The statistics for the graphs have been collated by Mike Rowbotham whose books The Grip of Death and Goodbye America challenge in detail those arguments used by economists and politicians in favour of ‘globalisation’. Mike Rowbotham will address the Forum on Wednesday, Nov. 8^th, 2000.

Creating New Money – A Monetary Reform for the Information Age is a 92-page report produced for the New Economics Foundation by James Robertson and Prof. Joseph Huber. “At present in Britain less than 5% of new money is issued and put into circulation by the Government and the Bank of England as cash (coins and banknotes).  The remaining 95% of new money is non-cash money created and put into circulation by commercial banks.  The situation in other countries is similar.  The banks simply create the money out of thin air into the current accounts of their customers – as interest-bearing, profit-making loans.  Interest on these loans gives the UK banks supernormal, special profits of about £21bn a year – compared with their supernormal profits of £5bn a year from cash machines.  The annual loss of public revenue from allowing the banks to create the non-cash money is about £45bn – equivalent to about 12p on income tax.”  James Robertson will address the Forum on October 24^th, 2000.

The Future of Money is a book by Bernard Lietaer who was one of the co-designers of the ECU, the forerunner of the EURO.  He cites four reasons for the necessity of monetary reform: 1. increasing costs in social security, 2. the information technology revolution, 3. the increasing longevity of the population, 4. the decreasing quality of environmental conditions. Bernard Lietaer will address the Forum on January 23^rd, 2001.