The Bank of England has produced a new education programme for schools called 'Econome'. They say of this:
Young people will be required to make important decisions throughout their lives and the Bank of England‘s freeeconoME education programme, accredited by the PSHE Association and Young Money, provides students aged 11-16 with the analytical skills to make informed decisions, that will benefit themselves and the world around them.
Using real-world examples and best practice strategies from the Bank of England, econoMEwill help your students to understand how their decisions are affected by, and influence, the economy, through the use of interactive activities, captivating videos and informative case studies.
I have to say I am not convinced. Take this poster (and there aren't many) as an example of what's wrong:
This is really quite bizarre. For a start all the government does is pay pensions and benefits. There is no education sector! Or health care. Which is very odd indeed.
Then note the BoE's sabotage of itself: it takes instruction from the government, to whom it is accountable. So much for central bank independence, although I suppose I should be grateful that they are agreeing with me on this one.
And then note the absence of gilts and QE.
And note there is no financial services sector.
The problems go on, and on.
Plus, in the commentary there is the claim that banks manage people's savings and lend money: the implication is very clearly that they are intermediaries when the Bank knows this is not true.
I am not expecting miracles in a poster. But I think the Bank has a duty to do a lot better than this, including recognising the role of the state, the service sector, financial services, banking as it really is and the fact that taxes do not, by any means pay for all government services. If I was a teacher I would steer clear of this. I'd give it about 3 out of ten.
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The fact Education and Health isn’t included show the true nature of where we’re going! Economic should be taught but not but in it entirety on on some narratives and assumptions that always leads to economic collapse,because to take just part or focus on any party of any equation destroys the whole equation!
What struck me when I looked at the poster was how they refer to the “me” in the picture with the loaded term of “consumer”. Not “citizen”, “worker”, “person” etc. Maybe this is justified in terms of the poster’s focus, but arguably it shows a bias towards one particular way of seeing ourselves and our relationship to government, economy, society.
Indeed
Rather than Me I would prefer Us or
People (wealth creators)
All wealth comes from the labour of people. But still the separation is somewhat artificial as people are the government and business, so everything should be contained in a big bubble that we might call ‘society’.
40% of the economy is government investment in security, education, and health so to miss that is staggering.
“Lends money to businesses and consumers”
should be replaced with:
“Creates loans for businesses and consumers”
You just signed a letter saying that tax pays for services, and when I asked about this you said I was being pedantic. Yet the very next minute you slam the Bank of England for saying the same thing?
Tax can pay for services
It does in the EU
It does in some developing countries that are dollar dependent
And ultimately if tax is not collected to constrain inflation tax abuse does constrain services
On just about every count possible you are wrong because you are using generalisations to abuse rather than engaging in informed debate, as your comments show
How am I “using abuse”? I just didn’t understand your position.
You are seeking to say I am a hypocrite
I am not
But I do note you and a remarkable number of other trolls have turned up today all saying much the same thing
Who’s coordinating you?
Ed comment
Deleted for being offensive
What do you expect? We live under a neo-liberal hegemony, which high-jacked the education system a while back. Not only should students of course be given accurate information (maybe you could get the poster redesigned and distributed on-line via relevant websites) but also a simple history lesson such as this initial episode in a new series, albeit American**, ‘This Is Neoliberalism – Introducing the Invisible Ideology – Part 1’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uqnyVqPKvk&t=0s.
In spite of all the good work that has been done and continues in many universities across the globe, it seems to be near impossible to get accurate economic information out to the population at large. This is indicative of the stranglehold the neo-liberals have over all aspects of public life everywhere. As the author of the above presentation states, living in the west and not understanding neo-liberalism is just like living in the USSR and not understanding Communism.
As has been stated here many times, it will probably necessitate a major crisis – hopefully not WW3 – before systemic change will occur. In the meantime it’s just attempting to mitigate the worst excesses of the neo-liberal agenda, which become ever more excessive.
** There is a dire shortage on the Internet of simple economic & political educational presentations for a lay British audience. Yet we are a world leader in communication skills. It suggests to me there is a vacuum waiting to be filled by progressive educators, with positive long-term results.
John
I’ve just watched this really informative video link on the history of neoliberalism. Thank you for posting it. The author says it is the first in a series and I’d be interested in following up on them. Do you have any idea how many there are, how to find them and if they are available to watch. I subscribed to the youtube channel but couldn’t find episode 2?
Thanks
Geoff
Hi Geoff – I happened upon it by chance. And like you I’ve subscribed to the channel. I believe it has only just been released and that the 2nd in the series is not yet available. I guess it’s a question of ‘watch this space’! Did you see Naomi Klein’s more recent interview on the same channel? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx89c-zxBCo&t=54s.
