#RethinkMoney – The Greatest Lie Ever Told (Probably)…#TaxAndSpend

GIMMS is delighted to have permission from blogger Duncan Poundcake to reblog his article which was originally posted here

So what have we learned from the General Election of 2019?

Mainly the familiar cry of:

”How will you pay for it?”

”Labour ‘broke the bank”…

”Labour left a note saying  – We have spent all the money”…

Nothing very new in that. We have heard it on a loop for nearly 10 years from many Politicians. Policy Makers, Think Tanks, Economists, The Press and RW influencers, that:

• For Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) to spend is a very bad thing to do.
• HMG is at the largesse of the Tax Payer and is unable to spend for public purpose. HMG must either – a: Tax and/or b: Borrow before it spends.

Why?

• There is an undefined and finite amount of Sterling that can ever be available in the economy.
• Once this Sterling threshold has been reached, HMG must borrow back this Sterling from the private sector, to fund its spending.

Even Labour, with its £400bn spending bill, tells us; Tax, Borrow and Spend is the order of the day.

Unfortunately, yet again, Labour miss an opportunity and tell us the polar opposite of the reality…

1. The UK has ALWAYS been a Sovereign Fiat Currency Issuer…

HMG has ALWAYS been able to create £s at will but there have been numerous times where, by circumstance, or design, it has been limited as to how many Fiat £s it can create.

Since 1971, the UK has been a Sovereign Fiat Currency Issuer, without restriction – In laymans language, HMG:

• Has the legal monopoly on the creation (Issue) of its OWN currency.
• Can create (Issue) Sterling at will, from thin air, with zero impedance.
• Everyone else is a Currency User.

So why does everyone tell you otherwise?

Time to travel in the Monetary TARDIS…

2. A little bit of History repeating – The Gold Standard (Again):

Over much of the 20th Century, the UK, US and other developed nations have been on and off variations of the ‘Gold Standard’.
In stark comparison to the economics of the last 40 years, when the Americans and British created ‘The Gold Exchange Standard in 1944’, their focus was:

• To avoid trade deals which impoverished lesser trade partners.
• An attempt to control flows of speculative financial capital.

The latter, in particular, had wrecked the global economy prior to the Great Depression, the outcome of which was seared into their collective memories:

• A global depression,
• Mass unemployment.
• The rise of Fascism in Europe and Communism as a response.
• Global War.
• Millions Dead.

Post-War planners aimed to prevent the repetition of previous competitive currency devaluations but engineered not to force debtor nations to reduce their industrial bases to attract financial speculators and keep interest rates high.

British economic sage, John Maynard Keynes…

again fearful of repeating the mistakes that led to Great Depression and carnage that followed, was the primary mover behind Britain’s proposal that Trade Surplus nations should be forced to use their trade surplus for good, or lose it for good:

• Either import from debtor nations
• Build factories in debtor nations
• Donate to debtor nations.

The U.S. opposed Keynes’ plan and proposed creating the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with enough financial clout to counteract destabilising flows of speculative finance. However, in contrast to the modern IMF, the fund would counteract these speculative flows automatically, no political strings or agendas. An honest broker.

History demonstrates that on almost every point where the USA objected, Keynes was to be proved right.

3. Bretton Woods… 

In 1944, at Bretton Woods, the Allies met to plan a Post-War world and as a result of the collective conventional wisdom of the time, the Allied nations preferred to do this by regulating a system of fixed exchange rates, indirectly disciplined, by binding the USD to Gold at a fixed price per ounce.
This  system relied on a regulated market economy with:

• Strict controls on the values of currencies.
• Flows of speculative international finance would be stopped by channelling them through Central Banks. #Capital Controls
• The intention being to direct international flows of investment.
• The focus on using capital to building useful things that created jobs or benefited the public purpose, rather than financial speculation on the markets.

Interestingly, it was US planners who coined the phrase ‘Economic Security’, surmising that a liberal international economic system would enhance post-war peace and keep Communism at bay. This came from a belief, that causes of both World Wars, was ‘Economic Discrimination’ and trade wars. The main culprits being trade and exchange controls of Nazi Germany and the ‘Imperial Preference System’, where members, or former, of the British Empire were given special trade status, resulting in a German, French, and American protectionist policies.

*US Planners were shrewd enough to recognise that to keep Capitalism popular, taxpayers and workers, needed to see a benefit from it and to feel their lives being improved, rather than risk the alternative, Communism. To ensure this, regulated Capitalism was the solution and the irony is, we have the Cold War to thank for this Golden Age.*

In stark contrast to today, Bretton Woods participants agreed that a liberal international economic system ALSO required governmental intervention.

Following the economic turmoil of the 1930s, the management of economies had become the main activity of governments, taking on increasing responsibility for the economic well-being of its citizens. This had proved to be largely successful and popular. Employment, stability, and growth were the order of the day. In turn, the role of government in the national economy would continue. The Welfare State, which grew out of the Great Depression, had created a popular appetite for governmental intervention in the economy, and it was Keynes who made it clear that Government intervention was required to counter market failures.

