffordable but the CIT sets a meaningful rate and shows it would be affordable for the taxpayer and effective for welfare. Additional benefits would accrue when such people as family member carers of the elderly might be more able to continue giving their care when adding their UBI payment to income from a part-time job. It could make countless family-oriented care situations more possible rather than leaving the state to pick up the total care bill at a far higher charge. <br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Annie Miller's book <span style="color: #2b00fe;"> <a href="https://www.luath.co.uk/politics-and-current-issues/essentials-of-basic-income">Essentials of Basic Income</a></span> give throughly researched findings which the Minister also failed to acknowledge. </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Despite the huge financial measures that Covid-19 restrictions have forced on the UK government, Mr Quince is ignoring the many welfare gaps a UBI might help him to fill. The media is full of such comments as: <i>'government ''wilfully ignoring'' '</i> sectors of workers like those represented by The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed ( '<i>Devastating gaps in aid for self-employed</i>' </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Times </span></span>Nov 3. 2020). </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Some of these support schemes depend on a firm's previous profit records, so a new business start-up has nothing to show for the government to match with grants or income top-ups. Many new businesses might be formed if UBI was there to encourage people to make a start by giving them a guaranteed small regular income. It is common knowledge that it is new businesses that create new jobs. Besides, extra UBI money in the hands of everyone will be spent and give a boost to the general economy. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The governemnt should launch a pilot scheme for road-testing UBI in the UK.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It is reported that </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">some billions of pounds handed out </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">through various business support </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">is likely to have been fraudulently acquired. Let's start a UBI scheme that will enable new jobs to be created honestly and to address the worst povery cases directly - with cash in the hand guaranteed to deal with unforeseen emergencies. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">In The Times Mark Littlewood** (<i>Universal basic income is not the answer to the welfare question</i>, Nov 2 , 2020) writes a really good summary of some of the benefits of UBI (despite the title he sounds half convinced):</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> <br /></span></span></span></span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">the attraction of UBI is its simplicity</span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">means testing would be handled through taxation </span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">meal vouchers for school children in school holidays would not be needed <br /></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">each household would have enough in cash for the necessities </span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">about </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">the existing universal credit scheme </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">he says problems persist </span></span></span></span></li></ul><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span style="line-height: 115%;">He is worried about the impact on work incentives, but he should study the Hansard Debate Pack (link above) which shows, apart from the above Finnish model giving positive employment </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span style="line-height: 115%;">effects; the Utrecht experiment yielded 'positive effects' </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span style="line-height: 115%;">for employment for lower educated groups, and for the very long running Alaska Permanent Fund: </span></span></span></span> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span> </span>'Our results show that adverse labor
market effects are limited, and, importantly, a small universal and
unconditional cash transfer does not significantly reduce
aggregate employment'</i></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span style="line-height: 115%;">As Ronnie Cowan MP (Invercylde) said in the debate, concerning the huge numbers still under extreme financial privation under Covid-19: </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span> </span>'I
am asking that we do something now before it is too late. We do not know what
the final straw will be. We need to plan now, to go forward. It is wise to
fasten the seatbelt before hitting the wall.'</span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span><span style="line-height: 115%;">** Mark Littlewood is head of the <a href="https://iea.org.uk/about-us">Institute of Economic Affairs</a> : <i>'</i></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><i>we promote the intellectual case for a free economy, low taxes, freedom
in education, health and welfare and lower levels of regulation.' </i> </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Fair enough! That's what everyone would like if they had the income and the assets to fulfil that dream for themselves. When will the IEA think outside the narrow elitist box of the 'free' economy and market forces and realise that to empower everyone with a non-means-tested basic income would help promote another of their aims of:</span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> <i>'creating a society that fosters innovation, entrepreneurship...' </i>. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Surely libertarians naturally favour a basic income for all? A new basic right for eveyone - a gain in freedom that they famously champion?</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--></span></p></div>The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-17136400381196332382020-05-23T13:18:00.001+01:002020-07-03T10:34:35.963+01:00Communitarian conservatives? 1832 Reform Act follow on? Universal Basic Income, obviously. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.8px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Spectator <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/letters-country-and-town-are-in-this-together"><span style="color: blue;">published this letter</span> </a>recently as the groundswell for an universal, unconditional Basic Income grows ever stronger. Maybe Basic Income a.k.a: Citizen's Income/Citizen's Royalty will be introduced as the Covid-19 economic outcomes bite </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; letter-spacing: -0.8px;">really f</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; letter-spacing: -0.8px;">iercely. When millions of citizens find themselves having fallen outside the safety net of the patchy monetary and fiscal support schemes. It would start to address the contrasts of income, wealth and ways of life that the current crisis is starkly showing up. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; letter-spacing: -0.8px;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; letter-spacing: -0.8px;"><b>Letter 2 May 2020:</b> </span><br />
<i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; letter-spacing: -0.8px;">Sir</i><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.8px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The leading article ( The case for trust,25 April) tells that The Spectator was fighting for the extension of the franchise prior to the 1832 Reform Act. Is it open to a modern battle at an opportune time to empower many more? Universal Basic Income is surely an idea whose time has come. Under Covid-19, the government on the one hand is pouring patchy financial support into some businesses through a hotchpotch of measures, while Universal Credit has been shown that it is an inadequate personal welfare idea even in high employment time. In certain ways, UBI would address both these issues rather better by giving financial backstop to every individual in the new unknown post Covid-19 'normal'.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.8px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.8px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>James Forsyth ( The communitarian Conservatives', 18 April) quotes Rishi Sunak : 'the simple idea that we depend on each other'. The Citizen's Income Trust has done much research and has careful proposals to make UBI affordable and workable. In the times of high unemployment likely to be ahead, Conservatives could catch trending communitarianism by helping individuals and families directly. The time is ripe for a new empowering of citizens.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.8px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Charles Bazlinton. </i></span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.8px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.8px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Empowering individuals and families the way of Basic Income was mooted by labour at the last election. For the Tory- leaning Spectator to publish a letter on the subject is interesting. Bi-partisan support?</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.8px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.8px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Basic Income idea is a theme of the book : The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom. But safeguards are needed in its implementation. </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.8px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Posted by Charles Bazlinton.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.8px;">Author </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.8px;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom.</span><span style="color: red;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.8px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.8px;"><a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/thebook/order.htm"><span style="color: red;">Buy the book: £3 post free</span>.</a></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; letter-spacing: -0.8px;"> </span></div>
The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-7514166567600575182020-03-18T16:15:00.001+00:002020-03-19T14:36:22.248+00:00Another Tory policy? Basic Income (without Government Debt) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Shock! Horror! The Tories have stolen Labour's public spending policies. Chancellor Rishi Sunak has started to undo the austerity that his own party imposed for a decade which, as Headley Stone wrote (<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/39f36842-49a7-11ea-aeb3-955839e06441"><span style="color: blue;">FT letter 15 Feb</span></a>) '<i>has brought the UK's public services to its knees'</i> . </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Commenting on the budget in the</span> FT on 11 March, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/5642b858-637a-11ea-a6cd-df28cc3c6a68"><span style="color: blue;">Martin Wolf wrote</span></a>: <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>'It makes sense for the government to borrow to spend, especially on investment. I have been arguing this for a decade. The decision to cut investment right after the financial crisis was a classic bit of Treasury idiocy. Now ...with employment high ...no longer the ideal time....But it is still a risk worth running provided the money is well spent which one has to doubt, given the hurry.' </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What is it about our party politics that had George Osborne, a Tory chancellor imposing harsh measures for a long time to the detriment of the common good and now has a successor from the very same party determined to undo it? Left-leaning polices have now become the centre ground but have been cleverly captured by the politicians of the old right. At long last, new enabling fiscal policy that for so long has been proscribed, will be relaxed, but if Mr Wolf is right not with the best timing. Incidentally the investment </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">will benefit bankers and large funds as the money will be borrowed from them. It need not be that way, as sovereign governments can </span><a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2017/12/re-nationalisation-at-zero-cost-no-debt.html" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">create money debt free</span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The huge impact of Covid-19 on the economy and on households will surely need 'helicopter money' </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">for every citizen and the news is that <a href="https://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/FTUK/Default.aspx"><span style="color: blue;">President Trump</span> </a>is planning to <i>'send out cheques to every American within two weeks' </i>to achieve a boost.<i> </i>There are people calling for such a measure in the UK. A</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> UK petition is running with an ambitious plan to set a basic income at £1000 per month, sign here: </span><a href="https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/introduce-a-universal-basic-income-into-the-uk" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Basic Income</span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> . This: <a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2013/11/qep-quantitative-easing-for-people.html"><span style="color: blue;">QE for the People</span></a> explains how it would work without raising new government debt. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What may well be started as an emergency measure to plug depleting household budgets by a free handout, needs to become a standard fact of life for every citizen. Everyone needs sheltering from the whirlwind caused by Covid-19 and the usual rollercoaster of flip-flopping politicians who play with our livelihoods through shortsighted policies. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Posted by Charles Bazlinton author <a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/thebook/index.html"><span style="color: red;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <span style="color: blue;">£3 </span> </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></div>
