I am pleased to be a signatory to this letter organised by Rethinking Economics:
Dear Economics Professors and Teaching Staff,
Banks and their role in the creation of money are integral to our modern, financialised economies. Yet, the teaching economics students receive doesn't give them the full picture. As those with the power to influence the next generation of economists, it is essential that you review the teaching of the role of banks in economics courses and bring it in line with up-to-date research. Our economics graduates need to understand how banks function in the real-world, in order to avoid past crises and to create better economies in future.
What is currently taught?
Economics textbooks across the world, some of them first published in the 1960s, continue to teach students a model of the monetary system in which commercial banks act as intermediaries, that only move existing money around the system, like lubricant in a machine. Many economics courses rely on the models in these textbooks, without recognising the empirical evidence that undermines them. This gives an unbalanced view of the way the monetary system functions and of the role of banks in the economy.
How is money created?
As research from the Bank of England, Bundesbank and numerous academics has shown, banks are not intermediaries channelling pre-existing funds from savers to borrowers. Commercial banks create the vast majority of money in circulation. Unlike other financial institutions, they create money when they extend loans to borrowers. In the process of extending a loan, banks do not move pre-existing funds from any other account but newly ‘invent' the money by crediting the borrower's account. Therefore, banks' lending is constrained by borrowers' demand, profitability considerations and financial regulations, not by pre-existing funds (i.e people's savings) nor by central bank reserves. This reality is in line with the credit creation or endogenous money theory, which is absent from most current economics textbooks and teaching.
Commercial banks also determine where money is directed in the economy. Around 80% of new money created in countries like the US and UK currently goes towards existing property and financial markets, rather than the ‘real' or productive economy, leading to soaring house and land prices, and housing crises. In the Global South, 33 major global banks poured $1.9 trillion into fossil fuels since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, directly influencing the trajectory of economies that will be hit first and hardest by climate change. The power of banks to create money therefore has enormous implications for the shape and stability of our economy. Yet, in an overwhelming number of cases, economics textbooks and courses do not teach this to the economists of tomorrow.
What are the consequences of this teaching?
These models, taught without balance or regard for existing evidence on the financial sector, lead economics graduates — who often gain influential positions in society — to draw flawed conclusions. One example is the misconception that in order to increase investment in the economy we need to encourage people to save money first. Other misconceptions that arise are that money is a scarce resource and that public investment always ‘crowds out' the private sector.
Furthermore, a main driver of the 2008 global financial crisis was the build-up of debt and credit by the private sector, as banks lent unprecedented amounts to property and financial markets. The crash was unanticipated by the majority of academic economists. This was in no small way influenced by blind spots regarding the power of banks to create money and influence the wider economy.
The same theories that led to these blind spots are still being uncritically presented to economics students 11 years on. When real-world evidence demonstrates that banks function a certain way, why is this not taught to students? Any decisions these students take in their future careers — from financial regulation, to approaching issues like asset price bubbles or unproductive lending — will be influenced by their education at university.
What are we calling for?
Around the globe, economics students from Rethinking Economics are calling on their lecturers to address this gap in their education. They are calling for an education of banking which draws on empirical evidence and not on outdated models in many textbooks, which are useful only for contrasting past beliefs with modern realities. Most importantly, they are calling for balance in the way they are taught about the role of the financial sector, which allows space for simplified models but also includes alternative perspectives. They are submitting this letter to universities in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa to push for improvements to the education they receive.
We strongly support the students in their calls. We encourage economics professors and teaching staff to engage with the students' demands and review how a more complete understanding of the role of banks in the monetary system and the modern economy can be better integrated into economics education. Today's economics students will become the policy-makers, economic influencers, politicians, financiers and business leaders of the future. To create stable and productive economies globally, they must have a real-world understanding of banks and money creation.
To achieve this, we ask economics professors and teaching staff to:
- provide a justification for why the current teaching doesn't include the credit creation theory, as put forward by central banks and numerous academics.
