About Ben Dyson
T
his site explains the real reasons for the financial crisis, and what we need to do about to address them.
My proposals, which are an extension of the work done by James Robertson and Joseph Huber and very similar to those of the American Monetary Institute, give us a cost-free method of:
- escaping from the financial crisis
- permanently reducing the debt burden of the public, companies and government, and
- restoring permanent stability to the economy (actually ending the cycle of boom and bust!).
I am working on promoting this solution in the UK through the Call4Reform campaign. I have also been working closely with the American Monetary Institute to develop similar proposals for the US financial system, and these proposals will shortly be presented to the House of Representatives and the Senate as part of Representative Dennis Kucinich’s American Monetary & Financial Security Act.
I am based in Yorkshire, England, and South America. Feel free to contact me.
My Recommendations
The proposals on this site recommend that the banking system should be preventing from creating money (with a few simple tweaks to accounting regulations and a couple of computer systems). I have worked with others to ensure that the proposals allow us to change the monetary system without causing any financial disturbance or ruining the economy.
With regards to wealthier economies, I am generally in favour of using the benefits of monetary reform to lower the burden of taxation (and move it completely away from those earning below a certain amount). I believe that many of the problems that rich-country governments currently try to solve by extending the reach of government could be eliminated by increasing the disposable income of the population (by reducing taxation). However, in the end this is a democratic decision – through the normal voting channels, the public can elect a party that wants to reduce taxes, or one that wants to increase government spending.
When it comes to poorer economies, meanwhile, I advocate using the newly-created money to increase government spending on projects that the private sector would be unlikely to take on, as a means of distributing money into the economy. This would grow the economy, initially through the increased government spending, but additionally as the new money starts to circulate in the private sector, creating even more jobs and opportunities. The poverty and ’scarcity’ that is present in many poorer countries is also an illusion created by the monetary system. When there are hundreds of thousands of people available to work, and people available to train them, then it is a huge loss to society to leave these people unemployed rather than giving them something productive to do (something which would benefit society as a whole). Simply adding numbers to a bank account, and using this newly created purchasing power to employ the ’spare’ labour, will stimulate the economy to everyone’s benefit without causing inflation.
How I Became Involved In Monetary Reform
I studied development economics in London until I realised that modern economic theories work in ivory towers and government departments but immediately crumble if you hold them up to reality. After a few long years, I transferred to the School of Life (launching a business in the London financial sector) and spent my free time studying the monetary system and the problems it causes.
The words ‘Grip of Death‘ caught my eye in the library one day, and I had discovered the book that would explain why most economic theories failed, and why governments were usually unsuccessful in manipulating the economy. The book was Michael Rowbotham’s expose on the system on the shocking effects of money and debt creation at the hands of the commercial banks. (You can get the book on Amazon, but please consider supporting and thanking the publisher who took the financial risk of publishing this book: call Jon Carpenter Publishing on (+44) 01689 870437).
The system that The Grip of Death revealed, and the devastating consequences that result from it, explained why economic theories never seem to work in reality. Without this knowledge, economists lacked a fundamental understanding of how the money system really works, and as money is the lubricant that makes everything happen in modern society, this meant that they could never understand how the economy really works.
The current situation, with economists educated in the ‘pull-this-lever’ model of the economy advising elected politicians, is – quite frankly – disturbing. It is akin to an airline pilot, who still believes the world is flat, trying to plot the shortest route between Los Angeles and Beijing – but with much more destructive consequences.
The current monetary system is one of the stupidest inventions of mankind. The fact that money is created by banks, and not by the government, is one of the most destructive systems that human society has ever created.
The ‘debt’ that we have assumed as a result of the banking bailout is nothing more than electronic numbers in computer systems – numbers that can be created in an instant at zero cost. The bailout debt can be cleared by the Bank of England reclaiming its responsibility as the issuer of money, with absolutely no expense to ourselves or future generations.
No doubt the previous statement goes against conventional understanding of money and economics, but it is based in fact.
When money is taken out of the equation and we look at hours worked, it becomes apparent that transferring the bailout debt to the national debt and paying for it through taxes is nothing more than enslaving the population, appropriate the ‘fruits of our labour’ for an extra 3 weeks out of every year, indefinitely into the future. This appropriated wealth will once more go to the benefit of the same commercial banks who created this situation. It is incredibly unjust – and stupidly unnecessary. It is only through stupidity or ignorance that any government would choose to do things this way.
We now have a choice. We can either:
a) add some numbers to a computer system, at zero cost to government and the public, and minimal risk of inflation OR
b) force every working adult to give up approximately £7,000 of their earnings per year, for an indeterminate period of time, to produce guaranteed profits for the banking sector over the next 20 years.
There are countless knee-jerk reactions to the first suggestion, the threat of inflation being one of the most common. However, the reform outlined on this site will actually make inflation less likely than under the current system, and will generally make the economy much more benign.
If you are schooled in conventional mainstream economics, you may find these ideas hard to grasp or accept. But then, reality often is.