The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-78541127710718995442020-01-27T11:46:00.000+00:002020-01-27T23:03:07.815+00:00Brexit is done. Get Fairness Started<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The boring and brilliant 'Get Brexit Done' tag did it for the Tories with </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Brexit voters gifting the election to the Tories with an extraordinary 80 seat majority for Boris Johnson as Prime Minister. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Labour's diligently crafted policies were ignored in the face of the big issue that triggered the winning votes. Some long established Labour constituencies switched to the Tories. Is this a sea-change or a one-off blip? </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In five years time will Labour voters revert? Or w</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">ill Labour fade away as a major party? </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For the new Tory administration pressure must be on to do whatever will retain the old Labour seats in an election by 2024. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2019-12/general-election-2019-poll-aggregate-v8.pdf"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Young people voted heavily for Labour </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">in 2017, and also </span></span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2019-12/general-election-2019-poll-aggregate-v8.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">this time</span></a>; with Remain not being a big enough issue for enough of them to abandon ship for the pro-EU Lib-Dems or Greens. Of these, full-time students voted massively for Labour with x3 times as many as voted for Conservative. Their manifesto pledge to <a href="https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Real-Change-Labour-Manifesto-2019.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">abolish tuition fees and bring back maintenance grants</span></a> obviously did it for Labour. The Tories would be advised to do something similar and neutralise the appeal of Labour for students. After all there will be added students next time and some older Tory votes may just not be - both trends will endanger the Tories. How about a<span style="color: blue;"> <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2010/11/werner-on-student-tuition-fees-2.html"><span style="color: blue;">lifetime grant for education</span></a> </span></span>with created money as proposed by Prof Richard Werner? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Home renters tended to vote Labour, and owners Conservative. This aligns with the age bias generally, with older people voting Tory. The <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45084530"><span style="color: blue;">disparity of home ownership</span></a> between age groups continues to grow for all income groups. This despite the Conservative Help-to-Buy schemes which become Help-to-Bonuses for <a href="https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-5904223/More-100-managers-join-Persimmons-bonus-gravy-train-300m-windfall.html"><span style="color: blue;">house developers</span> </a>. If a carefully designed land value tax scheme gradually replaced income tax, property prices would adjust and affordability of ownership return for the younger, lower earners, and even homeowners might see the fairness of getting their family on the housing ladder as they did for themselves decades ago <a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2018/01/what-john-kay-citizens-income-trust.html"><span style="color: blue;">See this blog</span> </a>Jan 30, 2018. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Does it matter that the home-owning dream is dying in the UK? Are Conservatives still the party of the home owning democracy?</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Does this growing unfairness bother them?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The new government is being given advice about spending £billions on infrastructure in the midlands where their new ex-Labour voters live. The lead time for these is many years and is not a particularly personal vote winner - so why not borrow a Labour proposal and pilot a <a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2018/01/what-john-kay-citizens-income-trust.html"><span style="color: blue;">Universal Basic Income</span></a> scheme to tackle enduring poverty? What better and fairly quick way to capture and keep voters voting for you? Fairness, particularly for young, poor voters. Use UBI as a basis for Universal Credit reform. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Incidentally, if spending £billions on infrastructure the Bank of England agrees that it is possible to <a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2014/03/bank-of-england-concurs-with-prof.html"><span style="color: blue;">create money for public spending interest-free and debt-free</span></a> (no tax cost) and George Osborne (remember him?) agreed too but didn't bother, or dare, to use this <span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2016/06/brexit-inducer-george-osborne.html"><span style="color: blue;">monetary tool for the common good</span></a>.</span> </span> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And what about promoting local banks to supply credit where needed - locally? Labour were going to do so based on the Post Office network. Dr Plamen Ivanov, a leading proponent of economic benefit through local banks, argues the local case from a<span style="color: blue;"> <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2019/08/plamen-ivanov-reveals-strange-origin-of.html"><span style="color: blue;">new study of the origin of the Bank of England</span></a>.</span> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Is the Tory victory to be compared with Benjamin Disraeli stealing Gladstone's Liberal policy of extending the voting franchise in 1867? Not quite in the same way. Brexit as an issue will fade, bringing other election issues. If the Tories come up with 'borrowed,' policies Boris may do a full </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Disraeli, next time. But don't forget that in 1868 the Tories lost the next election even after 'Dishing the Whigs' having added new voters. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Posted by Charles Bazlinton: <a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/"><span style="color: #e06666;">Author of The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</span></a>. Also: Promoter of Local Community Banks. </span></div>
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The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-47834208750606135942019-12-02T14:15:00.000+00:002019-12-02T14:15:14.397+00:00Election 2019. Debt-free public funding: broadband, water, energy. Public debt mountains not needed....<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Labour party has said it will bring utility companies into public ownership:</span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> We will bring rail, mail, water and energy
into public ownership to end the great
privatisation rip-off and save you
money on your fares and bills.
We will deliver full-fibre broadband
free to everybody in every home in
our country...</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">See:<a href="https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Real-Change-Labour-Manifesto-2019.pdf" style="color: blue;"> Labour Manifesto p7 </a>. Subsequent reported statements say that they will issue government bonds to do so - that is: borrow money and pay interest on the new debt. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lord Vallance of Tummel (ex-BT Chair) writes in <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/times-letters-the-duke-that-interview-and-trial-by-media-shdj9x0nb"><span style="color: blue;">The Times 19 Nov 2019</span></a> that the reason BT was privatised was to access sufficient capital for technological transition to digital. He states that telecoms ranked lower than the NHS, police, defence etc. in the annual spending round and says there is no reason to believe that these priorities would change if BT came back to public ownership. He clearly does not realise what a government of a sovereign state with its own independent currency can do, to provide tax-free, debt-free funds. Free money can be issued for non-inflationary productive investment such as developing broadband, railways, etc. No borrowing from banks is needed at all, Lord Vallance. No queues. No begging bowls. Just careful management of how the money is handled. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As <a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/articles/TheBroadbandInitiative.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">Prof Richard Werner wrote</span></a> back in 2010, specifically on broadband investment:</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Government Money</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i> One principle in monetary economics is that money creation used for productive purposes is
not inflationary. It is therefore possible to finance the Broadband Initiative with the creation of government money, without anyone incurring any costs or debts, and without any interest burden. From an economics perspective this is indeed the most efficient way to fund such productive government expenditure </i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, concurred with that same view through a </span><a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/221567/ukecon_mon_policy_framework.pdf" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Treasury briefing document in 2013</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> (see para: 3.34), that money creation can be carried out to finance fiscal deficits, thus:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> <i> '</i><i> It is theoretically possible for monetary authorities to finance fiscal deficits through the creation of money. This would allow governments to increase spending or reduce taxation without raising </i></span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">corresponding finance from the private sector.' </i><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">All the main parties are into spending much more government money than in the austerity days. But none of them mention money creation as a tool for financing public needs. Instead there are scare stories about public debt mountains and more tax. But if pension funds had their utility assets bought up through debt-free funding (no debt mountain-building) they could invest the cash in productive industry and commerce - Hey! there's a new capitalist idea for financial wizards to think on. A resurgence of new and newly capitalised businesses to fund our pensions? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To prevent a property market boom through the cash released from re-nationalisations, the Labour idea of land value tax on commercial property would be a wise move. (<a href="https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Real-Change-Labour-Manifesto-2019.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">Labour Manifesto p50</span></a>). </span><br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Posted by Charles Bazlinton. Author: <a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/"><span style="color: red;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</span></a></span> </span></span> </h4>
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The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-19366561665036930302019-08-06T12:05:00.000+01:002019-08-10T13:04:55.654+01:00Plamen Ivanov reveals the strange origin of the Bank of England. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">At the pinnacle of our capitalist system is perched the Bank of England which Dr Plamen Ivanov calls <i>'this key capitalist firm'. </i>An apt phrase given that the Bank has seemed u</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">nquestionably authoritative and essential to the economic working of the UK for over 300 </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">years. However, inequality under this system grows </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">despite </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">political efforts to the contrary, so given the premier role of the Bank can it be that it is </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">a cause of the inequality? Or is it just a neutral, disinterested player in a democratic system run by others? Dr Ivanov </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">reveals hidden and barely understood facts around the Bank's origins that befog the truth about the mechanism working our money system even today, and which he does blame for the disparities. He shows that what started in 1694 continues to this day, powerfully unabated through all banks which operate under what amounts to a marketing franchise which originated with the Bank and is regulated by it. The know-how and procedures of banks follow the model, with the result that the loans issued by them brings enrichment to their </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">top managers and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">shareholders, even today, just as happened </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">for the Bank itself after its f</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">ormation in 1694 and for 250 years after. But Ivanov is hopeful that all is not lost for fairness, as there are benign banking ownership models for us to follow. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dr Ivanov's doctoral paper that explores these themes is </span><a href="https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/429609/"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Bank of England: A Socio-Economic Inquiry into Private Money Creation, Public Debt Financing and the Long Run Implications for Inequality in Britain and beyond</i></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><a href="https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/429609/"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></a>(Oct 2018) </i>and h<i>e </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">acknowledges the insights of Prof. Richard Werner's key credit creation work in the writing of it. It </span></span>is about </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">how the Bank made waging a long war more possible for the government of the day and facilitated that by </span>taxing ordinary citizens to the huge financial benefit of a small group of Bank</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> directors and shareholders. But he shows how national wealth creation might be made more sustainable and be better spread through logical and proven reforms. Whilst public (government) debt with its constant demand for interest payments is used to this day by politicians as a tactic to impose austerity for citizens, Ivanov questions the need for the national debt at all.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">With the takeover of the throne of England by Prince William of Orange </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">of The Netherlands </span>in 1688 a new era of state finance began. For centuries the ancient <i>'dual policy purpose of a monetary and fiscal tool</i>' - the tally stick system - was a: <i>'public credit system [which] allowed state bureaucrats to spend beyond
