Why does this “we’ve maxed out the credit card” narrative persist? – Page 3 – Chat Forum

fatmountain · 2024-07-12T16:53:33Z

Money is created as debt and taxation isn't collected into a big government "piggybank" — tax is effectively the destruction or 'removal' of money from circulation and a way to control inflation. A sovereign state can create money, which is either lent to the legacy banks (aka "quantitive easing") or is "realised" in the economy as government spending. Governments that can print their own money cannot run out of it and this is why we can have endless war, "quantitive easing", bank bailouts, subsidise massive loss making industries, or effectively pay people to stay at home during in "lockdowns", etc. So why does this narrative that the UK is somehow always on the verge of bankruptcy persist? Why is it never challenged in the media? Most people seem to accept the UK has a fixed money supply and this must be at parity with taxation, in the same way income is with household spending. These are a set of beliefs I have about money, given admittedly fairly minimal research into the matter (a few documentaries and documentation from the BoE), but I'd be interested to know from anyone who's a specialist on this. I won't accept the Zimbabwe as an example because I do not accept it to be an equivalent to a food-secure and fully industrialised European power such as the United Kingdom.

politecameraaction

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...and there was never an answer given!

Posted : 22/07/2024 1:34 pm

Sandwich

Posts: 13349

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It's an excuse (the credit card thing) for inaction and political choices that favour specific interest groups and generally not the majority.

I see you Ms Reeves, you're no better than Mr Hunt and you're squandering a precious resource (a massive majority) through timidity.

Posted : 23/07/2024 9:33 am

nickc

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by the way, it's ironic given the subject of this thread that the etymology of word economy is Greek; comes from two words oikos - House and nemein - to manage.

Posted : 23/07/2024 10:02 am

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Why does this "we've maxed out the credit card" narrative persist?