Enter the era of State Capitalism…

Members of the Gold Standard agreed to closely regulate the production of their currencies to maintain fixed exchange rates, with a bit of wiggle room either side. The express aim being to make international trade easier. This was the foundation of the U.S. vision of a post-war world, Free Trade:

• Lowering tariffs
• Maintaining a balance of trade via fixed exchange rates that assists Capitalism.
• Reduce trade and capital flows.
• Revive the Gold Standard (Again) using USD as the world’s reserve currency.
• Prevent Governments messing around with their currency supply, as they had between the wars.
• Governments would be required to monitor the production of their currency and would refrain from manipulating its price.

4. Tax & Spend & Borrowing…

It is important at this point, to remind ourselves, HMG was still a Fiat Currency issuer but, up until 1971, had voluntarily limited its ability to created its own currency.

So following Bretton Woods, from 1944 until 1971, Gold was ‘Convertible On Demand’ into Sterling. This required HMG to have lots of Gold stashed away at the Bank of England (BoE) just in case anyone wanted to convert their pot of Gold into Sterling. Indeed, once upon a time, you could walk into the Bank of England with Gold and they were obliged to accept it and pay you cash.

Like all liabilities, it was worked out on risk. HMG surmised that only a small percentage of the public would ever demand their gold to be converted into Sterling, at any given time, so it only had to have a limited amount of Gold in reserve, just-in-case. Fractional Gold Reserve Central Banking, if you will.

However, because of the rules of the Gold Standard, HMG Currency Issuing (Spending) would be constrained by the amount of gold in the BoE vault.

The other issue HMG was acutely aware of, was spending Sterling for Public Purpose was in reality, spending the Gold it had in the BoE. The Gold never left the BoE but with a promise of convertibility into £s:

• Limited how many £s could be spent at any one time
• How many £s cash could be spent at any one time was…dictated by how much Gold it had in reserve.

So if HMG wanted spend more, it had to:

• Find more Gold to allow it to create more Fiat £s to
• Or, recoup Fiat £s from the private sector i.e: TAXPAYERS – BEFORE it could spend more. Welcome to…‘Tax and to Spend’.

Now to protect all that Gold in the BoE from a profligate Government, just creating Fiat £s to spend, they had a few tricks up their sleeve…

How could a Sovereign Currency Issuing Government, such as HMG with a self-imposed brake (The Gold Standard) on how many £s it can create and issue, spend more £s than it was allowed to create?

The Solution?

BORROWING BACK Fiat £s from the taxpayers’ savings – to spend again – rather than creating and issuing additional new Fiat £s, which might exceed the back-up supply of Gold. The plan being:

• Why not get taxpayers to exchange their £s savings, for Sovereign Gilts, Treasury Bonds OR similar, that pay interest.
• Taxpayers still get to benefit from the HMGs spending MORE £s each year than it intends to collect back in tax. Thus allowing taxpayers to continue to build their wealth of £s.

*One ingenious demonstration of this, was the infamous ‘ERNIE’, invented by a Bletchley Park codebreaker in 1956 and Premium Bonds, offering taxpayers another way to save outside of banks or building societies. Which of course, was not its main purpose. Premium Bonds were just another way to recoup £ from taxpayers, without actually Taxing. Recycled Money.*

And this is exactly how HMG ran Government spending up until the point Richard Nixon suspended US involvement in the Gold Standard in 1971 – due to the spiraling cost of the Vietnam War. US Government spending was outstripping its Gold Supply – and became a Sovereign Fiat Currency Issuer, without restriction.

*As Keynes had predicted in 1944, eventually the USA found itself in the inherent paradox of the Gold Standard:

1. It was required to be the Worlds Reserve Currency and as per the Bretton Woods agreement, keep USD flowing outwards to keep global trade moving.

2. However, this put a restraint on its ability to spend inwards, domestically.

A large percentage of its Gold Reserves had to be set aside to cover outward flows of USDs, restricting  USDs available to be created for domestic Public Purpose – which at the time of Nixon was Johnson’s: ‘The Great Society’ project.

Between 1944 – 1971, the US saw its stash of total world Gold Reserves shrink from 65% to 22%. The market speculated that the US has so many USD out in circulation, it was unable to convert USD to Gold, due to these dwindling Gold Reserves. The dollar depreciated. Inflation went up, employment followed suite and due to the spending spiraling requirements of the Vietnam War, Nixon saw the solution as suspending convertibility to Gold and to go 100% Fiat. No restrictions to USD creation.*   

The Gold Standard was effectively dead. The US now no longer converted USD into Gold and other nations bailed out in 1973. The Gold Standard was officially buried in 1976. The UK followed suit. However, the system for creating and issuing HMG money, DID NOT CHANGE and as I write, in 2019 nearly 50 years later, the Government still operates its finances as if it were on the Gold Standard:

• So the HMG continues to sell Gilts, Treasury Bonds, Premium Bonds
• So it can ‘borrow back’ £s from taxpayers
• To spend MORE than it collected in taxation.

The one upside of this was/is a form of Corporate Welfare exchanging £s for Government IOUs, with the interest received, adding to private savings and wealth.

