This document presents a plan for monetary reform, based on a proposal initially put forward by Frederick Soddy in the 1920s, and then subsequently by Irving Fisher and Henry Simons in the aftermath of the Great Depression. Variations of these ideas have since been proposed by Milton Friedman (1960), James Tobin (1987), John Kay (2009) and Laurence Kotlikoff (2010). Most recently, a working paper by economists at the International Monetary Fund modelled Irving Fisher’s original proposal and found “strong support” for all of … Continue reading →

Report of Ethical Finance meeting in Scottish Parliament by the James Gibb Stuart Trust   Scottish Parliament, Thursday 21 February 2013: This event was organised by the Islamic Finance Council and Tods Murray LLP Solicitors as part of its continuing series of “Ethical Finance Round Tables”. Ken Macintosh MSP, the Labour Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth hosted the event and opened the proceedings. Ethical finance, he said, touches on many issues which are debated in Holyrood, including for example, tax … Continue reading →

Ben Dyson has made a Submission to the Treasury Commission on their call for further evidence on the effectiveness of Quantitative Easing and how it could be made more effective. He has addressed three points: The effectiveness of QE so far undertaken by the Bank of England, and how effective it would be if the programme were to be further extended in the future. Should other unconventional policy measures have been used by the Bank of England? Should unconventional policy … Continue reading →

Is Iceland – the wonderful island with just 300 thousand citizens – going to be the first country seriously questioning the privatized money creation and considering Full Reserve Banking proposals? It seems that it might well be the case… A motion has recently been put forward in the Althing – the Icelandic Parliament – calling for the forming of a committee to report on the benefits/costs of full reserves banking. The motion reads: “Althing concludes that the minister of finance will … Continue reading →

An inaugural meeting of the Welsh Assembly’s Cross-Party Group on Monetary Reform has taken place on Tuesday 13th November 2012 in Cardiff. Justin Lilley, one of our key supporters in Wales has written a brief account of the event: It was pleasing to see so many AMs (7) and members of the public attending the presentation, which was very informative, easy to comprehend and refreshingly put together by Ben Dyson. The arguments in favor of money reform are growing in strength as … Continue reading →