the annual tax revenue by obtaining credit from the public via the issuance of receipts of future
taxes paid'</i> <i>(p143)</i>. The earlier rulers had resorted, apart from this tally stick system, to funding by means including borrowing from goldsmiths, customs levies, other duties and land tax, all of which, contemporary sources acknowledged, had been sufficient to pay for wars. But the new Bank of England introduced a method for government funding through the new national debt specifically secured against new taxation. This relieved the king of money worries in a novel way, and bound the taxpaying people to the enrichment of the Bank's shareholders forever, especially if long wars ensued.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">pressing political scenario preceding Prince William and Mary's English adventure was that Louis XIV of France had been empire-building on the continent of Europe for over two decades. Due to murderous religious intolerance he had caused a mass exodus of Huguenot protestants in 1685 and many fled to The Netherlands and England. As Louis' campaigns grew, unfortunately the Dutch people themselves were losing the inclination to resist and might possibly withdraw from the conflict. William was in danger of becoming isolated from his people in this and engineered to unite his domain with the English so that opposition to Louis would be strengthened with the added clout of another nation in the fight. As it happened the protestant English were becoming restive about King James II's catholic preferences. So William (conveniently married to his own cousin Mary who was also the current King James II's daughter) saw his chance and invaded Devon with a fleet four times larger than the Spanish Armada - this was to be a campaign for certain victory. William was rapidly accepted and arrived in London within a few weeks. James tried to retain his throne but gave up two years later after the Battle of the Boyne (1690). For William the regime change was now complete and within a few months of his arrival in November 1688 as King William had joined an anti-French Grand Alliance of nations on continental Europe that endured as the Nine Years War. England was now locked into the continental conflict</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ivanov shows how the Bank of England was founded through the influence of the Huguenots behind a marketing frontman, William Paterson. The</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Houblon family</span> were well established citizens and prime movers with other fellow church people who met in the French Church in Threadneedle Street (the same street as the existing B of E). Their anti-catholic feeling was such that r</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">adicals there had been calling for Charles I's head in a sermon in the church four years before the execution. They had been prominent in bringing William across as king, and now, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">using banking know-how from Amsterdam, they devised the new Bank for the purpose of creating a new national debt for the English to fight the war whilst also bringing benefit to themselves through their personal (merchant) interests: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i> 'the state unilaterally appropriates part of the income and production of
ordinary taxpaying citizens and reallocates such monetary gains to national debt creditors in
order to satisfy interest payments on legal, contractually-binding debt contracts . More precisely, the religious cabal of the French Church at
Threadneedle Street, led by the Houblon dynasty, managed to create suitable field characteristics for the erection of a privately-owned banking enterprise to underwrite national debt
with the aim of self-enrichment</i>.' <i>p31 </i> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So William secured his new throne, and within a few years, the funds to wage a long war with confidence; the populace were expected to support the idea that the war was a defence of their protestantism; taxpaying citizens paid the interest on the war debt through new taxes; and the Bank shareholders and associated city merchants grew exceedingly rich. The national debt grew by the end of the Nine Years War to £17m, with taxation guaranteeing the Bank a very profitable future. In 1832 Sir Henry Parnell reported that the then £28m a year in dividends is: <i>'a transfer of so much money from the pockets
of one part of the public into the pockets of another part of it' p107. </i>At that time the interest on the national debt was above 50% of total government expenditure and had averaged nearly 40% since 1700. Parnell observed the impoverishment of the populace through taxes coincident with the new debt <i>(chart p116</i>) just as Dr Ivanov is showing now. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Another chart <i>(p133)</i> shows how <i>'infrequent wars'</i> in centuries prior the late 17th century changed following the start of the Bank. King William's desire to tie England into his continental war adventures and the Bank as a means of funding it, faciliated an increasing numbers of wars since. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A practice discovered by Ivanov <i>'this surprising revelation' p72 </i>concerns: a) the amount of the shareholder funds and b) the amount of the loan to the government. Did they match up? The shareholders were to raise £1,200,000 which was to be paid over as a loan of £1,200,000. What Ivanov has discovered is that only 60% of the shareholder's funds were actually subscribed but the full loan was paid over, with the bank issuing banknotes to represent the entire loan (<i>p31,p72)</i>. Ivanov points out this was an act of private creation of credit at will, and out of nothing, authorised by the Crown through Parliament, with the Bank having its monopolistic status made unassailable through a Royal Charter in return for the loan. This monopoly endured for the Bank itself until nationalisation in 1946 and endures to this day for the remainder of the banking industry which grew out of it into the UK and across the globe. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b>
So part of the loan to the government was 'invented'; there was insufficient gold or silver or whatever stood for acceptable value deposited </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">by shareholders </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">in the Bank to back it entirely; so it was a pretence to the government that it was there. The Bank issued banknotes and did whatever was needed for foreign transfers for the war payments abroad, and the paper money was spent among merchants - some being shareholders of the Bank. Money circulated into general circulation buying food and supplies, guns, gunpowder, horses, bridles, etc, to fight the French. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dr Ivanov champions two reforms to start to correct the imbalances of wealth and income that have grown up as the national debt pile has been renewed and grown over 300 years. Prof. Michael Hudson is the leading authority on ancient debt forgiveness in Babylonia which has been shown to have been practised when a new king came to the throne. This was to free indebted peasants from crop debts and maintain a free citizenry for public duties attached to their land holdings. The rulers recognised that debts needed periodically to be cancelled or perpetual debt-slavery would ensue. Moses stipulated debt cancellation every 7 years and a return to ancestral land every 50 years - the Jubilee, Leviticus 25. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ivanov quotes Michael Hudson: </span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> 'Indeed, what turns out to be ironic in studying the history of Near Eastern legal practices
is that precisely those parts of the Biblical narratives that hitherto have been most in
doubt – the laws of cancelling debts, freeing debt servants and redistributing the land
to its traditional users – turn out to be the most clearly documented Bronze Age legacy.' p156</span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ivanov says we must somehow<b> eliminate the debt</b>. As '<i>two thirds of the national debt is now owned by commercial banks and firms</i>.'</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <i>p136</i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> to achieve the ancient feature of debt forgiveness, he advocates: </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i> 'governments may issue usury-free money to repay those layers of national debt owed to banking concerns without the need to resort to a great public sacrifice.</i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>' p157</i></span>. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The other proposal from his paper is the formation of many <b>local community-owned banks</b> as have been existing in Germany for more than 150 years. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i> 'all of these
cooperatives strictly followed three fundamental principles: they were self-help institutions,
relied on solidarity, and were self-administering small financial intermediaries … These
cooperatives, which adopted the common name Volksbanken (people’s banks), mainly
operated in urban areas’</i>.<i> p160</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i> 'Since ...the 1970, no savings bank has ever been liquidated and no creditor has ever suffered lossess. Rioural and Dawson-Kropf, 2012 p162</i></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Dr Ivanov credits local banks with the </span>success of the Industrial Revolution in the UK:</span><br />
<i> 'T<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">he increasing number of local banks in this Industrial Revolution period were drawing on
their knowledge of local customers and their creditworthiness, financing the expansion of
entrepreneurial activities and as a result national output (Cottrell 1980). This decentralised
industrial planning through the lending policies of the growing number of countryside bank
concerns was lost with the commenced centralisation of banking in London-based headquarters towards the latter end of the 19th century. This process gave rise to the domineering
transactional lending approach which still troubles the British trade performance' p167</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The community bank model does not involve the nationalisation of banks - which introduces the dead hand of central decision making - but moving ownership to new local, community-profiting banks which would manage themselves independently, and create money to finance local businesses and needs. </span><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This paper is key to the understanding and resolving of economic problems as the wealth and income gap widens. Dr Ivanov's narrative style and his detailed research, convinces. The fundamental rip-off through taxing the people to finance the national debt which was owned by wealthy people (who even invented the money lent out), is almost past belief. Even at the time alternative ownership was proposed by William Paterson who wanted the debt to benefit orphans. But Dr Ivanov gives reasons for hope for us in our day that the slate can be wiped clean and money creation transformed into benign ways. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Bank of England at its birth and for centuries was efficient at financing war, so surely its managers can now inspire us all and enlighten the government to direct finance to make a fairer society? They have immense power to create money for the common good. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act. Proverbs 3.27</i> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Posted by Charles Bazlinton. Author, <a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Charles Bazlinton is a director of Local First CIC which promotes local banks </span></span> </span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></div>
