Leading the Gaian Revolution: Commonsense for Desperate Times

INTRODUCTION

Gaian Democracies: Redefining Globalisation & People-Power by Roy Madron & John Jopling
Summary

Roy Madron: Biography

Radio Interview with Jane Taylor, from Resonance FM

Email address: rm(at)gaiandemocracy.net

The money that we earn, spend, lend, borrow, pay interest on and more or less take for granted is created at a profit by commercial banks in the form of loans to business, governments and ordinary people.

True, the actual coins and notes that are in our pockets have been manufactured on behalf of the state, but hard cash accounts for less than a twentieth of the money that we actually use. Moreover, for every pound, dollar, franc, mark, peso or yen that a customer puts into his or her account, the bank can then ‘lend' seven, eight, ten times that amount to another customer simply by making the required entries in their accounts.

Borrowers have to pay interest on the loans that the banks have created out of thin air, and if they fail to meet their repayments, the banks foreclose on their real assets - their stocks and shares, their houses, cars, farms, businesses, cash and jewellery. Thus, for lending the money that they have created by an entry in their accounts, banks can obtain real assets from the customers who fail to make the required repayments.

For most people, it comes as a shock to learn that the banks don't have to own anything tangible to back the money they have created. People are even more puzzled when they understand that almost all the money that they - and everybody else - uses in the form of cheques, credit cards or bank transfers has been called into existence `out of thin air'. Banks can conjure money out of thin air because governments allow them to do so, and moreover allow them to charge interest on the money they have created.

Because money is so central to everything that we do, we naturally assume that our money is created by the government on our behalf. In fact, anyone can create and circulate their own money provided that they can persuade - or force - people, businesses and institutions to use the money they have created. Euros, for example, are not yet an official British currency, but they are already accepted by phones and automatic vending machines in London and other major cities. And, in cities throughout the world, almost anything can be paid for with dollar bills.