This term was created by Congressman Ron Paul for the US, but it applies to the UK equally.
A very shocking example is this Sunday Mail article from October 31st, 2009: Secret court seizes £3.2bn from elderly and mentally impaired.
Filed under: On behalf of victims | Tagged: victimisation | Leave a Comment »
Here is another “whistleblower” from the camp of economists. As a mathematician I have long been appalled how economists parading as pseudo-scientists, abusing maths for their purposes, only to protect bad banking and accountancy practices.
PRESS RELEASE
From Professor Geoffrey M. Hodgson
g.m.hodgson@herts.ac.uk
www.geoffrey-hodgson.info
The Business School, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9AB, UK
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Financial Crisis: How Economists Went Astray
Filed under: Economics | Tagged: economists | Leave a Comment »
We are preparing for another meeting at the House of Commons on Tuesday, October 27th, at 3pm.
Please send an email if you plan to attend.
And please feel encouraged to send in your story using this EDM 1297 Case Template. We want to group cases with a view to changing the law.
Filed under: Engaging with MPs, Future laws, Political initiatives | Tagged: tackling oppression | Leave a Comment »
strong>The Queen’s question is being made topical: at the London School of Economics she asked why nobody foresaw the crisis. Eventually, the British Academy invited a few people and wrote an official answer with the explanation of a “lack of collective imagination of many bright people to understand the risks to the system as a whole”. What a way to wash HM’s eyes!
Here is a letter sent by ten economists.
And here is a list of our letters to her, which all got kind and polite responses.
HM servants in the Treasury have, however, not responded to our documents. She forwarded them to Downing Street who passed them over to the Treasury.
Queen 08 11 05 Re: Restoring the Issue of Currency to the Crown
Queen 08 12 10 Re: Restoring the Issue of Currency to the Crown
Queen 09 02 09 Re: Theire Majesties Subjects may not be oppressed by the Bank of England
Queen 09 03 27 Re: Sell-out of Your Nation’s Assets while bankrupting the real economy
Filed under: Political initiatives | Tagged: Downing Street, Queen, Treasury | Leave a Comment »
03 August 2009
Dear John McFall MP
This is a belated clarification regarding myself in your letter to our Chairman Austin Mitchell MP of March 17. For I am not one of Austin’s constituents, but the organiser of a Forum that has been meeting in both Houses since 1998, as you will see on our archive site www.monies.cc. Thus it will become clear to you that my opinion is not a personal one, but that I promote the concerns of many.
In fact, our analysis is so significant that a human rights lawyer advised us to “go for Parliamentary scrutiny via the Treasury Select Committee”. Hence I’ve attended numerous Committee meetings and gave you a copy of Creating a World without Poverty by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
Filed under: Challenging the Recession, Current Law, Engaging with MPs, Financial Fairness, Future laws, History, Treasury Select Committee | Tagged: Chairman, Treasury Select Committee | 1 Comment »
Early Day Motion 1297 was tabled by Austin Mitchell MP on April 20th and has been signed by twelve other MPs.
It advocates the enforcement of the Bank of England Act 1694 and thus puts the finger on the button of the banking system and its supervisory institution: the Bank of England.
The outcome of our Forum meeting on June 23rd was this new site that gathers complaints with a view to changing the law via Parliament as the highest Court in the Land.
Here are the statements made on the day:
Austin Mitchell MP, Chairman of the Forum for Stable Currencies, next to Brad Meyer who prepared and facilitated the meeting
doneRoger Lawson, Communications Director, UK Shareholders Association
Eva Adshead who made Case Law as a Victim of RBS and the Legal Aid Board.
doneFiled under: Challenging the Recession, Current Law, Engaging with MPs, Financial Fairness, Future laws, History, Regulation | Tagged: edm 1297 | Leave a Comment »
The Challenging the Recession event in the Grand Committee Room of the House of Commons united a panel of seven speakers. Thanks to the gift sponsorship by Brad Meyer of Collaboration, we can offer these video recordings:
– the organiser Sabine K McNeill who has, so far, found it impossible to get funding for her company 3D Metrics. The probability is 2.5% according to the founder of the first Venture Capital fund for women.
done
– the co-founder Lord Sudeley whose greatgrandfather was bankrupted by Lloyds 100 years ago and whose grandmother’s estate was sold by Lloyds against the interest of the heirs
done– Derek Wyatt MP who is advocating the internet as a positive solution
done– Austin Mitchell MP, avid advocator of monetary reform. Three days before the event, Austin tabled Early Day Motion (EDM) 1297: Enforcement of Bank of England Act 1694:
That this House, observing that the intention of the founding Act of the Bank of England in 1694 was `that their Majesties’ subjects may not be oppressed by the said corporation’, notes that those subjects have been seriously oppressed by the Bank’s failure to control the greed, risk-taking and speculation of the banking system over which it presides; and therefore suggests that this oppression should be dealt with as the Act provides by fines three times the value of the abusive trading.
