Simply Red got this right a long time ago now:
The lyrics are:
… I been laid off from work.
My rent is due.
My kids all need
Brand new shoes.
… So I went to the bank
To see what they could do.
They said "Son, looks like bad luck
Got-a hold on you".
… Money's too tight to mention.
I can't get an unemployment extension.
Money's too tight to mention.
… I went to my brother
To see what he could do
He said "Brother like to help you
But I'm unable to".
So I called on my father, father.
Oh my father
He said
… Money's too tight to mention.
Oh money, money, money, money.
Money's too tight to mention.
I can't even qualify for my pension.
… We talk about Reaganomics.
Oh Lord, down in the Congress
They're passing all kinds of bills
From down on Capitol Hill (we've tried them)
… Money's too tight to mention.
(spoken) Cut back!
Money, money, money, money.
We're talkin' about money, money.
We're talkin' about money, money.
We're talkin' 'bout the dollar bill
And that old man that's over the hill.
Now what are we all to do
When the money's got a hold on you?
Money's too tight to mention.
Oh money, money, money, money.
Money's too tight to mention.
Amero-money, oh yeah.
We're talkin' about money, money.
We're talkin' about money, money.
We're talkin' about money, money.
We're talkin' about money, money
But, whatever happens, true socialists demand that the working class must not be told there is a solution to all this.
That would, after all, undermine the struggle.
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Some while ago I read a book about the economic collapse of the Soviet Union
It was written as a novel as the writer found it easier to tell the story that way
BUT what was clear was that in the absence of a ‘market’ with nobody going bust there was massive waste – factories churning out shirts that not even Soviet consumers would buy. No incentive to either buy better plant or reduce waste etc etc
Nothing that the ‘Socialists’ have a clue about
I’m sure nobody writing seriously on this blog has ever suggested we abandon markets in favour of a ‘command’ economy. A ‘mixed’ economy is always the preferred way forward. Govs can always correct market failures and inequalities using legislation and taxation if they so choose. It’s fair to say a socialist gov would do this more often than a right wing gov, but most profit-oriented firms would be free to trade as they’ve always done.
This is Christine Desan’s big point the creation of money (capital) is political. Always a question of who in the way a society is structured more easily gets hold of it and in large amounts which becomes capital to be directed sometimes anti-socially (dominantly) in the interests of the few not the many.
Sort of related to this. But I’ve been reading the UCL document, the self financing state. I’m New to MMT thinking on the mechanisms of money creation and taxation. At what point is new money created 1. In the consolidated fund, 2. When the Bank of England credits the reserve account of the recipients bank, 3. When the recipients current account is credited, 4. When money is spent. 5. Some other point?. I suppose it may depend on how you define money, credit, finance funds etc. I think it’s stage 3. So all accounts such as CF itself that deal with internal treasury accounting, don’t really contain money at all and are ledger accounts. Tax reverses this process, so in line with MMT new money is created when bank reserves are credited and money destroyed when reserves are debited. The CF just keeps a record.
Technically 1, bit that will be simultaneous with 2. 3 should now follow very quickly, but that is a separate event. 4 is wrong. 5 is a no.
The answer is 1 and 2 together, but not 3: that is a consequence.
I would disagree about ‘true socialists’, I think many of the self-professed or self-elected are unrepresentative of the mass of socialists. They largely have the ear of the media. I know quite a few normal socialists, and like Benn see the directive management of capitalism as the path to take. Even Adam Smith saw that exploitation had to be countered (in Theory of Moral Sentiments). Anything that operates to the detriment of citizens needs directing, but neither should creativity be stifled.
Much to agree with
Sorry to be pedantic, but it was a Valentine Brothers song. Simply Red covered it
OK
Sorry
Mick Hucknall isn’t singing about the government having too little money, he’s warbling about the people. So what if assume that money is a substitute for resources and take at least a little of that away from the government and let the people have it instead.
The economist Pierre Bessard has talked about this at great length in one of Europe’s happiest and devolved countries.
This George Monbiot article is really worrying:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/01/uk-sue-foreign-oligarchs-corporations-litigation-offshore-courts
I thought that this issue had been put to bed a long time ago. It appears not.
What the corporations have done is got your politicians to tacitly agree to compensate capital for state policies that are meant to improve life – to go along with this, through the corruptive influence of modern political funding. Thus, like cuckoos in the nest, the corporate beasts get fed first.
It just goes to show you how extreme capital has become and how tenuous sovereignty and democracy is. No doubt the money will be found for these blood suckers – I mean they just seem to claiming for future profits that they have not even invested in yet!
What is not clear is why states can’t just stick two fingers up to this lot and not turn up. I mean, who is actually in charge here? Can someone tell me? Who in these sovereign countries has consented or lent any credibility to this? I’d want their heads on a plate for this? Is Tony Blair involved again?
Most worryingly, these sorts of things have all the hallmarks of a society/species rapidly going down the toilet.
Deep state, far right style? Don’t make me laugh. This is the real deep state – the re-purposing of state sovereign money being used to line the pockets of private capital whilst it claims shortages of money and uses austerity for everyone else. Another gross flow to the rich.
My conclusion? Capital needs to be gelded. That is the best way to describe it and an apt word. Capital needs to be told who is in charge. This is outrageous folks.
Agreed.