So we have ended up where the reality of Money Creation since 1971, is that HMG is not revenue constrained when it comes to spending for Public Purpose but continues to use a Monetary system that claims to be still on the Gold Standard.

To reiterate, for clarity, Her Majesty’s Government:

1. Is No Longer on the Gold Standard.

2. Is Not required to convert £s into any commodity to spend.

3. Is Not required to use taxpayers £s to spend.

4. Does not need to borrow or recoup Taxpayers £s savings to spend.

Yet, NO Government since 1971, has changed the from Gold Standard System to reflect the powers of a Fiat Currency Issuer. So HMG continues to tell us that it needs to:

• Sell Gilts, Treasury Bonds. Premium Bonds, The Lottery etc.
• Use the proceeds – Taxpayers’ Private Savings & Wealth to allow it to spend more than it collects in Taxes.

Now the rub with this is the interest, or payouts HMG needs to make to holders of these, all of which is added to the National Debt. So to pay for this, the Government needs to issue even MORE Gilts & Treasury Bonds etc. to cover the interest payments. Ad Infinitum…

HOWEVER…

A quick reality check via Quantitative Easing (QE) has shown us, if you are lucky enough to have owned £454bn of Gilts and Corporate Bonds, HMG bought from you, then you have become very rich indeed…unlike HMG which is falling ever deeper into debt.

Which is a complete MYTH and has created 50 years of confusion and a convenient smokescreen for those who see Government as a problem.

Even the BoE concurs: “Read my lips. No new taxes”…Does the Bank of England print money? – YouTube

5. Enter, Stage Right…AUSTERITY:

Now if you believe all this unwittingly, or otherwise, there is a logic in thinking that an ever-increasing National Debt is unsustainable and the ONLY solution is to REDUCE, substantially Government spending and to pay down the debt.

However, knowing that Gold Standard limitations no longer apply, the HMG has created a solution, to a problem that does not exist and ironically, created a further problem to the original one, which never existed in the first place. Think IMF Crisis, 1976.

The National Debt and the convoluted machinations of issuing ‘debt’ and accounting for it, as a brake to stop HMG from issuing more Fiat £s than it could guarantee with Gold, is a relic of history. Some would consider this insistence on clinging onto an economic fossil, to be stupidity, or perhaps a sign of something far more deliberate…

It is of course a legal requirement and not unreasonable, to expect HMG to keep a track of its spending. The much-vaunted DEFICIT:

1. The gap between £s out and £s in.

2. A balance sheet of the Fiat £s HMG has decided to spend into the economy but not redeemed in taxation.

When the HMG spends, this allows taxpayers to keep £s. When the Government reduces spending, this forces taxpayers to use their savings to spend and REDUCES private wealth. The less the Government pays for, the more you have to use your savings and income.

Repeat after me…AUSTERITY REDUCES PRIVATE WEALTH…

Questions to be answered…

1. If HMG fell out of the Gold Standard in 1971…

2. Which resulted in the £ no longer being required to be convertible to Gold…

3. Why do we still account for fiat government spending for public purpose as if we were on the Gold Standard?

4. Is it just welfare for taxpayers to exchange their fiat £s into Government Savings Instruments, that pay interest?

As QE has shown us, HMG Debt Instruments are not distributed equally across all taxpayers but are bought by a wealthy private and corporate elite.

Perhaps the most mind-blowing for taxpayers to get their head around is the ability for HMG to PAY OFF – at ANY TIME – the National Debt by purchasing all Debt Instruments in exchange for Fiat £s. Hello Japan…

So far from being ‘Fiscally Prudent’ by reducing the Deficit and running Government Finances like a household, only spending what is received in Taxation – the real-world outcome is to impoverish taxpayers and their well-being.

6. The solution?

A fundamental shift and an education of all taxpayers and the political establishment, to understand that:

As long as labour and sustainable resources are available, Government Spending is not only a good and positive but absolutely essential for the economy and the democratisation of wealth.

The ONLY limitations HMG has to spending for Public Purpose are:

1. The physical resources available.

2. The labour available.

3. Its own aspirations.

4. The taxpayers’ willingness to learn, deconstruct and the 1% and their cheerleaders across politics, the media and society who have used the confusion around Government Money Creation spending and taxing for the purpose of wealth extraction and power.

History demonstrates that the Tax and Spend myth, has resulted in dire and far-reaching consequences.

In 1976, when HMG went to the IMF claiming to have ‘run out of money’ and in return for $2bn, Healey was required to introduce Austerity measures – which were a precursor to the economics of Margaret Thatcher – latterly Neo-Liberalism.

There was an alternative proposed some 3 years before, yet thanks to Wilson, Healy & Callaghan’s refusal to listen to Tony Benn, history unfolded the way it did and Healy capitulated to Hayek and his Neo-Liberals, who have spent the following 42 years capturing the state, media and democracy in the UK – and beyond – for their own benefit.

Oh and by the way, Britain never did go ‘Bust’, no matter what Mr Roberts writes…

Join our mailing list