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Keywords: Banking

  • ECONOMICS

    The biggest untold story in the history of money

    • David James
    • 03 May 2024

    It is a truism to say that the way money is constructed defines the power structure under which we live. But allowing private actors to manipulate and game the financial system has not just given them extraordinary power, it has undermined the way money itself is understood.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Famine looms in Sudan as conflict enters its second year

    • Kirsty Robertson
    • 30 April 2024

    One year after civil war erupted, Sudan has become one of the world’s worst humanitarian tragedies with around 5 million people experiencing emergency levels of hunger. This puts Sudan on the brink of famine. Sudanese leaders claim this is the crisis the world has forgotten.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Forgive us our debts

    • David James
    • 23 November 2023

    If money is just a set of rules, we need to ask, how can these rules best serve society and not cause crises? We know, after thousands of years of evidence, that the debt-based system of money eventually self-destructs, and this time, the effects are likely to be felt around the world. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Robodebt: Anatomy of a scandal

    • James Massola
    • 14 July 2023
    5 Comments

    Catherine Holmes' Royal Commission report exposes the staggering mismanagement and human cost of Australia's Robodebt scandal. The scheme burdened over 500,000 Australians with non-existent debts and is linked to at least three suicides. This report unravels the culture behind the disaster and the potential repercussions ahead.

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  • ECONOMICS

    The debt crisis we all saw coming

    • David James
    • 03 April 2023

    As the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Credit Suisse poses a renewed threat to the global financial system, the question arises: how can we manage out-of-control debt? With global debt exceeding 230 per cent of GDP, could nationalising banks be the solution to the ongoing crisis, or will the debt merry-go-round continue to spin out of control?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Robodebt and the human cost

    • Joe Zabar
    • 14 February 2023
    2 Comments

    The Robodebt Scheme promised billions in savings, but became a $1.8 billion failure labeled as 'a shameful chapter in public administration' by the Federal Court. The government was forced to settle a class action and wipe the debts of 381,000 people. Beyond the human cost, these failures point to a welfare system due for an upgrade. 

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  • ECONOMICS

    Best of 2022: The rise of the machines

    • David James
    • 12 January 2023

    There is a great deal of commentary about the growing importance of artificial intelligence, or AI, especially in business circles. To some extent this is a self-fulfilling prophecy — if people think something will have a seminal effect then it probably will. But if the supposed commercial benefits are significant, the dangers are potentially enormous.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Real world problems can’t be solved by finance fictions

    • David James
    • 18 October 2022
    3 Comments

    The world is facing cross-currents: a collapsing financial system that is balanced by the benefits of massive, long term improvements in production efficiencies, mainly because of technological advances. It is a bad news/good news story that can only be seen accurately if the intractable errors of contemporary economics are jettisoned. We are in a battle between finance fictions and reality. 

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  • ECONOMICS

    Blowback to Russia sanctions in Europe as gas crisis looms

    • David James
    • 03 October 2022
    5 Comments

    For Europe, especially Germany, there should be enough gas in storage to limp through winter but by next spring there may be severe trouble. The leaders of Europe and the United States expected that they would win the economic war against Russia and force the invader to withdraw. Not only did that not happen, it is likely to lead to severe unintended economic consequences.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Why we need new rules for money

    • David James
    • 23 August 2022
    4 Comments

    Now that it is becoming hard to avoid just how much trouble the global financial system is in, it is interesting to speculate about what should be done about it. The first thing to understand about the global financial system is that the assumptions that were used to shape it are demonstrably false.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Why debt forgiveness may be inevitable

    • David James
    • 25 July 2022
    3 Comments

    Monetary authorities are caught in an impossible situation. Inflation is rising: it is over 5 per cent in Australia and over 9 per cent in the United States. Inflation is often seen as a way out of excessive debt because it erodes the real value of money and therefore the real value of the debt. But what is increasingly being discussed are ways to cancel the debt.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Rising interest rates point to a larger problem

    • David James
    • 28 June 2022
    3 Comments

    The question that should be posed is how effective has the Reserve Bank been at ‘managing’ the economy and financial system? ‘Not very’, has to be the answer. Not that the RBA is alone. The same pattern has been seen across the developed world. Central banks have one weapon at their disposal, the cost of money (the interest rate), and there is not much evidence they have used this tool to make their systems sustainable. Mostly, they have made matters worse. 

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