- include credit creation theory and empirical studies of the function of banks in the economy in their lectures, teaching material and classes. In particular, this includes more diverse textbooks on reading lists that give students the tools to critically assess the role of banks;
- teach their students that an understanding of what the financial sector actually does is vital to an understanding of capitalism.
Rethinking Economics is an international student-led movement seeking to improve economics education. In publishing this letter, with the support of the signatories, we are extending an invitation to develop an economics education that is grounded in the real-world and gives students of economics the tools to address the challenges of the twenty-first century economy.
Signatories
Finance Watch
Positive Money Europe
Positive Money
BankTrack
Bretton Woods Project
Sigurvin Sigurjonsson, Betra peningakerfi
Positiva Pengar
Gode Penge
ATTAC Schweiz (Switzerland)
Anna Laycock, CEO, Finance Innovation Lab
Kate Raworth, Author of Doughnut Economics; Founder,Doughnut Economics Action Lab
Steve Keen, Author of Debunking Economics
Professor Victoria Chick, Professor Emeritus, University College London
Dirk Bezemer, Professor of Economics of International Financial Development, University of Groningen
Richard Murphy, Professor — City, University of London
Jayati Ghosh, Professor Economics — Jawaharlal Nehru, Delhi; Executive Secretary, International Development Economics Associates
István Ãbel, Professor of Economics, Budapest Business School; Advisor, Magyar Nemzeti Bank
Ludwig Schuster, Sustainable Money Research Group (Wissenschaftliche Arbeitsgruppe Nachhaltiges Geld)
Martijn van der Linden, Chairman, Foundation Ons Geld (Our Money), Professor New Finance at The Hague University of Applied Sciences
Andres Bernal, The New School, New York
Andrea Terzi, Professor of Economics, Franklin University Switzerland; Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
ML Hardy, International Movement for Money Reform
Phil Armstrong, University of Southampton Solent and York College
Bruno Bonizzi, Senior Lecturer Finance, University of Hertfordshire Business School
Louis-Philippe Rochon, Professor of Economics, Laurentian University
Carlo D'Ippoliti, Associate Professor of Economics, Sapienza University of Rome
Annina Kaltenbrunner, Associate Professor, Leeds University Business School
Dirk Ehnts, Technical University of Chemnitz
Marc Lavoie, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa
Anne Mayhew, Professor Emerita,University of Tennessee
Romy Kraemer, Managing Director, Guerrilla Foundation
Duncan Lindo, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Tony Phillips, ATTAC Ireland
Lena Lavinas, Professor of Welfare Economics
jesper jespersen, Professor of Economics, Roskilde University
Claire Jackson-Prior, The Gower Initiative for Modern Money Studies
Ingrid Kvangraven, University of York
Daniela Gabor, Professor of economics and Macrofinance, UWE Bristol
Tony Lawson, Professor of Economics and Philosophy, University of Cambridge
Andy Ross, Visiting Professor Birkbeck, University of London
Lino Zeddies
Joerg Bibow, Skidmore College and Levy Economics Institute
Professor Mary Mellor
Lena Komboz
Mathis Richtmann
Guy Dauncey
Mario MartÃnez Lorenzo
Professor Eckhard Hein
Anne Berner
Houben Henri
Yamina Tadjeddine
Sarah Neuffer
Cecilia Lanata Briones
Michael Derrer
Gordon Schuecker
Rethinking Economics Victoria
Rethinking Economics The Uploaders, Nigeria
Rethinking Economics Malta
Pluralism In Economics (PINE), Maastricht
Rethinking Economics Bocconi Students (REBS)
Rethinking Economics Bergen
Alternative Economics Society, University of Sheffield
Rethinking Economics Danmark
Kritiske Politter, University of Copenhagen
Business Unusual, Copenhagen Business School
Rethinking Economics Tübingen
Rethinking Economics Netherlands
Rethinking Economics Norway
Rethinking Economics NMBU
Rethinking Economics ISCTE-IUL, University of Lisbon
Rethinking Economics Torino
Rethinking Economics Blindern
Netzwerk Plurale Ökonomik
Kritische Wirtschaftswissenschaftler*innen Berlin
Plurale Ökonomik Bamberg
Plurale Ökonomik Jena
MÖVE (Mehr Ökonomische Vielfalt Erreichen)
Plurale Ökonomik Kassel
Plurale Ökonomik Mannheim
Plurale Ökonomik Dresden
oikos Witten/Herdecke
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Bravo! This statement is so necessary in the current political debate in all economies. But how to get the necessary political traction?