John, no I don’t know of another blog with this level of knowledge, exchange of knowledge, help in understanding sometimes difficult questions/topics or a shared interest. It often feels like a welcome oasis and it’s my favorite morning coffee stop.
Richard,
I would venture to say part of the blogs appeal is that you have that rare ability to impart knowledge with a common touch and you’re able to admit to errors and gaps in that knowledge. It feels like an online community where shared values and concerns can be aired in a relatively safe place.
Thanks Geoff
I sometimes wonder why I do it
But never for long
Thanks John,
I hadn’t watched the Klein video but I have now. She’s always worth listening to.
I find it encouraging that at least some of the younger generation are realising what we have known since the Thatcher Reagan revolution of the 1970’s, that it was not going to end well for most of us.
Back then we just didn’t know how bad it would get and had nothing but our instinct and history of the labour movement to guide us. At least now there’s evidence.
I sense change is in the air. However, it seems to me there’s a higher volume of progressive voices in the US, maybe because their media is more diverse than ours. But the case for radical change is welcome no matter whence it originates.
Another American journalist I greatly admire is Chris Hedges, who makes impassioned speeches, viz. this one to The Sanctuary for Independent Media in November 2017 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz-5vrQXb3c. He has many interviews on YouTube which are worth a watch (IMHO).
In many respects Richard is something of a lone UK voice in terms of reaching out to a wider audience. I don’t know of any other such blog with the same level of participation and interaction. Do you?
(Thanks RM for permitting this message exchange).
These days I am not sure what other blog tries to do what this one does
I still find it rather bizarre that I just set out to share a few ideas on how bad tax havens were….
On the whole I prefer the London Underground. At least there is a chance of getting where you want to go, unlike the Bank of England.
I suppose the BoE’s inadequate contribution stems from the very peculiar legacy mindset that a functioning democracy doesn’t need much in the way of an electorate literate in matters of economics (including global trading) and the way their country’s monetary system works. It is now fairly obvious such a mindset produces a Kindergarten Democracy.
But look on the bright side:
1) this simplistic poster puts government and its central bank at the top, says BoE is accountable to government and says BoE issues currency. That’s a good chunk of the MMTers’ thesis right there!
2) It shows all the players in the economy paying taxes to government, another big chunk of MMT made explicit and this goes on…
3) it shows BoE and therefore government has a supervisory role over private banks
4) shows the private money circuit i.e. one person’s spending = someone else’s income
5) shows the government money circuit allbeit in a highly truncated and misleading fashion.
If you combine this poster with the Money in The Modern Economy and Money Creation in the Modern Economy documents from BoE and the whole of government accounts you get a good chunk of an accurate picture of reality.
What we have to do is take these various publicly available documents from ‘credible sources’ (appeal to authority) and fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle with information from a detailed look at UK’s money system informed by an MMT understanding and we need to specifically high-light the overarching MMT reality by drawing attention to the macroeconomic circuits in the economy via a modified diagram.
When people can see the official puzzle is just missing a few pieces and that we’ve filled them in without naysaying any of the official positions that’ll have a degree of resonance and people will start to buy it.
When people dig into it deeper and find the extra pieces we’ve added are factually accurate and backed by tons of evidence they’ll be in no doubt.
I think a big part of propaganda is what’s left unsaid and we can easily now fill in those blanks in a pretty uncontroversial way and thereby turn the propaganda against the propagandists.
Also there are obviously people in BoE and Treasury who both are cognisant of reality and want to better communicate it to the public. If we put a more easily understandable and more comprehensive explanation out there that doesn’t contradict anything BoE have said these potential allies on BoE and Treasury will be further empowered to win the internal argument that they should be putting out a clear factual explanation of our money system.
The fact someone else has done a better job than BoE will in itself put pressure on them to improve their own material and their won’t be much the propagandists can do to stop it. In my humble opinion of course 😉
I admire your optimism
Grassroots education on Neoliberalism in Glasgow: https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/12712/cracking-neoliberalism-invitation-care-and-share-set-radical-teach-ins
Yay
‘ A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent ‘ said Blake . The BofE don’t want you to know how it works because as George Carlin said ‘ It’s a big club and you ain’t in it ‘ . But the sense that everything is just slightly off is growing and they know that we know that they know and that was just how it was before communism collapsed .
3 out of 10, you’re a very kind man.
Please Mr Murphy can you do a proper one?
If I get time…..