The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-46145852498537424192019-05-05T20:53:00.001+01:002019-05-06T10:03:17.073+01:00Richard Werner is doing better than Benjamin Franklin<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Do you like the idea of the prosperous life which the politicians promise? Last week in Leicester an economist showed an improved way of releasing prosperity. Point by point he showed that the 10 conditions generally deemed necessary for sustainable growth are misleading. He also showed that whilst this conventional, western, economic set of rules has been hopelessly unsuccessful, an alternative has been running for a long time and has proved a stunning success. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Prof Dana Brown, Founding Principal and Dean of the Business School at De Montfort University Leicester introduced </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Richard Werner, Professor of Banking for his </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">inaugural lecture. DMU supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, in particular - G16 Justice and Strong Institutions. The economics and banking aspects of this is what Werner d</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">elivered as he </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">took us comprehensively through basic economics and banking principles. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">His argument firstly demolished the assumption that in order to develop sound, sustainable economies governments must follow the 10 policies of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Consensus"><span style="color: blue;">Washington Consensus.</span></a> These include: austerity, fiscal deficit reduction, privatisation, the opening up of currency flows, free markets (deregulation, e.g. sell your assets to foreign buyers at knock-down prices) and several other items of accepted 'wisdom'. These ideas for promoting structural changes within developing countries in particular are repeated like religious mantras by chancellors of the exchequer, secretaries of the treasury, the IMF, the World Bank and the like. The terms were conditional to IMF 'help' to developing countries in 159 cases from 1973-1994. Werner exposed these conditions as unhelpful to good economic outcomes, and showing that the actual outcomes can include the transfer of power, advantage and control to external entities. His purpose was to show how the most spectacularly successful economy on the planet for the last 30 years tried quite different methods. The title of his lecture was:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Paradigm Shift</b>. How to get sustainable, stable, equitable and high growth. Is everything wrong they ever told us about how economics works and did Deng Xiaoping get it right? </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The bedrock of his talk was how banking works by creating credit (money) out of nothing i.e. how they make the loans. They don't wait for depositors to bring their money in and then lend it out, they just create the money themselves when asked for a loan and then lend it. As Werner has discovered in studies of Japan and now China, as long as general central direction is given that the loans should go into the productive economy (making things, invention, product improvement, et al) this is not inflationary, and the economy then runs sustainably for as long as the overall policy is followed. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">On the contrary what typically happens in western countries is that banks prefer to lend for speculative investment such as for land and built property (real estate), shares and other financial assets, all of which are outside the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) part of the economy. As he explained the power in such non-GDP lending lies with those who hold assets where there is a shortage; thus with more borrowed money funnelled into a market, prices rise, governed by the fundamental principle: higher demand & short supply brings price rises. Thus for deals involving land assets (e.g. existing houses) the land value component rises raising overall house prices; assets such as shares are in limited supply and again, prices rise. This brings the familiar price boom and bust cycle of western economies - caused by unregulated credit creation for assets in short supply. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Eventually the speculative</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> side of the boom gets out of hand and then </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">early speculators sell up and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">banks find they have too many non-performing loans as the asset prices ease and a crash develops, which brings recession and job losses.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">However if</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> investment into the productive side of the economy were encouraged </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">GDP would grow, </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>bringing jobs</b>. C</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">areful management of the financial side of the economy is needed or inflation can occur as consumers raise easy credit. T</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">he sudden demand</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> for limited goods and an inadequate supply can bring </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">price rises. The typical western unrestricted, free-for-all method of the Washington Consensus does not bring sustainable economies, as we all know.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Werner spoke of his findings on interest-rate-setting by central banks. With a colleague Kang-Soek Lee, <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2017/10/richard-werner-and-kang-soek-lee.html"><span style="color: blue;">he has proved</span></a> </span>that </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">the western central bank assumption:</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> that interest rates cause growth is wrong. What happens is that growth drives interest rates, thus high growth brings high interest rates and low growth the reverse. Thus whilst central bank committees deliberate for hours over interest rate setting, thinking they will coax the economy into life or damp it down, what they should seek out is what really drives the economy - the causes and not the effects. Will they heed what <b>Deng Ziaoping set in train in 1978 when he said China would 'seek truth from facts'. Deng was a pragmatist and gave a new direction to his country and was prepared to try whatever worked.</b> Werner said what is called in the west 'the Chinese Miracle' is a misnomer, it is nothing of the sort. What China has achieved is sustained growth through clear repeatable policies and actions. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A miracle has no naturally observable cause.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Recessions can be ended quickly by central banks.</b> Ben Bernanke actually did this correctly after the credit crisis of 2007/8 as the US FED bought up US banks' non-performing loans <u>at face value</u> (not written down value) and cleaned up their balance sheets, enabling them to lend. This happened very rapidly as seen from a chart of the US <a href="https://679artists.com/flow-chart-the-federal-reserve/quantitative-easing-feds-balance-sheet-central-bank/"><span style="color: blue;">Federal Reserve's balance sheet</span></a> , with <a href="https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/25420/economics/us-economy-under-obama-2009-2017/"><span style="color: blue;">GDP growing</span></a> within a year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He examined the idea of equilibrium in markets. Assumptions are made: that markets being perfect, prices adjust instantly, and that markets clear automatically; that there is perfect competition; that all players are rational; that perfect information is available. These are all impossible and it is quite wrong to base policies on them. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Chinese way has been to accept the truth that markets never clear, rationing always taking place, so their government intervention is not a 'distortion', as believed in the west, but an essentially good thing to do, so that bad market outcomes are addressed. </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">M</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">arkets are in pervasive disequilibrium </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Werner stated. He said that believers in equilibrium in markets (he listed 8 'features') were outdoing the Red Queen in the Alice in Wonderland fantasy novel, who sometimes believed </span><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">'6 impossible things before breakfast'</span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He challenged Washington Consensus believers to examine the outcomes of their conditions for sustainable growth. There is not a good track record compared with the Chinese case. One fundamental failing of western economics is the absence of textbook studies on money and clear statements that the creation of virtually a country's </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">entire</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">money supply, is through private banks, out-of-nothing. Until he carried out an empirical study no one had ever checked this money creation out-of-nothing theory. The result can be read</span><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521914001070" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;"> here </span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">and became a most downloaded paper from Elsevier. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A hopeful thing is that <b>bank credit creation is a game changer for any country</b>. With their own currency and banking system they have no need to borrow foreign currency. Their own local banks can create the credit needed in their own currency and lend it locally. Indeed, Werner demonstrated that even incoming 'foreign loans' remain in the jurisdiction of the issuing bank's country, and are merely matched by an accounting procedure in a local bank. When gold was shipped around the world in earlier times there were capital flows, but not now. All that flows is the control of the borrower's assets to the lender. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">China has thousand of local small banks so that credit is made available where the new jobs are going to arise, as the central policy of productive investment is encouraged. By contrast the UK has only 4 or 5 huge centralised banks which leaves a hopeless mismatch of the credit supply needed for the thousands of small businesses scattered over the country that will produce the new jobs needed for a sustainable economy. Werner said<b> big banks naturally want big deals, small business need small loans which are proportionately too much trouble for big banks to bother with. </b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Japan in 1945 followed the above methods and, hoping for a doubling in national income within 10 years after war, achieved that in 4 years and enjoyed 15% year-on-year growth for decades following. China adopted principles from Japan, of investment directed towards production in the late 1970s and had over 7% growth in GDP in most years for decades. By contrast Soviet Russia tried centralised direction of the economy but having only one main bank it failed to achieve a thriving economy at all.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Werner ended his lecture with a Q & A session and appealing for a local community bank in Leicester patterned on Hampshire Community Bank which is near to achieving its license. No staff bonuses - just reasonable salaries</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, a charity is the ultimate owner giving towards local good causes. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Such banks should follow the German local bank models which for more than 100 years: </span><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">have never needed public money to bail them out</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">have never failed paying out customer deposits </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">have under 3% non-performing-loans </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">and provide 90% of SME loans in Germany.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Local community-type banks have a great public appeal as they are based on relationships and trust - as was experienced in earlier times in UK banks. Werner showed that t</span>he prospect for new style local high street banks for the UK is good.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So, how do we consider startlingly different ideas that come from another culture such as the economic success story of China? We are not fussed about buying their goods, so why would a different way of doing economics from China be any different? UK politics is drifting to the left as Labour advocates more state intervention and as their poll ratings gain, perhaps the time is coming when economic lessons from Japan and China are becoming acceptable. Richard Werner wrote <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2018/08/alan-greenspan-cold-shouldered-richard.html"><span style="color: blue;">Princes of The Yen</span></a> </span>which details his findings as to how Japan ran its economy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A somewhat parallel story to this from 250 years ago is in </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/when-franklins-gulf-stream-warning-went-unheeded-v2j5tcrh6"><span style="color: blue;">The Times on 2nd May Paul Simons: '</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/when-franklins-gulf-stream-warning-went-unheeded-v2j5tcrh6"><span style="color: blue;">Weather Eye</span></a>. American sailors discovered the powerful North Atlantic Gulf Stream flowing from America to England. British mail ships faced this as a counter-current on the journey to the America which slowed them. American ships found their voyages to Europe were up to two weeks shorter as they took advantage of the current. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Benjamin Franklin, co-founder of the later American Constitution tried to publicise this navigation scenario. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Despite plotting the current on charts and delivering them to the Admiralty in London he was ignored. Franklin's cousin, a whaler who used the current, told him that the captains of the mail ships</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic;"> ''</span><span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">were too wise to be counselled by simple American fishermen''.</span></i></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It is thought that this blindspot disadvantaged the Brits in the following American War of Independence through delays to supplies and communications. The Brits lost that war. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Werner's audience listened spellbound as his iconoclastic intellectual tornado swept through. Dean Dana Brown seemed impressed. But will there be a Bank of England governor and a Chancellor of the Exchequer who will grasp this economics nettle to reshape the economy with its banking system for the general good? Deng Xiaoping got something right about economics and decentralised banking. With one community local bank nearly ready for the UK the hope of a more stable and sustainable prosperity might be coming, especially if the wider message from China is heeded. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Posted by Charles Bazlinton. Author <a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/thebook/index.html"><span style="color: red;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</span></a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Director of Local First CIC - Promoting Local Banks. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><br />
