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Blue-sky-thinking
I was involved in Jubilee 2000 (Drop the Debt) as a relatively low-level digital guy. Claim no credit.
But the world needs that again, on a vast scale. Cos we are about to have $500tn of debt owed to nobody, impossible to repay, but crippling
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I was involved in Jubilee 2000 (Drop the Debt) as a relatively low-level digital guy. Claim no credit.
But the world needs that again, on a vast scale. Cos we are about to have $500tn of debt owed to nobody, impossible to repay, but crippling
1/12
After Coronavirus is over (whenever that is) the UK will have borrowed at least $1tn. So will France, Germany, USA, Japan... you name it. We will all be borrowing literally trillions.
From whom? From each other. I owe you a trillion and you owe me a trillion. It's circular.
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From whom? From each other. I owe you a trillion and you owe me a trillion. It's circular.
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At this stage people will say "we owe X to China" or "but what about the banks".
China's economy is built on exporting to 190 countries, and if they're all flat broke, China's economy dies. It's in their interest to wipe off debt and keep working.
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China's economy is built on exporting to 190 countries, and if they're all flat broke, China's economy dies. It's in their interest to wipe off debt and keep working.
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And the banks didn't suffer when Jubilee 2000 wiped out $100bn of money owed to them. The money didn't exist anyway.
If we wipe debts, it frees the economy to grow again. A billion struggling bank customer become a billion paying bank customers, overnight. Ker-ching!
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If we wipe debts, it frees the economy to grow again. A billion struggling bank customer become a billion paying bank customers, overnight. Ker-ching!
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And the debt is meaningless: a mechanism for transferring interest payments from one country to another and back again, without ever reducing the principle.
Remember, after 10 years of austerity, the UK doubled it's debt. Trying to repay imaginary money doesn't work.
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Remember, after 10 years of austerity, the UK doubled it's debt. Trying to repay imaginary money doesn't work.
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Why do I say it's imaginary? Cos money is a representation of work.
But no work is done to create a $1tn bank loan: they just press a button and a figure is added to a spreadsheet. It doesn't represent a physical product or actual labour: it's as tangible as this tweet
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But no work is done to create a $1tn bank loan: they just press a button and a figure is added to a spreadsheet. It doesn't represent a physical product or actual labour: it's as tangible as this tweet
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Servicing that circular, imaginary debt will bring austerity on a scale we can't imagine, cos servicing it DOES require tangible work.
Repaying it will take lifetimes. The impact on growth, lives, hopes...
And we still need trillions to tackle Climate Change. Immediately.
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Repaying it will take lifetimes. The impact on growth, lives, hopes...
And we still need trillions to tackle Climate Change. Immediately.
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Let's not imagine Climate Change is going away cos the roads are quiet. Come winter, millions of homes will need heating all day, when previously they were empty.
The crisis is still building, and will still cost vast sums. But real work, not a spreadsheet
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The crisis is still building, and will still cost vast sums. But real work, not a spreadsheet
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Climate change requires things that actually exist. Actual wind farms and actual clean transport. Actual restructuring of real, tangible things (rather than simply paying people to sit at home).
So why burden the globe with $500tn of circular, imaginary debt right now?
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So why burden the globe with $500tn of circular, imaginary debt right now?
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I don't for a moment claim to be an economist.
But then, (many) economists said it was impossible to drop $100 bn of debt from the poorest 20% of countries, the interest from which was crippling their ability to feed themselves, and which was never going to be paid off.
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But then, (many) economists said it was impossible to drop $100 bn of debt from the poorest 20% of countries, the interest from which was crippling their ability to feed themselves, and which was never going to be paid off.
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Why should we cling to the notion that "this is how it has to be" after Covid19? Why do we have to be slaves to imaginary figures on a spreadsheet?
Ask yourself: what is the point?
And then simply click a computer button to delete the lot. And move on.
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Ask yourself: what is the point?
And then simply click a computer button to delete the lot. And move on.
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Anyway, I suspect REAL economists will read this and pile on. Fire away. I'm simply raising the idea that the thing which worked for the 20% poorest countries in 2000 can work just as well for everybody in 2020.
It just takes the political will.
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It just takes the political will.
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