Jackson, Andrew, Ben Dyson, and Herman E. Daly. 2012. Modernising Money: Why our Monetary System is Broken and how it can be Fixed. London: Positive Money.
Reviewed by Joe Bongiovanni
Co-Director, The Kettle Pond Institute
Plainfield, Vermont
I liked it from the title – being an active verb that brings with it the substance of needed reform. It’s a book about ‘doing’ something.
For anyone considering buying any book that explains in just the right amount of detail exactly how the modern money systems of the world really work, what is wrong with these present systems, and what can really be done to make ‘money’ itself a common good of sovereign peoples – do what you can to make a purchase of “Modernising Money” by British authors Andrew Jackson and Ben Dyson.
Note: I went to Amazon, where I occasionally purchase and the price was $57 – with only one (1) available. I went to Alibris, where I most often purchase, and there were none available. I went to the Positive Money website and tried to purchase there, but they rejected the bonafides of my home zip code.
So, do what you can to get a copy. It will be well worth the effort.
Some may say that this book describes the particular monetary system of the British, with its publicly-owned central bank and GILTs being the rendered public debt-instrument. True enough, yet there are volumes of direct connectedness between the nature of the US and UK systems of money that are relevant to fixing that which is responsible for so much that is wrong with today’s private systems of debt-based money.
This book well complements Stephen Zarlenga’s ‘masterpiece’ , “The Lost Science of Money”, which provides 23 Chapters of monetary history on this planet, and one(1) chapter of how to reform the system. The Jackson-Dyson book has one Chapter on history, and nine (9) Chapters on everything from how the present system works, to the socio-economic and environmental consequences of this debt-based system of money today, to how the reformed system would effect both economics and banking, and on to a Conclusion that reclaims the righteousness of how a modern money system can become the engine for the common good.
This IS the book that needed to be written at this time. There is nothing more powerful in today’s world of bought-out political power than a truly well-informed citizenry. And what we have in this well organized and written piece is honestly the very best arsenal of indisputable information that can be used to inform those interested on how to replace our bought-out political power with a rational, workable and sustainable money system for the future – on both sides of the pond.
The book’s Foreword by noted economist and ecologist Professor Herman Daly includes the following; slightly paraphrased:
– The privileged power enjoyed by the private banking sector of creating money from nothing and lending it at interest in the form of demand deposits …. derives from the current design of the banking system, and can be corrected by moving to a system where new money can only be created by a public body working in the public interest.
This is simple to state, but difficult to bring about. Jackson and Dyson do a fine job of explaining the clear institutional reforms necessary for a sound monetary system. –
Back in the mid 30s noted Chicago Plan supporter, Fed economist Robert Hemphill wrote in his “Staggering Thought” on reform of the money and banking system that: “It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it becomes widely understood and the defects remedied.”
This work of “Modernising Money” by Andrew Jackson and Ben Dyson is exactly the piece that should be used by, and useful to, today’s generation of intelligent persons that pick up the collected mantle of sound money and public purpose.
Get it where you can. Now.
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