What are the alternatives?
A possibility came out when I co-interviewed Varoufakis, along with New York Henry George School President Andrew Mazzone, in the fall of 2013. During that interview, I was able to ask him specifically about the monopoly on money creation, something Henry George was against as well. Here is the link to that, as well as to his nuanced response, after agreeing with me.
Would an approach that includes direct issuance of money
(drachmas) by Greece in place of, or in addition to, Euros, better serve Greece and
the EU at this precarious tipping point? I hope the world will find out.
It will have to be soon if it is to be at all. The alternatives are default, a write-down, or dropping out
of the EU, which Syriza and Varoufakis have rejected so far.
From the interview in Fall of 2013:
Minute 6:20 Scott: This is why I advocate along with Henry George and other monetary reformers that we break up the monopoly of money creation itself and that that way the politicians are not going to be bribed by money because they have their own supply. Because it seems that politicians are very cheap in the world of finance that these bankers operate in (and) to buy off for congress is a modest investment from their point of view...
Yanis: I agree, Scott...
...and that they'll continue to do it and the there's no reason not to, as Andy says why they wouldn't. But the only way to break that - I believe - is to break the monopoly on money as well as the monopoly on land and the land in the expansive sense as meeting all resources.
Yanis: I agree
Scott: So if we don't take this monopoly power away from the financiers in around two years then what hope is there for the actual productive class to have any sort of parity in the society?
Yanis: Spot on. I agree. I agree entirely. But there's one danger in this narrative, not that I disagree with you, but we have to be very careful how we hone it because today there is, as you well know, there is a tea party/libertarian argument against the monopoly of money, against the Federal Reserve, against fiat currencies and in favor of a Hegekian(?) blueprint of privatizing money and effectively allowing private...banks to issue their own currencies.
Now this libertarian pipe-dream, which of course is never going to come to fruition, is a political bulwark against the agenda that you just outlined. So it's...we must be very clear about this. It is not...the problem is not that we have state fiat money. The problem is that we have a Fed...a Federal Reserve System, in the United States, a European Central Bank in Europe, which is in the pockets of the private financiers.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
9
7
5
