The Importance of Reasoned Debate in Transforming the Financial System

Ann Pettifor demystifies the complex concept of money creation in modern economies, which is no longer backed by gold reserves held by central banks. Pettifor uses accessible imagery and language to explain how money, history's most misunderstood invention, was created and sets out her diagnosis of the problems plaguing the world's monetary system. She also offers a prescription for how these issues can be fixed. Pettifor discusses how commercial bankers can create credit without limit and with minimal regulatory constraints, and she proposes introducing controls on international capital flows to address these issues. She also critiques fiscal austerity and argues that democracies must reclaim control over money production and manage the finance sector in the interests of society and the ecosystem. 

Ann Pettifor is an economist, writer, and activist. She is the Director of Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME), a think-tank that focuses on developing alternative economic policies. Ann is the author of The Case for the Green New Deal and The Production of Money.

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This episode of SystemShift comes from Greenpeace Nordic and is hosted by Greenpeace campaigner and former Swedish politician and Green MEP, Carl Schlyter, and produced by Alexia Fridén, with additional support from Ariadna Rodrigo, Juliana Costa, Christian Aslund and Attila Kulcsár at Greenpeace.

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