Since Austin travels to the US this week, David Taylor MP will try to turn the message of the EDM into an Amendment to the Budget. As briefing, we pointed David Taylor MP to these banking issues – the ways of oppressing Her Majesty’s subjects.
done– Michael Grimsdale ACIB, a former Lloyds Bank Manager who is helping victims of legal and financial exploitation
done– Abdallah Homouda, a British / Egyptian journalist and TV commentator
done– Wayne Sharpe, founder of Bartercard – using ‘Trade Pounds’ as ’stable currency’
[not yet available]
– Princess Helena Gagarin-Moutafian MBE, a Russian princess who has worked charitably for 55 years – closing on a spiritual note.
doneFollow-up action takes place online via Room 14 – a foundation for change.
The slides that I presented are here.
Filed under: Challenging the Recession, Engaging with MPs, Political initiatives | 3 Comments »
This Early Day Motion was tabled by our Austin Mitchell MP on April 20, 2009:
David Taylor MP tries to turn its message into an Amendment to the Budget.
I had sent the Act to HM Queen who sent it to Downing Street, who sent it to the Treasury which has not responded yet. But, for the first time in her reign, HM Queen has seen the Governor of the Bank of England!
That this House, observing that the intention of the founding Act of the Bank of England in 1694 was `that their Majesties’ subjects may not be oppressed by the said corporation’, notes that those subjects have been seriously oppressed by the Bank’s failure to control the greed, risk-taking and speculation of the banking system over which it presides; and therefore suggests that this oppression should be dealt with as the Act provides by fines three times the value of the abusive trading.
The first MPs have signed. Will you get your MP to sign via WriteToThem?
In our observation, oppressions through banks are due to:
1. There is now only a limited number of qualified staff in every branch. In fact, what used to be professional training for a professional body, ACIB, has become a “School of Finance“.
2. The training in “banking” is limited. It consists only of “sales”.
3. There is now little responsibility in local branches.
4. Instead, all decision making has been centralised. This results in the decision makers having little personal knowledge of the client or a perspective about a business.
5. There is little comprehension of day-to-day business issues.
6. There is no realisation of the criticality of time or expediency.
7. There is limited knowledge of supposed Government support. As an example, the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme (SFLGS) was reducing before the crisis.
8. Instead of joined-up thinking, staff are only box tickers and have no room for initiative.
9. MPs have very limited knowledge of the depth of the problems, even before the crisis.
10. Day-to-day business borrowing for “normal” clients has never been excessive. In fact, it was already very restrictive to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and often even obstructive.
Filed under: Central Banks, Engaging with MPs, Financial Fairness, Future laws, History, Regulation | Tagged: Early Day Motion | Leave a Comment »
JOINT PRESS RELEASE from CompleteMediaGroup and the Forum for Stable Currencies:
Sterling Cash burning into smoke
The event is sponsored by Bartercard, the world’s largest trade exchange. Bartercard enables account-holding businesses to exchange goods and services with each other, saving valuable cash, without having to engage in a direct swap. Bartercard has created a new form of stable currency; the trade pound, which offers one solution to the economic crisis because it allows businesses to trade and grow without the need for cash or credit from banks. This is increasingly important as private banks have replaced money with financial ‘products’ and ‘instruments’ as a medium of exchange; replacing prudence with profits by accumulating toxic assets, packaging unsustainable debts and selling them on to unsuspecting buyers. As a result the banks are suspicious and unwilling to lend or trade with each other.
Please email sabine@3d-metrics.com if you want to attend.
Notes to editor
Cash (notes and coins) and credit make up the money supply. After the Second World War, 53% of the UK money supply was in the form of credit (debt) issued by banks at interest. Now that figure stands at 97%. By making more and more money from credit (or debt) the financial economy is more and more disconnected from the real economy.
