“Money is a new form of slavery, and distinguishable from the old simply by the fact that it is impersonal – that there is no human relation between master and slave.” |
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| Overview of how money is created in NZ | And from our UK sister organisation |
Campaign featured on prime time TV (7 min) |
IMF working paper explained (35 min) | |
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Following are links to podcasts of interviews on National Radio:
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With Russel Norman about excessive bank profits on 3rd December 2012. 7 minutes.
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with economist and former currency trader Raf Manji on 12th November 2011. Download Ogg vorbis or MP3. 30 minutes
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with documentary maker Ross Ashcroft on the 5th May 2012 whose film The Four Horseman is playing in Auckland and Wellington. Download Ogg vorbis or MP3. 30 minutes.
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with Steve Keen on the 26th May 2012: author of Debunking Economics, and one of a minority of economists to predict the current financial crisis. Download Ogg vobis or MP3. 30 minutes.
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Afternoons with Jim Mora. 14th September 2012; Bernard Hickey begins talking money at the 7:36 minute point, the money creation conversation starts at the 16:36 minute point and the conversation finishes at the 19:00 minute point. Download Ogg vobis or MP3.
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A 13 minute interview on BBC radio four with Ben Dyson, the founder of Positive Money UK.
What's all the fuss about?
“Of all the many ways of organising banking, the worst is the one we have today” Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England.
Speech on 25 October 2010 titled "Banking: From Bagehot to Basel, and Back Again" - page 18.
The numbers in your bank account were created out of thin air by Australian banks (and to a lesser extent Kiwibank), not by the NZ government. Hard to believe? Ask Martin Wolf from the Financial Times – as Britain operates under the same system:
A Working Paper by the IMF titled The Chicago Plan Revisited - released in August 2012 provides a good background on the current system and on page 5 describes banks being able to generate their own funding as "an extraordinary privilege that is not enjoyed by any other type of business".
97% Owned
The one hour You Tube documentary reveals how money is at the root of our current social and economic crisis.
"How does it happen?
In 1844 the British Government made it illegal for anyone to print their own bank notes.
Under New Zealand law the Treasury is the only issuer of notes and coins. But these laws haven't been updated to account for the fact that almost all money now is electronic.
Because of this loophole, banks worldwide now have the power to create money, effectively out of nothing.
Why Should I Worry?
The impact of increasing debt levels may be lost on a lot of people. Follow this link to find out how it effects you.
What should we do?
We need to move from a debt-based financial system (fractional reserve banking) where virtually all of our money supply (98%) is borrowed into existence and bears interest, to one of full reserve. Fractional reserve banking requires permanent growth in the economy which is not possible in a world of finite resources.
Herman Daly, former Senior Economist at the World Bank, endorses full reserve banking during an interview for the forthcoming documentary: Critical Mass.
Who creates money now?
- How does money get into the economy?
- How much benefit do banks get from creating money?
- How much of a cost do we pay?
Under the current system the power to create money in New Zealand belongs to Australian banks: Westpac , ANZ National , ASB (owned by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia), and the BNZ (owned by the National Australia Bank Ltd) who have a 92% share of the New Zealand banking market.
The three domestic-owned banks are relatively small as Kiwibank has a market share of 3.7 per cent, TSB Bank 1.3 per cent and SBS Bank just 0.8 per cent.
The TSB, The SBS Bank, the Co operative bank (formerly the PSIS) and Credit Unions do not operate within the Fractional Reserve Banking System and only loan out the money they have on deposit.
The numbers in your bank account were created by Australian banks (and to a lesser extent Kiwibank), not by the NZ government.
How does money get into the economy?
Banks create new money (the numbers in your bank account) when they make loans. An IMF Working Paper titled The Chicago Plan Revisited - August 2012 (page 5) states that banks "generate their own funding, deposits, in the act of lending, an extraordinary privilege that is not enjoyed by any other type of business."
This means that nearly every dollar in the economy today was created when somebody went into debt. All the money that we need to trade, to buy food, and to run businesses, must be borrowed from the profit-seeking banking sector, at a huge cost to us, and a massive benefit to them.
Refer to the four minute 15 sec clip from our sister campaign in England “Positive Money UK” on "A simple solution to the debt crisis".
How much benefit do banks get from creating money?
In 2008 registered banks in New Zealand made 3.26 billion in profit while the combined profit of the remainder of the NZX 50 (less the banks listed on the NZX 50) made 2.89 billion. (source: NZMEA – 2008 figures).
Approximately 95% of the banks’ profits leave New Zealand for Australia and beyond.
How much of a cost do we pay?
This system works great for the banks, but not so well for us.
When Fonterra has a good year up to $1 billion above the expected payout is injected into the economy and New Zealand has a good year. Imagine if year on year $3 billion was injected into the economy. That is one of the lost opportunities for New Zealand which will be remedied with the proposed system.
It's the reason why:
- The average NZ adult owes $97,000 (including mortgages) almost 200% of the average salary
- 16.5% of the average family's income ($75,000 based on two incomes) will be spent on interest on this debt.
- Government debt now adds up to almost $12,500 for each adult in NZ, costing every two adult household approximately $1,600 in interest each year.
- In 1980, the average cost of a house was roughly 2.5 times the average household income. In 2007, a house cost roughly 6 times the average household income.
It's the major (but hidden) contributor to problems like poverty, debt, environmental breakdown, economic instability and other issues.
We have a simple solution to these problems - just fix the way banking works and we fix money, and remove some of the root causes of many other social and economic problems.