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The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-60335965904389698342019-04-30T18:05:00.000+01:002019-05-06T21:02:11.305+01:00Richard Werner Inaugural Lecture 1st May 2019 6pm. De Montfort Leicester<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>NOTE: see following blogpost for report</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Professor Richard Werner is to deliver an Inaugural Lecture at De Montfort University Leicester on Wednesday 1st May.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Title: </b>Paradigm Shift - From how we do economics, to our understanding of how money and banking work, to global development policy and achieving sustainable growth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Venue</b>:Hugh Aston Building, postcode LE2 7DP .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Time: </b>Doors open 5.30pm for 6pm start with drinks reception following from 7pm.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>LINK </b>to book your place: <a href="https://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/events/events-calendar/2019/may/paradigm-shift-inaugural-lecture-by-professor-werner.aspx"><b><span style="color: purple;">De Montfort Leicester</span></b></a> and find <b>'booking form'</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We will be exhorted to rescue Alice from Wonderland economics and get her to face reality. For at least 50 years in the West we have been told economics works in a particular way but meanwhile The East Asian High Growth Economic Model has been showing that sustainable green growth is possible without inflationary effects. The economic world is changing its centre of gravity to a new China, Russian, Indian, African bloc. People with openable minds are invited to attend the lecture</span>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">posted by Charles Bazlinton. Author <span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/thebook/index.html"><span style="color: red;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom </span></a> </span> </span> </span></span> </div>
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The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-14159405267000448492019-03-22T23:37:00.001+00:002019-03-23T07:14:39.953+00:00May election, Mrs May. Let the people have their say. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The House of Commons has not yet been allowed a free vote on variations of Brexit in order to achieve a consensus. Whether that would enable a Brexit deal that would satisfy the EU is a moot point, but it is to the shame of government that such an attempt has not been allowed. The current circumstance of a hung parliament would be expected to weaken the government but in not allowing a free vote on variations of Brexit it is actually displaying strength - maybe (final/last gasp?), stubborn strength - but it is having its way. It is ruling. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What we are going through is an aspect of our <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elective_dictatorship"><span style="color: blue;">elective dictatorship</span></a> that Lord Hailsham in the 1970's pointed out is the nature of much UK government. Usually the phrase demonstrates that with a large majority a government can do what it wants given the party whipping system. In the current Brexit crisis the executive - i.e. PM Teresa May plus a few helpers - is very much in charge of negotiations despite not being able to achieve the outcome desired. Obviously it looks to be a 'skin of your teeth' hold on power now, but the years since the EU referendum has shown the domination of the negotiations by a very small core of the executive controlling the important issue. Parliament has not been able to challenge the negotiations, or find out what direction it has been going in to redirect it before it reached the pass we are now in. Much time has been wasted and with it negotiating advantage possibly irretrievable lost.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">An ideal way to test the latest opinion about the EU is for the Brexit dealings to be paused or stopped and for the UK to join in the EU elections on May 23rd. This would reveal public opinion through as many ways as the number of candidates standing. There are 73 UK seats in the European Parliament and there would be a wide choice of manifestos available and preferences would show up in the proportional representation voting system. It would provide the latest snapshot of UK opinion and give detailed insights as to the shape the final Brexit deal should be - if Brexit is what the UK still wanted afterwards. It would get over the need for a second referendum which would take many more months to organise beyond May and brings its own problems such as: which question would it ask?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/elections2014-results/en/turnout.html"><span style="color: blue;">EU 2014 election </span></a>turnout for the UK was 35.6%. For a UK 2019 EU election turnout would surely rocket. The May EU election is a very convenient junction in the long Brexit road which would allow the government to stand back and let the people have their say. A clear, new UK mandate about the EU is within reach. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Posted by Charles Bazlinton</span><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Author</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/thebook/index.html"><span style="color: red;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom.</span></a> </span></span></div>
The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-33946042167926802272019-02-16T20:12:00.000+00:002019-02-16T20:12:19.188+00:00Ed Conway, unusually has blinkers on. About Basic Income. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Horses are sometimes given blinkers around their eyes to prevent them from being spooked by their surroundings. Ed Conway in a recent<span style="color: blue;"> <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/shiny-new-toys-are-starting-to-look-tarnished-9tjz9msr7"><span style="color: blue;">Times article</span></a> </span> (Feb 15 2019) <i>Shiny new toys are beginning to look tarnished </i>investigates recent researches on universal basic income (aka; citizen's income; citizen's royalty) which he says is growing in appeal <i>'a darling of both the hard left and libertarian Silicon Valleys types'. </i>But he comes out against the idea for poverty alleviation, quoting the International Monetary Fund and following their assumption of UBI <i>'Bolted on top of the current [welfare benefits] set-up'. </i>Apart from this simplistic<i> </i>reform he does not investigate how UBI might work along with other changes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i>But Ed Conway can get quite far-seeing. Recently he suggested land value tax in place of business rates and a negative income tax to make work pay. Times Oct 26 2018: <i>Here's the radical bucket-list budget we need</i>. So why the blinkers now? Try looking at land value tax / income tax reform along with UBI? It is easy to put down UBI as John Kay did some time ago,<span style="color: blue;"> <a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2018/01/what-john-kay-citizens-income-trust.html"><span style="color: blue;">see this blog</span></a> </span>, if you choose a narrow focus and don't allow your mind to wander. But isn't this what we need our commentators to do? A deeper look is needed at why the wealth of our society is getting out of balance over the generations. A more holistic solution is needed than picking off individual reforms as unworkable alone. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">See this<a href="https://citizensincome.org/"><span style="color: blue;"> 2 minute video </span></a>for more information from the Citizen's Income Trust. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">posted by Charles Bazlinton. Author: <a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/thebook/index.html"><span style="color: red;">The Free Lunch- Fairness with Freedom</span></a>. <i>An investigation into citizen's income and other reforms to empower people. </i></span></div>
The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-58846986211228890072018-12-23T17:52:00.001+00:002019-12-16T17:10:14.572+00:00After the long Brexit eve, a brighter post-Brexit dawn for citizen empowerment? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The eve of Brexit extends now to two years, but how long yet? Since the referendum we have been in a state of flummox. The bewildering closeness of the pro-Brexit vote in 2016 is now no more decisive, as a perplexed House of Commons tries to decide on the merits of Mrs May's EU leaving deal. Admittedly such a complex thing as a divorce after 40 years between a largish nation and a larger conglomeration of 27 more is bound to be protracted, and any deal bringing a 'satisfactory' outcome for both sides will get brinkmanship added to the bewilderment. So not much hope for a smooth and speedy deal.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Meanwhile urgent matters outside the all-absorbing black hole that is Brexit are neglected. The Universal Credit rollout continues to falter, and volunteer food banks (<a href="https://www.trusselltrust.org/"><span style="color: blue;">e.g.The Trussell Trust</span></a>) get busier relieving the poverty arising from government failure to think the UC project through. Deaths of street beggars have increased with the average age of death of people in their early forties. These are shocking facts. As Bishop David Walker stated on <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0001q4z"><span style="color: blue;">BBC Radio 4 today</span></a> (appx. 3 minutes in): The reason so many are increasingly on the streets is they are <i>'simply there because they are poor</i>'. They are falling through the holes in the welfare safety net, and clearly UC is not helping. The long eve of Brexit is being characterised to ordinary people by such as a parliament fossilising into a prolonged talking shop on only one subject and steadily rising deaths of beggars on our streets - a symptom of a failing welfare system. If such things happen in a relatively benign economic scenario imagine the challenges when a downturn comes. If over 600 MPs and their staff cannot sort out such fundamentally vital human problems is not our democratic system under question? A government with a large majority can choose what it will do, our government has no majority so why can't MP's combine cross-party on non-Brexit essentials? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The shelving by government of new drone regulations in early 2018 has brought us this last week to the closure of Gatwick airport apparently through one nuisance drone. This bizarre aggravation just adds another notch to the failure tally of a government refusing to, or incapable of, focus on anything outside Brexit. UK people are being extraordinarily patient.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">David Walker: T</span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">he reason so many are</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">increasingly </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">on the streets is </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">they </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">are </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>'simply there because they are poor</i>'</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Conservative government is running scared of Labour waiting in the wings to take over and tries to frighten everyone of the possibility. Mrs May, having declared her, albeit deferred, resignation as party leader is now a self-wounded warrior leaving no obvious candidate to lead into the next election whatever Brexit deal triumph she may be able to surprise us with.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It seems Labour is aligning with issues the public feel need sorting:</span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">affordable housing to bring a lost generation of renters into home ownership </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">re-nationalisation of railways and water to stop the gravy train of top management and shareholder rip-offs at the expense of consumers</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">the scrapping of universal credit to set in place a fairer system </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Let's hope what they are planning are long-term solutions. Look no further than this blog for:</span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">monetary policy so as to buy up utilities with fiat money at no interest and debt (<a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2017/12/re-nationalisation-at-zero-cost-no-debt.html"><span style="color: blue;">this blog Dec 15, 2017</span></a>)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">the replacement of Universal Credit with non-means-tested Citizen's Income (<a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2018/01/what-john-kay-citizens-income-trust.html"><span style="color: blue;">this blog Jan 30, 2018</span></a>)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">the funding of Citizen's Income through land value tax, matched with income tax reduction (<a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2018/01/what-john-kay-citizens-income-trust.html"><span style="color: blue;">this blog Jan 30, 2018</span></a>). </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Will there be a brighter post-Brexit dawn? If Conservatives can't get the vision and leadership for citizen empowerment maybe Labour will. Something must be done. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/thebook/index.html"><span style="color: red;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</span></a> UK £3 (post free). </span></div>
