Al Jazeera recently aired a short program which explains how banks create money out of nothing when they make a loan - pity there aren't any UK broadcasters willing to expose this fact to the general public. http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/cou ... 59268.html Conservative economic thinking - cuts and austerity for the plebs - leads to a shrinking of the money supply and a collapse of the system. Labour economic thinking - more government debt - would merely kick the debt time bomb down the road for a few more years till is finally dawns on people that these debts are unpayable leading to a collapse of the system. When will somebody in power address the real economic problem, namely our debt based monetary system?

Al Jazeera recently aired a short program which explains how banks create money out of nothing when they make a loan - pity there aren't any UK broadcasters willing to expose this fact to the general public. http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/cou ... 59268.html Conservative economic thinking - cuts and austerity for the plebs - leads to a shrinking of the money supply and a collapse of the system. Labour economic thinking - more government debt - would merely kick the debt time bomb down the road for a few more years till is finally dawns on people that these debts are unpayable leading to a collapse of the system. When will somebody in power address the real economic problem, namely our debt based monetary system?

Hasn't this topic (not the TV broadcast) been covered on here often enough?

I think we all know (bar one or two Conservative hard core) that it's all smoke and mirrors.

The usual question that pops up is "Show me what a pound looks like, not a coin but that which the bearer will be paid on request". It can't be done.

Why anyone would think this is news is beyond me. Any form of money IS money for the reason, and only the reason, that you can exchange it for goods and services.

What is smoke and mirrors? The example given is basically that I go to the bank for a £1000 loan, they secure it on an asset of mine and then credit my account with the money. The point being, they did not "have" £1000 to lend me.

Well, of course they did, if it is relevant. I could go to the bank tomorrow and withdraw the £1000 in cash. But that seems to me to make no difference. The bank has given me the tokens with which I can buy £1000 of goods or services. It has not created anything. It has lent me real money I can spend on whatever I want, and if I default, it will sell my asset and get its money back that way.

Tell me this- if the bank HAS "created" money out of nothing, then where does this go? Let's say I repay the loan in full, with £100 interest. Seems to me that the bank is back to square one as far as the £1000 is concerned, but it is £100 better off in respect of the cash i paid by way of interest.

If as alleged the bank had "created money" out of nothing, then where has it gone?

I'm just astonished that nobody has mentioned this before.

~coffee splurts over keyboard~

Ta.

How do I get Nationwide to accept a goat and three chickens in lieu of my mortgage payment?

Have you tried the Mogadishu branch?

Use an intermediary (which could even be a member of Nationwide staff) to exchange your goat and chickens to a medium of exchange they will accept.

Does LeighGionaire have a form of autism?

There is at least one bank out there would be quite happy to launder a goat or two.