BANKS HOLD THE POWER DEATH AND LIFE IN ECONOMY
1. We’ve given the power to create money to the
banks, with no accountability
Over 97% of all the money that exists in the UK was
created by banks. Banks create this money when they make loans, which means
that they effectively control where newly created money goes to in the economy.
That means banks have the power to shape the economy.
They've used this power to push up house prices,
inflate speculative financial bubbles, and starve small businesses of
investment. They have no legal obligation to use this massive power in the
interests of society as a whole, and we have no way of holding them accountable
when they use it badly.
2. This power to create money is concentrated with
just a few people at the top of the biggest banks
Just five banks hold (and create) 85% of the UK’s
money, and these five banks are controlled by just 78 board members. Some of
these board members have much more decision-making power than others, which
means that there may be as few as 20 people who take the key decisions about
how much money is created, and what that money is used for.
This is a huge amount of power concentrated in very
few hands, with next to no transparency or account- ability to wider society.
And these board members have no accountability to the public or the wider
economy; their main concern is to increase the market share of the bank, by
increasing their lending (and therefore the amount of money they create) as
quickly as possible.
It’s dangerous and undemocratic to leave this much
power in the hands of people who have no accountability to society, and the
financial crisis has shown how severe the consequences of doing this can be.
3. Banks have more ‘spending power’ than the
government
In the 5 years running up to the start of the
financial crisis, the total amount of loans approved by the banks came to a
total of £2.9 trillion. Over that same period, the government spent a total of
£2.1 trillion. So when banks are able to create money when they make loans,
they can end up with more ‘spending power’ to shape the economy than the whole
of our elected government.1
4. There was never any democratic decision to give
banks the power to create money
When the government talks about privatising parts of
the health service, there is a huge public debate and arguments on all sides.
But there has never been a debate or vote in parliament to give the banks the
power to create money. In fact, the opposite has happened: in 1844 parliament
voted to stop banks creating paper money, but that law left out bank deposits.
Today 97% of all money is made up of bank deposits (i.e. electronic money).
Most MPs are unaware that the power to create money has shifted to the banks.
The power to create money affects almost every
aspect of our society, so it’s worrying that we’ve allowed it to fall into the
hands of banks with no debate in parliament or the press.
-Muhammad Harunrashid-
[Segmen Economy & Business]
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