Media
I am available for interview or to write articles on this topic. Please contact me on ben [at] bendyson [dot] com.
WELCOME to the ‘club’ of monetary reformers, Ben, and especially to those who use the power of the net, web and blogging creatively and pro-actively!
Your article is well written!
May it capture the imagination of millions and the action of all those who can make a difference!
Withe best wishes for more and more power to your elbows,
Sabine
Organiser, Forum for Stable Currencies
http://www.edm1297.info
Dear Ben,
Great site. Good work!
You might be happier working alone or you might like to link up with other money reformers, whether as individuals or as members of groups. If the latter, send me an email,
Best Wishes,
Anne Belsey
(Leader of the Money Reform Party)
Dear Ben,
I would like to commend you on your website and the work you are doing. I am glad I have recently found your, Anne’s and Sabine’s sites. I was beginning to think I was the only person in the UK (maybe the World) who wanted to do something about what i have recently discovered through research of my own, off my own back unaware of such sites parties and groups. This demonstrates that the general public have to ask questions alone and want to look for the answers, which sadly i have found out generally they don’t. It would seem its a case of “they don’t understand” or “they don’t believe it” I must say at first i had to research the people in the documentaries and the authors of the books I read just to check they were not conspiracy theorists, such was my disbelief.
I have a suggestion:
The only way I see it, for any kind of “monetary Reform” to take place would be obviously to educate the masses. Now if we get too technical with facts and figures most people will “switch off” such is the influence of popular culture in society (a thing which i know a thing or two about having a Bsc in Music technology and sound production which included business, mass communication and pop culture especially audio/visual) My idea is to put policies, “the creation of money”, monetary reform and all other important issues into simple to understand forms of media incorporating pop culture and social issues as a theme ie. use the media as the corporations that thrive off this current system have done so well. I suppose we would be fighting “fire with fire” to quote the parlance of our times. Another suggestion would be Public Service announcements and attempting to liase with the current mass media with a view to do a story on these issues, this in my opinion would take a pooling of ALL support and resources, I see already Ben you have two new friends ^^^
I would like to conclude with a question……
What do you think about “quantitative Easing” being used by the bank of England as a way to take inflation up from 0.5% up to roughly the governments target of 2%? (by the way this 2% target confuses me because the Bank of England say they don’t want it stuck at 2% they want if to float around that mark? and how can they be exact with the figures when the Bank of England want to inject 75 Billion and the Chancellor said they can create 150 billion Pounds sterling?)
Yours Hopefully Lee Gear
Hi Lee, thanks for your comments. Getting the message out in an accessible way is definitely key to making any progress with this – there are a few things in the pipeline in this area.
Quantitative easing has been slated in the press as ‘inflationary’, usually by writers who don’t understand that the banking system increases the money supply by around £200bn per year already. However, the big problem with quantitative easing under the current system is the following: the £125bn created by the Bank of England will then be multiplied by the banking system to create around £1,250bn of debt. If our current debt of ~£1,800bn was enough to cause one of the worst recessions in history, then what do we expect to happen when total debt is around £3,000bn?
In short – the quantitative easing in the UK (and the bailouts in the US) will only get the public into even more debt. It allows us to get out of this recession a bit quicker, but lays the foundation for an even bigger one around for about 2015-17.
Hi Ben,
Great stuff you are doing. I have known about this going 3yrs now and my journey in telling others has been fabulous. After seeing a link about your pdf “Easy Solutions” on our forum I forwarded it to over 500 people. Simply put and all there.
Your mission will spread and grow. I have had some replies about who and what the BoE is and if you want to check on the truth behind that one, lol, I would recommend a great book by Ellen Hodgson Brown “The Web of Debt”.
Tons of knowledge, quotes, facts and figures. Anyone that has read that book will change their view on the world around us.
My thanks also to the Money Reform Party, before I heard of them, I thought this was all American mumbo jumbo.
People, wake up. It’s all true but it’s not too late to take action. Or we will see the repeat of the Reichsmark all around the world. There’s only one currency of value left. Silver and Gold, the rest is just paper and the belief in it’s value, the only thing giving it value is diminishing. We can’t just print more and expect prices to be the same, lol.
Economists and Politicians and Journalists, know the truth. They just don’t want to be the messenger that got slaughtered by the masses……
All fact, no fiction.
All the best,
Stuart
It seems that more and more people are waking up to the fact that money is created by banks and not the government.
Only a week ago Darius Guppy who went to eton with Boris and Cameron wrote an almost perfect summary of the problem for the Daily Telegraph. (which amazes me as it is a mainstrem news provider)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/7273332/Darius-Guppy-our-world-balances-on-a-sea-of-debt.html
If Darius is aware of this it makes me think that Cameron and Boris also know the truth.
I agree completely with Lee Gear that educating the masses with more simple and exciting material is key. That is why I am making a short film showing what money is and where it comes from. It will be simple and stylized to make it as interesting as possible with no jargon.
If anyone wants to add me on facebook you can find me at:
facebook.com/jonty