Thinking outside the box to solve the Three Waters debacle

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Back in 1997 I edited a national newsletter called The Indicator. One day I reviewed a book by ecological economist, Richard Douthwaite called The Growth Illusion: How Economic Growth Enriched the Few, Impoverished the Many and Endangered the Planet.  He had also written  Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economics for Security in an Unstable World, 1996) which gives dozens of examples of currency, banking, energy and food production systems which communities can use to make themselves less dependent on an increasingly unstable world economy.

Jeanette Fitzsimons, Deirdre Kent and Richard Douthwaite 1997

It wasn’t long before I was in contact with Richard and he agreed to come to New Zealand to promote his books. I drove him round New Zealand and recall visiting the then Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons. We had many conversations in the car and I recall him saying that if a community wanted more self sufficiency, then it needed both a community currency and a community bank.

So hold that thought. Continue reading “Thinking outside the box to solve the Three Waters debacle”

Negative interest rates are very different from a demurrage currency

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With the prospect of New Zealand one day going as far as negative interest rates, we need to examine the consequences of that. The trouble is that those of us who know a little about demurrage currencies tend to think they are the same, whereas they are very different. Continue reading “Negative interest rates are very different from a demurrage currency”

A dual currency system would help New Zealand recover

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Covid-19 in New Zealand has resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs, including from Air New Zealand, Auckland Council, Fletchers, Millennium hotels, Sky City, Ngai Tahu and Bunnings. With the first round of wage subsidies ending in June and the second round ending in September there will be thousands more jobs to be lost. Despite the fact that on Monday 8 June we moved to Level One and we can all move around normally within our country, there is no sign of overseas tourism starting up again or Air NZ getting back to 2019 levels within the foreseeable future. Continue reading “A dual currency system would help New Zealand recover”

It’s our Superpower to create money says Reserve Bank chief economist

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On Tuesday 19th May John Campbell, host of TVOne Breakfast, interviewed  Yuong Hu, Chief Economist of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and asked him about printing money. If the Reserve Bank is going to buy billions of dollars in Government bonds where does the money come from? Continue reading “It’s our Superpower to create money says Reserve Bank chief economist”

Which do you fancy – Economic Growth or Financial Collapse?

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I have now watched a TED talk on this topic twice and can’t help but respond. Ecological economist Marjan Van Den Belt is right when she says “we are mindlessly addicted to economic growth, we are growth junkies.” She advocates reciprocity in economies and says that is the key to a circular, sharing, regenerative economy. So far so good. Continue reading “Which do you fancy – Economic Growth or Financial Collapse?”

Designing a new economy without addressing money system or tax system is futile

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If you want to design a political economy that works, you actually have to go to the roots. That means the money system the tax system, the welfare system and the governance system. So I was shocked to read the six winning essays in The Next System’s essay competition to discover that so few of them had addressed the money system or the tax system. Continue reading “Designing a new economy without addressing money system or tax system is futile”

Summary of The Big Shift: Rethinking Money, Tax, Welfare and Governance for the Next Economic System

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The Big Shift: Rethinking Money, Tax, Welfare and Governance for the Next Economic System by Deirdre Kent

This important little book is a very dense read. The current growth-dependent economic system is not only broken must be completely replaced with a new paradigm. Continue reading “Summary of The Big Shift: Rethinking Money, Tax, Welfare and Governance for the Next Economic System”