The false, but self-serving, theory advanced by the wealthy and powerful is deeply embedded. Im sadly at an age when I shout at the TV when I hear arrant monsense. Last night a Sky News presenter (just before giving Jeremy Corbyn considerable time for his sermon to the choir) declared to the viewers that the main parties were competing ” to spend billions of your money”.
That’s what you’re up against. And it’s typical of the “stupid party” to turn everything they said and did on fiscal policy on its head as if it never happened during the last 10 years.
Sadly it may prove (in conjunction with a popular desire to “get Brexit done” – whatever that means) to be an election winner.
The mountain is there to be climbed
That’s all I can say…
Are you still at City? i thought you had left?
I have a contract extension
They rather like my research
You really should not believe all you are told
Anymore than I believe you are Mick Jones
Richard, wouldn’t it be great if the BBC perhaps as an early Christmas present instead of always calling on the secretly funded IFS to educate us on economic affairs chose a contributor from the list of signatories above. Dear Santa Claus – please!!!
We can hope…
Perhaps it would be a good idea if a copy of this letter was given to all economics and social science students when they first join a degree course and to A level students for that matter.
It is good that the letter has a wide international coverage. Non one except those wedded to an unbridled capitalism could disagree with most of these proposals. I am sure that change is on the way but how long it takes is problematic. The seeds have been sown, I look forward to a rapid transition to economic sanity.
It is good to see that the issue of money creation has been raised in this way. Are Economics lecturers still not free to discuss these matters with their students and refer them to papers covering the real process of money creation by the banks? If not, who would make the decision to change the syllabus?
A good comparison would be with Meteorology, where our understanding of the weather processes is constantly updated in line with the use of new technology. A textbook on weather observation written in the 1960s is still interesting to read but it would not be used as a basis for study today.
Most do not believe this version of events
I don’t think economics lecturers are free at all to introduce new syllabus – a professor of mathematics at a (well-reputed) university was hounded by his boss for introducing a ‘new economics class’, was put on redundancy notice when he kept it going, took it to tribunal, and is in semi retirement now – unfortunately this is a story from my mother of a friend’s husband, so even though the effects are real, I still have no idea what kind of economics classes he introduced or the sequence of events. Such is the paltry level of gossip from my mother.
It started about 3 years ago and I suspected he might have been delving into MMT or variant thereof at the time, but I really don’t know. It was a very harsh punishment just for teaching a class not to the head of department’s liking, whatever.
Layman’s question… on a detail.
The piece states that banks are responsible for the “vast majority” of money in circulation, and I’ve seen that form of description elsewhere regarding the amount of bank created money. But lots of MMT discussion relates to government created money through deficit spending, which to have the importance given to it must be significant in amount.
Can anyone tell me just how much circulating money is bank created and how much government? Any links would be helpful…
I argue banks only create money under government licence so 100% government created
Others argue 97% bank created
Take your pick
To know the secret of the Wizard of Oz is to emancipate oneself.
Should be taught to trainee accountants too!
Another fine piece to bookmark and share – i do hope the electorate ends up better educated by the finish of this election and finally buries Thatchers public/household purse lie.
Indeed, Bill Still’s “The Meaning of Oz” is well worth the time taken to watch it, for instruction and as a reminder that battles were lost in the past as well as won https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0vSIoLT-FY
Let battle commence!!
This is a cry which ought to be taken up by the Boomers (like me) because money’s going to have to be created to give us the care we’ll need in our rapidly approaching old age.