This letter was in the Guardian today:
Instead of the eye-wateringly cruel cuts in public services inherent in the chancellor's obsession with rapid deficit reduction, the pre-election debate should radically change direction to one that has at its heart a Plan QE. This time, instead of giving £375bn to the banks to waste, e-print £70bn for every year of the next parliament to build the homes we need and make every building in the UK energy efficient. If all the jobs involved were paid an adequate wage then the tax take across the country would soar and help return the economy to a balanced recovery. Just like the first round of QE, the e-money would not have to be repaid so wouldn't affect the deficit.
Colin Hines
Convenor, Green New Deal Group
I am, of course, a member of that Group.
There is no chance at present that the first round of QE will be repaid: there is no reason to think further QE would be either. This is the new world we live in. What we need to do is embrace it. Until we do, as I have said before, money will remain in the wrong hands, and that's the problem we are currently facing.
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I note that in another blog you were criticised for not coming up with alternatives to Osborne’s “return to Wigan Pier” policies, Richard. This seems like an alternative to me – and a workable one at that.
The whole Green New Deal is my alternative
How about writing a similar letter to “The National” ….the new pro-independence Scottish daily newspaper? Need to stimulate some debate within Scotland too…..not many new ideas evident amongst political circles up here. SNP still stuck with lots of neo-liberal economics if you ask me and that won’t deliver much progress if they become an influential force in Westminster after the 2015 general election. Greens have a lot of good policies but seem to lack any real grasp of how to reform banking and the monetary system, and how to harness the financial clout of pension funds, etc. I have yet to see any advocacy for Green QE on the part of the Green Party in Scotland.
I will talk them
But I am not Scottish
Mind you, I am pretty heavil involved in debate in Northern Ireland
I’m not Scottish either…..a Lancastrian resident in Scotland for 30 years. Anyway its the ideas that matter, not the nationality, and your thinking needs serious consideration in Scotland as much as anywhere else. Green QE and John Clancy’s ideas about harnessing the financial power of LGPS pension funds could be transformational for the Scottish economy hampered as it is by the current devolution settlement (still to be realised) and also inform the economics of a future independent Scotland.
I am being asked to take part in this debate
Let’s see
I see Findlay, the Labour MP fighting for the Labour nomination in Scotland, is putting forward a policy of getting rid of PFI contracts by buying them up. A good use for QE if ever there was one, though some have spoken against this preferring forced renegotiation of these contracts.
But I do think Findlay’s idea is well worth pursuing, even though he doesn’t intend to use the QE method in order to do it.
I agree: we have suggested QE could be used for this purpose
i’m sure i’m being a bit thick here, but wasn’t that money used to buy back bonds owned by rich folks, who then went and wasted it speculating on shares, London properties, hypercars etc?
not that that changes the argument for printing money for more productive purposes. as i understand it the infrastructure spending would more than compensate for any inflation by providing jobs and wage rises, and devaluing the pound should also give a boost to manufacturing. win win for the majority, tough shit for the minority for being so greedy and hoarding their wealth.
I am arguing for Green QE, which is fundamentally different from QE in directing the use of the funds
Excellent idea Richard, shades of Marriner Eccles