The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-15310672140223399322018-08-08T12:23:00.001+01:002018-08-08T12:27:48.449+01:00Alan Greenspan cold shouldered Richard Werner and set back economic progress for decades <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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" 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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Central bankers speak in very measured ways as they pronounce on important things such as the likely track of the national or global economy, Brexit or reading the runes about future interest rates, but what are they really up to? Are they truly working for the best interest of each of us? The Bank of England set its base rate at 0.5% in 2009 which lasted for years until a Brexit dip to 0.25% in 2016/17, and last week it went up to 0.75%. Well paid officials and back up teams deliberated over this inactivity for nearly a decade. But you might say democracy is expensive. But is it democracy? Are central banks answerable to us or anybody? Is there an agenda in central banking that we don't understand? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Professor Richard Werner who revealed the hidden workings of the Bank of Japan in his best selling book <i>Princes of the Yen</i> published in 2001 in Japan, has just <a href="http://quantumpublishers.com/quantum_publishers_book_shop.html"><span style="color: blue;">re-published the book in a new English edition </span></a>which includes a chapter that was missing from the 2003 US, English language edition. Before that US publication he became aware of a problem over one chapter in the original Japanese language edition. It related an interesting story about the US Federal Reserve's then chairman Alan Greenspan. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Werner is renowned for his clarity on banking and he explains these for the non-expert - and for the uninformed expert - in a series of <a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/videos/index.html"><span style="color: blue;">short videos</span></a>. A key banking fact is that ordinary banks create by themselves most of the money we use in society, out of nothing. They don't wait for deposits to arrive before being able to lend. They create the money, lend it to their customers then it goes into general circulation - a new deposit arises in the borrower's account at the point of loan creation so everything balances. In the UK, only notes and coins come from the Bank of England itself the rest of the money is from private banks. It has taken a lot of Werner's career so far to get acknowledgement of this money creation fact officially stated and it is only belatedly, in 2014, that a UK chancellor of the exchequer <a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.com/2014/03/bank-of-england-concurs-with-prof.html"><span style="color: blue;">George Osborne admitted it</span></a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The offending chapter was that Alan Greenspan had discovered the bad effects promoted by the Fed central bank in the 1920s, which had encouraged excessive and unwise credit creation by ordinary banks. He published his findings in a 1967 paper: 'Gold and economic freedom'. And this is just what Werner discovered about Japan in the 1990s! Werner relates how Greenspan in his paper, had shown how the US Fed both allowed the 1920s bubble to arise though unwise bank lending; and then failed to prevent the Great Recession of the 1930s 'the lost decade' when it could have kept banks solvent and encouraged the flow of money into the economy. What happened then was that the political understanding grew that the banking system was powerless (wrong, it was just malfunctional) and that the government needed to take more control to get the economy moving (only needed because the banking system wasn't working benignly). This led to new federal taxes and the growth of centralised control through the New Deal the effects of which endure. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Werner relates about his personal dealings with Fed officials and a brief encounter with Alan Greenspan when Greenspan fully acknowledged Werner's precise findings which he had studied for himself. He then embarrassingly blanked him and moved away from further conversation. <i>'I received the cold shoulder. I began to realise that central bankers did not like my work. I was spilling the beans on their actions'.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Werner considers Greenspan's embarrassment arose because since the 1960s he had been captured by the same power at the heart of central banking he had observed in Japan and recounts so tellingly in <i>Princes of The Yen</i>. For, in his time as Fed chairman 1987-2006 Greenspan behaved as the 1920s Fed had done earlier. He frequently majored on interest rates, which as Werner says are not the determinant for economic growth whilst the quantity of productive credit creation is. Soon after he retired the world economy suffered the financial crisis of 2007/08 '<i>triggered by Greenspan's policies'</i> (see Foreword in <i>Princes of the Yen</i>). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Werner has much to show in the new Foreword and in the missing chapter about how central banks should operate and also how they should not operate. One of his key ideas is that many <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXtO3NRkHu8&t=16s"><span style="color: blue;">local banks</span></a> should be encouraged to form and supply credit to local businesses and local institutions. Central banks should encourage the growth of lending to productive businesses and employment and discourage lending to the speculative buying of assets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/0765610493/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1"><span style="color: blue;">See my and other reviews of Princes of the Yen</span></a>, </span>the book is very readable and insightful. Every politician bothered enough to want to bring a better life for their voters should absorb this story which needs to affect future economic policies. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Greenspan knew what went wrong in central banking in the US in the 1920s and 1930s and failed to practice his insights when he was able to do so. Nearly 100 years of less than optimal economic and financial policy with crashes have ensued from those times. Are central banks democratic? Do they work for the interests of all? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Posted by Charles Bazlinton. Author: <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/"><span style="color: red;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</span></a>.</span> Director, Local First CIC , Promoting Local Banks</span><br />
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The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-15434878327959070772018-05-28T09:31:00.001+01:002018-05-28T09:31:41.093+01:00Rev Michael Curry & that Harry/Meghan address. What's not to like about Fairness with Freedom? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rev Michael Curry might have flung a door open for over a billion people on 19th May 2018 through his talk at the royal Harry/Meghan wedding. The intriguing possibility that society might be transformed through following 'love your neighbour as yourself' - <i>'the good of the other, for the wellbeing of the world, for us' </i>unexpectedly showed up on a hot sunny Saturday in, of all places, an English royal palace. The setting was gilded with centuries of privilege. His inspirational words were like a honeyed dream which we do not need to wake up from because they are grounded in a deep reality - at least for those who want to be awake to the possibilities. And the media is still echoing the Michael Curry impact. The root of the love the Reverend spoke of is in the unconditional love of God for the world as encapsulated by what Jesus achieved and by 'love of neighbour' and its guidelines from Moses for running a society - which Jesus gave his full backing to. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The book </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</i> has the</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> same theme. Anyone challenged by Michael Curry to reform society - by </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">setting new standards for fairness and for freedom for more of us than can afford freedom now, should read it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">'Love your neighbour as yourself', is not just about giving more to charity. The issue is too demanding for that. What is needed is for the creative efforts of everyone to be channelled fairly to everyone, as all are given more freedom to be themselves. Charity was only a backstop under Moses' principles and most modern national welfare is effectively institutionalised charity which is becoming far too big to be affordable. We should </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">move towards a scenario where there is less neediness to be solved by patronising donations. What is essential is a</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> fundamental </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">citizen-based </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">fairness combined with a new freedom for all. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The key for this is not an unfeeling set of rules. What is needed is <i>feeling. </i>How would you feel under the circumstances of the 'other'? Love your neighbour as</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">yourself. </i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Fortunately the tide seems to be turning slowly, <a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/tearfund-land-value-tax-money-reform.html"><span style="color: blue;">Tear Fund</span></a> a noteworthy charity is pressing for such reforms as <i>The Free Lunch</i> advocates. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The <a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/bank-of-england-concurs-with-prof.html"><span style="color: blue;">Bank of England</span></a> acknowledges the principles of monetary reform advocated by Huber and Robertson (see page 44 <i>The Free Lunch</i>) and Prof Richard Werner, which would lift a financial burden from every citizen. Archbishop Welby is on the hunt for comprehensive economic justice which 'love your neighbour ideas' ideas would start to meet: <a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/welbys-wish-list-for-fairness-new.html"><span style="color: blue;">Welby's Wishlist for Fairness</span></a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">'Love your neighbour as yourself' is not a mere comedic catchphrase, it's origins are philosophically founded in ancient, human, spiritual wisdom and has possibilities that would transform fairness for society and extend treasured freedoms to all, rather than just for the currently privileged. To</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"> follow such a paradigm would not only </span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">benefit the poorer with material benefit but would be doing the rich a spiritual favour, because as Jesus said: </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">'How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God'</i><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A wedding. An enjoyable coming-together of two people, family and friends, and a Bishop who trumpeted an old idea to a global audience. B</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">eyond the select wedding crowd in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, his </span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">'love as fire' theme could just catch on for the common good, anywhere.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/thebook/index.html"><span style="color: red;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</span></a> UK £3 (post free). </span></div>
