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What banking cartels can do, so can governments - but through a much smaller, fairer and more efficient nationalized banking system operating as a public utility. Private financial institutions could still recycle loans but in the way described above.
Another choice would be for government to buy out all banks - a more equitable but unnecessary choice even though it would be quite affordable with the power to create money. What better time than now given the gravity of today's economic crisis leaving world economies close to collapse.
According to Murray Rothbard, the entire commercial banking system is bankrupt. It belongs in receivership and their managements jailed for embezzlement. Taxpayers would save a lot of money, and nations would be on the road to recovery and prosperity.
One observer says too-big-to-fail banks are already stealth nationalized since taxpayer bailouts stand ready whenever they get in trouble - the idea being that costs are socialized and profits privatized, a process begging to be halted. Taxpayer-supported banks "can and should be made public institutions operated for the benefit of" everyone. Given that major banks today are corrupted and bankrupt, now is the time to do it - not as a temporary measure but irrevocably under a totally restructured system.
The Quick Fix - Government that Pays for Itself
How much newly created government money would be inflation free? Could income and other taxes be eliminated? Would it "avoid the 'impossible contract' problem by furnishing the money necessary to cover the interest (not) advanced in commercial loans?"
If government and not banks created money, the amount needed would be less - "without cutting government programs or adding to a burgeoning federal debt." Inflation would be avoided and income taxes eliminated without sacrificing growth and prosperity in proportion to a larger population. More people would be employed as well compared to over 20% out of work today according to economist John Williams when all excluded and distorted categories are included.
Imagine an inflation-tax-free economy with enough government-created money for health care, education, infrastructure development, other productive growth, environmental cleanup, scientific research, development of alternative energy sources, and much more. It would be utopian compared to today's unsustainable system devouring people for profits and heading world economies for ruin.
Under today's "impossible contract" system, 99% of the money supply is borrowed, all at interest to lenders. It means more of it is owed back in principle and interest than was borrowed. The money supply must continue to expand to keep up and prices along with it. The latter could be avoided if a proportional amount of goods and services are created, not at all the case in America with growing amounts of manufacturing offshored under a financialized economy paying tribute to bankers - "for lending money they never had to lend" in the first place.
Roger Langrick solves the "impossible contract" this way: let government "issue enough new money to match the outstanding collective interest bill of the nation" even though it's prohibitive at around $500 billion annually for government debt service alone. Today's public and private debt comes to many tens of trillions so servicing that burden is staggering, yet innovative solutions may handle it, and once done, a brighter tomorrow awaits.
Ending Third World Debt
Today most of it is held by giant US-based banks like Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase. If they're placed in receivership, the "US government could declare a 'Day of Jubilee' " of debt forgiveness, and if done, it "would not be an entirely selfless act." For America to pay off its international debt, it needs all the goodwill it can get. Forgiving other debts would encourage our creditors to forgive ours as world nations have no interest in seeing major economies collapse. What affects one, harms others.
"Our shiny new monetary scheme, rather than appearing to be a slight of hand, could unveil itself as a millennial model for showering abundance everywhere" for the mutual benefit of everyone. It's simple to do - just void out debts on banks' books with a click of a mouse. "No depositors or creditors would lose money, because (none) advanced their own money in the original loans." They were created out of thin air through accounting entries. On banking financial statements, they're liabilities because accounting rules say books must balance.
Once old debts are gone, new ones can be avoided by stabilizing national currencies to prevent devaluation by speculators. Bretton Woods protected against this. A new system is now needed, one that "retains the virtues of the gold standard while overcoming its limitations."
One now in use is to peg currencies to the dollar but with it comes loss of flexibility to compete in international markets or be able to budget enough for domestic needs - with a fixed money supply. Argentina's "currency board" in the 1990s forced its eventual bankruptcy in 1995 and again in 2001 as earlier mentioned.
A global currency is another proposal - one that creates more problems than it solves. The world "is not one nation or one region," and who's to be boss and in charge. Further, if all governments issued the same currency, "the global money supply (would be) vulnerable to irresponsible governments (issuing) too much." Strong ones would end up dominating the weak, and national sovereignty would be weakened, perhaps ended. A "fully dollarized" world is a prescription for trouble enough to make scarcity "the order of the day."
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