This is inherently unstable as the money necessary to pay for interest on credit is simply not there. That means virtually everybody is borrowing at interest to pay off interest as well as capital. The mathematics of compounding interest on interest results in a cycle of boom and bust. Because the money supply being is controlled by central banks, successive UK governments have tended to increase the ‘National Debt’ to fund growth or ‘fiscal stimulus’ packages, rather than make cut backs to repay the debt (unpopular with voters) or print money themselves. [See the Forum’s petition Stop the Cash Crumble to Equalize the Credit Crunch, asking the Treasury Select Committee to organize an inquiry into the money supply. More on http://tinyurl.com/666rwd]
Financial institutions are increasingly using legal enforcement to call in loans, cause bankruptcies, home repossessions, unnecessary litigation and even suicides. Through the national debt they also exploit and constrain the state’s budget, thus limiting political freedom.
The dubious benefits of unfettered market forces and a Western capitalist ideology have faced no serious opposition since Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (restructuring) effectively brought an end to communism in the former Soviet Union. Even communist China has embraced capitalism; transforming its economy and becoming a global super-power in the process. It seems the world has made a collective decision to accept the inevitable economic losers as well as winners; deregulate and let the so-called free market work its magic… but now the market’s spell is well and truly broken together with the global economy.
At the recent G20 summit in London, the governments of the twenty most powerful nations on Earth decided to throw over $1 trillion at the ailing financial system. Along with previous commitments, this will take the total to over $5 trillion spent on propping up some of the biggest of those banks, institutions and financiers which have failed us so spectacularly.
Yet, instead of trying to paper over the deep cracks in the global financial system, we should aim to rebuild a more democratic and fairer global economy. Fresh thinking and a modern-day Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (restructuring) are required for a capitalist world. Ushering in a second decade of meetings, the Forum for Stable Currencies will provide the platform for key decision makers to discuss the hows and whys of creating a better future.
rom
Filed under: Challenging the Recession, Engaging with MPs, Financial Fairness, Money supply, Political initiatives | Tagged: finance, future, press release | 3 Comments »
Challenging the Recession –
Can we change the Economy?
Yes, we can!
Thursday, April 23, 2009, 11am – House of Commons
Grand Committee Room
After 10 years of Forum meetings with topics ranging from what has been contributing to the CAUSES of monetary problems to the EFFECTS of these problems on financial levels in the regulatory environment, this one addresses current problems and suggested solutions, at whatever level of influence we may have. Our panel of speakers will be open for dialogue, so that constituents won’t feel isolated and powerless:
Lord Sudeley, co-founder of the Forum at the House of Lords in 1998: after his great-grandfather was made bankrupt by Lloyds Bank in 1893 and his grandmother’s will was executed to the detriment of the heirs, Lord Sudeley who will highlight how grouping complaints changed the law in the 15th century. His Wikipedia entry is on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_Hanbury-Tracy,_7th_Baron_Sudeley
Austin Mitchell MP for Grimsby, Chairman of the Forum since 2005, received the Attwood Award in 2008 for his constant commitment to monetary reform during his time as MP, not Old Labour but positive geriatric, as he writes on his blog on http://www.austinmitchell.org.uk.
Derek Wyatt MP for Sittingbourne & Sheppey, was a Labour councillor for Archway in North London before being elected in 1997. In 2004, Derek was voted one of the top 100 internet visionaries, and his website http://derekwyatt.co.uk has won three international awards. He formed the All Party Internet Group in 1997, and merged three IT Groups into the All Party Communications Group.
Michael Grimsdale ACIB, Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, was in banking for 26 years with Lloyds and TSB, leaving as a manager in 1993. He now works freelance as a business advisor and consultant, visiting accountants, solicitors and banks on behalf of his clients. In this process, he has encountered so many wrong-doings that he wants to create the Foundation for Change to guarantee access to lawyers for people who are refused legal aid and have no funds left to fight their cases.
Abdallah Homouda is a political scientist who has been working in Britain and Egypt as a highly respected journalist and TV commentator. He has attended many Forum meetings and is particularly interested in attempts to introduce the merits of Islamic economics within the efforts to reform Western capitalism.
The meeting will be recorded on video, and participation will be on a first come, first serve basis. The meeting is sponsored by Bartercard and will be facilitated by the organiser Sabine K McNeill who was a software diagnostician at CERN where the web was born, before coming to London in 1981. As an experienced event organiser and passionate networker, she started the first LETS (Local Exchange Trading System) in London which taught her about the principles and governance of the issuing of currency. Since 1996 she developed innovative software methods and set up her company 3D Metrics.
Right after Budget Day, the audience will be composed from a number of contact lists, including the Singapore Business Group and the signatories of the Forum’s online petitions:
Please email if you want to attend.
Filed under: Challenging the Recession | Tagged: challenging recession | 1 Comment »
