Re: MONETARY: Social Credit co-operation with others.

["Rodney Shakespeare" <Rodney.Shakespeare1@btopenworld.com>]

To Mark Reiners,
Mark,
    Thankyou for your private email.  In view of the important matters that
it raises, I asked for your permission to publish it on the Ownership
noticeboard and you kindly agreed.

   1.    I advise you to prioritise your reading of the Seven Steps.  In a
COG discussion it will not be possible to convey everything about the
trenchant and very wide-ranging nature of what is in the book.  Moreover, in
my last email I clearly indicated that the book contains some apparently
impossible things.

    Be assured that the book is a fast, pleasant  read, in some ways like an
action story.  It has an almost unique literary structure (the only parallel
that comes to mind is Plato's Symposium) and  all the endorsers (and readers
so far) have commented on the lucidity of the text.  As regards endorsers,
have you noted the endorsement from the eminent Islamic academic (it is not
advisable to use the word "economist") on pages 46/47?  Taken with the
paragraphs starting at the bottom of page 45, there is a fascinating
situation and I might as well add here that Peter Challen and I were
recently at a big Islamic conference dealing with these matters.

2.    I stated  that:--
                 "However, it (a key Social Credit proposal) is only PART of
the overall counter-inflationary proposal and is dependent upon certain
other conditions being met. So I'm saying that, if Social Credit is prepared
to co-operate with others, it could achieve a large part of its goals (and
even all of them)."

    You now ask if the book specifically addresses the ways in which this
"is dependent upon certain other conditions being met."

    The answer is yes.  At the heart of the proposals is the use of
interest-free (repayable) loans for a) public capital spending and b)
private capital spending, if wide ownership is involved.  Once the money is
repaid and cancelled, only the productive assets remain to continue doing
their work.  Such a situation is inherently counter-inflationary.  If a
stable price level is to be maintained, however, there is then room for
issuance of debt-free (non-repayable) money on the lines of the proposal of
Robertson/Huber, Rowbotham, Lowell Manning etc.  who, in a very positive
sense, have Social Credit in their background and ideas (although they may
not wish to use the term as a description of themselves).

    The simulfinancing of binary economics uniquely finances both production
and consumption whereas the writers mentioned generally concentrate only on
consumption and let production take care of itself.  As you may know, binary
economics (using interest-free money) now extends to public capital
investment (essentially making it MUCH cheaper and not necessarily
increasing the amount of such investment nor preventing the
construction/management from being in the private sector) and, taken, with
the binary private sector financing, again using interest-free money, there
is a counter-inflationary situation.  In summary, the use of interest-free
money for productive capital investment creates a number of splendid
benefits and also opens a situation where Social Credit type spending is
necessary to keep a stable level of prices (and so give a SECOND  basic
income -- the first is the one from capital ownership and, of course, there
is labor income as well).

    Admittedly, some binary economists would simply prefer that there be
only the counter-inflationary effect but, by settling for a stable level of
prices instead, it could well be possible to unite in common cause many
groups searching for a way to achieve economic and social justice.

c)    I said that I thought that Social Credit could agree with the main
analysis/critique.  Well, at the end of Chapter Two, the people of good
faith (with help from, among others, the Governor of the Bank of England)
establish that:--

    i)    (in the UK) 97% of the new money supply is created out of nothing
by the private banking system which merely presses computer buttons.

    ii)     interest is then added.

    iii)    Moreover, the people of good faith come to recognise that
interest (as distinguished from administration charges) is not necessary
(and, if it is not necessary, why have it?).

    Now surely Social Credit can agree with i), ii) and iii) above!!!!   And
surely they can agree to the issuance of debt-free money -- although,
admittedly, it has to be in the context of the other, counter-inflationary,
interest-free financing into productive assets.


d)     Mark, you mention the (US patented) Motionless Electromagnetic
Generator which makes a crucial appearance early on, although only in a
footnote.  I have, of late, been fortunate in having a number of people in
different fields, including you, Mark,  provide me with information.  I
claim no technical expertise in these matters but there are now about six or
seven new mind-bending technologies which undoubtedly exist although it is
another question whether they exist in commercially viable form.

Rodney Shakespeare.