The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-5751137217505571372018-03-26T12:07:00.000+01:002018-03-26T12:07:12.219+01:00Digital subscriber royalty: Facebook & Amazon. A Basic Income resource for the people <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">John D Rockefeller, through controlling oil supply, and Andrew Carnegie through steel supply, created hugely successful enterprises that grew on technological advances and expanding markets. In largely controlling the market (i.e. monopoly), they were able to amass vast fortunes through the control of prices. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/thebook/index.html"><span style="color: blue;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</span></a> explains how such unfair situations can be resolved beyond anti-trust and fair competition laws - (which Rockefeller manipulated in his favour) and beyond the heavy taxation of profits (which accountants can conceal). The book shows how to deal with natural and commercial monopolies which arise when people want a share of the good things of life which are held by a minority. Including such things as land, bank money creation, minerals, technological advances such as radio spectrum, etc. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hardened champions of capitalism might allege that the 'the market' must have free rein to bring the good life for all and thereby solve the socio-economic problems of poverty along with a fairer distribution of wealth achieved through tax. The last 20-30 years at least shows that they are misled and mislead. Some markets have a basic fairness about them with fluid supply matching flexible demand and steady or openly adjusting prices - the ideal world. But a free market will never bring fair distribution and reasonable prices in a monopoly situation. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the case of land for instance, where everyone has a desire to have a home; due to our highly developed cities where high values relate to high demand, not many people can be satisfied. The way to tackle the land monopoly is to tax the value of land each year everywhere, use it for public goods and services and, or, distribute the proceeds in the form of a regular basic income. The tax, a type of rent paid by the freeholder (to t</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">he state that guarantees the owner's title),</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> would resist the monopoly forces which now deprive many people of reasonably priced places to live. It would induce a greater supply by lowering prices, whereas schemes such as Help to Buy only add to demand by pumping in more money - with prices maintained or rising. </span><br />
<!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The book examines several monopoly situations that could be addressed in a similar way. To the list can now be added what is happening as the internet giants of the past 20 years are coming of age and clearly paying very little tax. P</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">hilip Aldrick writes about this in The Times </span> <i><a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/in-the-era-of-digital-monopolies-we-are-being-taken-for-suckers-wd26qh7dt"><span style="color: blue;">'</span></a></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/in-the-era-of-digital-monopolies-we-are-being-taken-for-suckers-wd26qh7dt"><span style="color: blue;">In the era of digital monopolies we are being taken for suckers'</span></a></i><span style="color: blue;"> .</span> He examines the way our personal data is being harvested free and sold on, bringing huge profits for such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">According to the principles outlined in The Free Lunch for monopolies there could be a case of the state charging these near-monopoly digital firms relating to their national user numbers and distributing it in the form of a basic income to all citizens. The value of the product they are handling, our data, has arisen purely through our initial action of signing up so it is a fair deal for us to be given a share of the profit we are the origin of. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It might also make the data privacy issue clearer so that if I were to take an annual fee for signing up with Facebook I would also sign up to allow Facebook to crunch my data for sale to others. </span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Facebook makes $16bn net annual income of which say a 33% fee (appx $5bn) divided by an estimated 2bn users worldwide would give subscribers $2.5 dollars pa. Not a lot, but given the total income of the digital giants is around $100bn the aggregate fee for most people could be over $12 pa, merely considering the new digital firms. But digital marketing information capture started with digitally-read plastic loyalty cards, so clearly any firm or organisation attracting subscribers can exploit customer data for profit and should acknowledge that potential with a annual royalty to the subscriber. Thus to be fair to the digital giants (they are not a special case) any profit-oriented organisation or even non-profit wanting to sell on personal data should give a royalty to the subscriber.</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Our society is now dependent on the digital way of business - Amazon, Facebook, banks, utilities, retailers, etc, etc, - so it would be invidious to merely select their own subscribers for the basic income payback. What is needed is for governments to receive the income stream, from a digital subscriber levy or royalty on every listed subscriber and to pass it on as a part of a national basic income scheme (a.k.a. Citizen's Income; Citizen's Royalty). </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To quote the book, The Free Lunch, wealth sources arise:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i> 'a successful society generates them...are usually limited in supply... are vital to modern living, they are in high demand and are valuable'.</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This new digital wealth source arising entirely from us as individuals and from our actions is waiting to be appropriately redirected back to us via a basic income. Taxation justice for digital monopolies would start be addressed. Such is a way to a fairer society. </span><br />
<span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/thebook/index.html"><span style="color: red;">The book is at a new special price of £3</span></a> inc p&p UK </span> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Posted by Charles Bazlinton. Author The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</span><br />
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The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-86928652786897365912018-01-30T12:56:00.000+00:002018-01-30T12:56:36.145+00:00What John Kay & Citizen's Income Trust agree on about basic income<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Professor Kay thinks basic income for all (not means-tested / tax-free / regular) is unaffordable. <a href="https://archive.intereconomics.eu/year/2017/2/the-basics-of-basic-income/"><span style="color: blue;">His article</span></a> (Intereconomics 2017/2) carefully analyses several international proposals, but it does not take full account of the work of the UK's leading advocate for basic income the Citizen's Income Trust. CIT is confident that their revenue-neutral scheme would make a positive start on the road to a larger regular income than their initial scheme allows for. As they say <a href="http://citizensincome.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Newsletter-issue-3-2017.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">in their critique of John Kay's investigation</span></a>: 'What matters is the direction of travel'. CIT's scheme retains many existing welfare benefits - essential due the the low level of basic income needed to be revenue-neutral, but it is only a start. John Kay seems to assume a full 'living wage' basic income must be affordable immediately or he won't consider it relevant: 'basic income is a distraction from sensible, feasible and necessary reforms'. Both he and CIT acknowledge there could be sources of revenue yet untapped for a full basic income, but whereas Kay shies away from the political difficulties of that, <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://citizensincome.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Citizens-Basic-Income-FINAL_WEB.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">CIT sees the start of an evolutionary reform away from the complexities of current welfare and its disincentives to work</span></a>. </span> <br />
One effect of a citizen's income is that some will use it to pay for better housing with rents and house prices likely to be pushed up. It is fairly clear that the incentives given out by recent governments to first-time buyers are a factor in rising house prices. A new source of income from a regular basic income would enable buyers to afford larger mortgages thus adding to the price hike. For every new £100 per month available at 2% interest another £20,000 of mortgage is freed up, driving straight through to rising prices and rents.<br />
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This blog has always advocated an holistic approach to citizens income to prevent bad side effects. After all if the housing market is encouraged to let rip even more through a basic income aimed to alleviate poverty, what help is that to the poor?<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is not the state planning for
citizens<br />but citizens planning for themselves, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">empowered through a basic
income.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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To block that perverse effect of such a benign thing as basic income, what is needed is the levying of land value tax. This to be charged annually on the underlying land value of the building + land plot. It would have a braking effect on house prices as property owners who could not afford the levy would sell. Mortgage providers whilst assessing the added basic income would have to consider the expense of a regular land tax levy and this would reduce the potential of greater credit, which would lead to price restraint, and not, like the government help-to-buy schemes, a price bubble. </div>
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The levying of LVT would raise a fresh source of government revenue concentrated at the higher property value end (see below). It would address the acknowledgement by both John Kay and the CIT that more revenue is needed to make a basic income more effective against poverty. The national pot to run a comprehensive welfare system founded mostly on basic income is currently limited. But the time is approaching when the the huge shift of younger people excluded from property ownership through unaffordability, will translate into a ballot box revolt in their favour. If we are to continue to believe in a fair society, the haves - the larger property owners - sitting on the accumulating nest-egg gains in their land values, will eventually have to release some of these sooner than at their demise through estate duties.<br />
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Land values, as clearly spelt out in <i><a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/"><span style="color: blue;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</span></a></i> arise from the efforts of us all and are a common resource to be shared. A good start to implementing LVT would be to make a regular charge on a percentage (say 25% representing the land) of the property's value. For political acceptability the overall charge per household would need to be cost neutral for the bulk of hometypes: thus whatever was paid in LVT would be an allowance against a homeowner's income tax. Those in high priced properties having lower earnings would need to consider selling up which would bring a downward pressure on the market and help alleviate the housing shortage. The net LVT raised would go towards increasing the basic income for all. As well as estate duty, transaction taxes such as Stamp Duty could also be abolished and bring a new liquidity to the housing market to the benefit of those needing larger accommodation but prevented by the existence of many under-occupied homes. The Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings owned by companies is legislation that taxes total property value and would need modifying to catch land value only, to adapt it for LVT purposes. <br />
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For the hard case of property-rich / income-poor homeowners with a liability for LVT greater than their income tax liability a deferment scheme should be allowed so that the accumulated LVT would be a registered charge against the property, payable on the next sale. </div>
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Whilst we must be grateful to John Kay for crunching the numbers, the philosophical and moral case should be addressed. <i>The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</i> makes the case for putting the citizen at the focus of politics. This implies the acknowledgement of particular rights for people and the expectation of particular responsibilities from them. A basic income is essential if this concept of a new 'citizen focus' is to have real meaning. This is not the state planning for citizens but citizens planning for themselves, empowered through a basic income. It is a combination of increased fairness and increased freedom for everyone.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Posted by Charles Bazlinton. Author: <a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/"><span style="color: #cc0000;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</span></a></span><span style="color: #e06666;"> </span></div>
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The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-24768016166001833872017-12-15T15:50:00.000+00:002017-12-15T15:54:47.818+00:00Re-nationalisation at Zero Cost - No Debt, No Interest<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For years the owners of Thames Water were able to skim off annual returns above 15% and eventually sell up leaving a £2bn debt with Thames Water. Nationally the private owners of the UK's water companies have taken £18bn in dividends and left consumers with debt of £42bn. The <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/09/even-the-tories-should-admit-that-its-time-to-renationalise-the-water-companies/"><span style="color: blue;">Spectator article</span></a> about this comments that this situation is of monopolies '<i><b>working as conspiracies against the public interest'</b></i> (definition by Adam Smith).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So why not take them back into public ownership? At least we
would have elected officials responsible to prevent more spilt sewage into the rivers and the mending of wasteful water systems. But add to public debt through a buy-back? No need at all. As
a top official at the Bank of England confirmed to me, the Bank of England
could create debt-free, repayment-free money to buy up private utility firms
such as these, with QE-type money creation at zero cost to the public purse.
