“97% owned” presents serious research and verifiable evidence on the true nature of our economic and financial system. It uncovers and explains little known aspects of the inner workings of the western monetary system and its social implications on both a local and global level.
As the UK enters it’s 11th year of uninterrupted foreign conflict, as exploitation and social discontent escalate globally, and as the fallout from the 2008 global financial crisis is still fresh in the minds of citizens, Queuepolitely investigates the origin of money and asks to what extent money creation, allocation, and valuing impacts the shape of a society or nation.
Few people can accurately answer the questions of where money comes from, who creates it and what implications it’s creation has. The debate around the creation of money remains highly charged, inaccurate and biased. Yet when money drives almost all activity on the planet, it is essential that we have accurate answers to these questions. Produced by Queuepolitely and featuring Ben Dyson of Positive Money, Josh Ryan-Collins of The New Economics Foundation, Ann Pettifor, the "HBOS Whistleblower" Paul Moore, Simon Dixon of Bank to the Future and Nick Dearden from the Jubliee Debt Campaign, “97% Owned” explains why things are as they are, and could things be different?
We find that there are multiple types of national currency and forms of money, which are created by different institutions, we find that commercial banks create 97% of all our money when they create loans. For what purpose and how much is created matters in terms of the shape of a society, economic growth and the stability and size of the banking sector. We explain the relationship between money creation, growth, and inflation.
We also find that there are multiple forms of debt, there is the type of debt that originates when we borrow money from each other, but there is also another type of debt, which comes into existence when goods, services and currency are traded between nations. It is the movement of these transactions, also known as the balance of trade, that can affect the solvency of a country. Volume matters, and developed, dominant countries and their financial institutions can force a default on less developed and more vulnerable countries through the rapid withdrawal of their currency. The aim of such a raid is to effect changes in law and ownership of key industries, and to gain access to resources and markets.
The documentary investigates alternative currencies, peer to peer financial processes and small scale banking as ways to bypass the monopolistic grip of the established banking sector. It attempts to stimulate debate on who should benefit from the creation of money and for what purposes money should be created. Why is it important to assign a value to money in terms of international trade between nations. Would assigning such a value or backing of currencies lead to a system more representative of fair and equal competition?
We also made a shorter 1 hour cut of the documentary, for Positive Money, which concentrates exclusively on the implications of debt based currency.