Price to be paid hopefully adjusted to take account of the huge profit rake-off of recent
years. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The lesson of QE money creation* is as follows... </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">QE money definition:</span></b><br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Money created out-of-nothing-with-no-debt-to-pay-or-interest-to-pay-back </span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Use of QE money over the last decade</b>:</span></div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To buy assets such as Government debt held by pension funds, etc.</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Proposed use of QE type money:</span></b><br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To buy assets such as the shares of water companies, railway companies, etc. </span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We assume that the government is not ignorant of its powers to arrange for QE money for the above purchases. Thus we can only assume that they wish to protect the monopoly rights of banks to create money as debt. Every time a loan is created it is manufactured out of thin air by a bank. This means that the banking industry will continue to thrive, whilst burdening the taxpayer with decades of debt repayment. Will the idea of </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">common good uses of money creation ever see the light of day? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">*<a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/qep-quantitative-easing-for-people.html"><span style="color: blue;">George Osborne admitted the above knowledge in 2013</span></a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Posted by Charles Bazlinton. Author <a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/"><span style="color: purple;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</span></a></span></div>
The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-38292272241623729392017-10-17T12:34:00.003+01:002017-10-17T12:34:54.860+01:00Richard Werner and Kang-Soek Lee. Groundbreaking findings for new economic policy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Central bankers are openly struggling to understand why their low interest rate regime of the past decade has not brought vigorous renewed growth to their economies. This new paper </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800916307510"><span style="color: blue;">Reconsidering Monetary Policy: An Empirical Examination of the Relationship Between Interest Rates and Nominal GDP Growth in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan</span></a> should give food for what rational thought might exist in the high monetary echelons of power. After all, if there is a startling mismatch between the practical outcomes of your policies derived from your theories then maybe, just maybe, you are relying on baseless assumptions?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Werner and Lee have taken great pains to examine the received classical economics wisdom that <i>'lower [interest] rates stimulate growth and vice versa' .</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They say there is a paucity of empirical evidence to back up this belief in the <i>level </i>of interest rates <i>determining</i> economic growth. After examining half a century of data across four major economies involving 'varieties of capitalism' they conclude that the theory that low <i>interest rates cause </i>economic growth is rejected in 6 out of 8 cases and rejected in 8 out of 8 cases when 2 years of leads and lags were considered. However the alternative hypothesis that <i>economic growth determines </i>interest rates, is supported in 8 out of 8 cases. <i><b> '..long-term and short-term interest rates follow the trend of nominal GDP, in the same direction, in all countries examined'.</b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This has huge implications for public policy. The authors suggest that the policy makers drop the theory of price of money (interest rates) and that it be replaced by the quantity of money theory. Thus:</span><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>the quantity of credit (the source of the money supply) should be the key driver </li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">the raising of short term rates, to encourage banks to lend due to future higher rate expectations </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">the large scale central bank purchases of bonds should stop - they should be sold instead (which would raise interest rates)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">the bank sector be structured to deliver credit creation for productive purposes</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">the backing of fiscal policy with monetary policy by ceasing the issue of government bonds but instead, borrowing from banks</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">that 'green quantitative credit guidance ' becomes a policy to ensure that sustainable projects are encouraged through central bank 'window guidance' or through a decentralised local banking system</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The paper concludes by reaching ahead to the idea of examining the possibility that the existence of interest itself imposes pressure on economies to grow unnecessarily thus depleting natural resources. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The question is: How such a radical and necessary change Werner and Lee propose could begin to be managed? To take one obvious point: millions have low interest mortgages and the raising of interest rates would threaten the financial stability of many households. Additionally with increasing costs of mortgages reducing available funding, dropping house prices would leave many lenders uncovered by the equity in the property. Safeguards would be needed. There would probably have to be a mandatory fixing of interest rates for existing mortgages for some years. But as central bankers have created this particular property boom with the low interest rate policy they should get along with government and work together to solve it, given the new insights of this paper.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The paper shakes one part of the house of cards that is our economy. As <a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/"><span style="color: blue;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</span></a> points out, our society is built on unfairness. Our treatment of land, houses, banking and monopoly powers have embedded poverty for many and wealth for a few. Werner and Lee have painstakingly delivered truth as it is and not as it is taught in countless economics schools and universities. Who from the world economics establishment will grasp the implications? Which wise politicians could unite us all - losers and winners - to take a fairer course in the future and redirect us all towards the common good?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">posted by Charles Bazlinton. Author <a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/thebook/index.html"><span style="color: red;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom</span></a></span></div>
The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35166732.post-89313166621179049482017-09-07T10:12:00.000+01:002017-11-03T10:38:47.573+00:00Welby's Wish List for fairness. A new mandate from the IPPR rooted in the common good.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The IPPR (Institute for Public Policy Research) has published its interim report <a href="https://www.ippr.org/files/2017-09/cej-interim-report.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">'Time for Change: A New Vision for the British Economy'</span></a>. Archbishop Justin Welby is leading the publicity with an FT article '<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/64f88e80-918c-11e7-83ab-f4624cccbabe"><span style="color: blue;">What sort of British economy do we want for our children?</span></a>' [Digital title: British society deserves an economy rooted in the common good']. He continues the <a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/magnificent-words-from-both-corbyn-and.html"><span style="color: blue;">May/Corbyn themes</span></a> (our last blogpost):</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Theresa May, PM: '<i>We will make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few but for every one of us.'</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Jeremy Corbyn, Opposition Leader:<i> 'For the many, not the few'.</i></span><br />
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Welby calls for comprehensive economic justice - socially, regionally, generationally, environmentally - and from the IPPR report highlights his priorities: the need for reform of the education system; a fairer tax system; decarbonisation; improvements in public and private pay and the expansion of the housing stock. He believes most people want a system working in the service of human flourishing and the common good and asks why are we hearing '<i>Why are so many people so poor when others are so rich?</i>' and '<i>Why are young people going to be poorer than their parents? </i></span><br />
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An interesting aspect of the report is its criticism of recent economic policy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b>We have experimented with bold monetary policy, but are
constrained by pre-Keynesian fiscal orthodoxy. </b></i>It points out the significant cuts in public spending due to government austerity programmes and says that austerity has not worked well. It suggests that monetary policy has been majored upon but helpful fiscal policy has been neglected. It wants government-initiated investment for growth and monetary policy to be coordinated to redress this, with the Bank of England advising on the integration of monetary and fiscal policy. <b>Personal note: Ask a high official at the Bank (as I have done) if it would be possible to invest in an industry by creating money in the QE manner - at no interest and no repayment - and they will affirm that it can be done. The IPPR obviously thinks so too and wants a change. It wants the hands of the Bank untied so that it can join in to help the economy in new ways. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Most items on the Welby Wish List could benefit from ideas promoted on this blog over the years. Some of these are indeed mentioned in the report, which is a strong vindication of the views of book The Free Lunch- Fairness with Freedom. Such as: Education reform using monetary policy to <a href="https://the-free-lunch.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/occupy-cambridge-richard-werner-on.html"><span style="color: blue;">fund education grants</span></a> (Prof. Richard Werner); improving pay by <a href="http://basicincome.org/news/"><span style="color: blue;">universal basic income</span></a> ; a fairer taxation system which also helps the expansion of the housing stock through the incentive for development through a new <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.henrygeorgefoundation.org/"><span style="color: blue;">land value tax</span></a> .</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Under the final heading (IPPR p81-83) <i>'</i><b>Inequality and public purpose</b><i>' </i>the report challenges the way we have measured success over the last 50 years and includes:<i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>'..inequality is largely a result of the ability of economically powerful groups in society to extract ‘rents’ or incomes beyond those earned by their economic contribution'. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This gets to the heart of the matter in the way of the principles of The Free Lunch. In the vital matter of banking (IPPR p80):</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <i>'new insights into
how the banking system creates money in modern economies, and therefore the
role and limits of government or central bank monetary policy'.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The IPPR needs to look further into Richard Werner's <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781403920737"><span style="color: blue;">New Paradigm in Macroeconomics</span></a> who is arguably the first modern economist to have this insight. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A banking problem from the report shows how only 5% of UK bank lending goes for businesses (15% in the Eurozone) with most going to land and property lending:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>'The bulk of real estate loans and mortgages do not increase the productive capacity of the economy or contribute to growth; instead their primary effect is to drive up asset prices'.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To redress the bank lending imbalance the IPPR wants regional banks with </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">'geographically bounded mandates to support the local economy'</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> . </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It is happening already! The <a href="http://hampshirebank.org/"><span style="color: blue;">Hampshire Community Bank</span></a> is likely to be the UK's first such regional bank and it is designed to that pattern. Additionally, being owned by a charitable foundation it will use its profits for the common good in its area and not for the high staff salaries and bonuses so roundly criticised in the IPPR report and by Archbishop Welby. Hampshire Community Bank in its whole ethos, aims to change banking for the better. Banking for the common good. The bank, whilst not open for business yet, is currently in its licence application stage under the Bank of England's PRA. Such distinctive banks are needed across the UK. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">These new banks will play one part in a greater fairness for all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">With </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">political parties broadly united over the fairness theme, and w</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">ith the IPPR's excellent report spelling out some telling home truths over broad areas of economic life, the prospects that something serious for fairness will be done, are good.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Posted by Charles Bazlinton. Author : <a href="http://www.the-free-lunch.com/thebook/index.html"><span style="color: red;">The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom.</span></a> Director: Local First CIC which is promoting Hampshire Community Bank.</span><br />
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The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05419094787660283040noreply@blogger.com0