Don’t bank on financial institutions to get you out of hole when mistake is made

I have just been informed by the Bank of Scotland that their North Morningside branch will close on 5 July.

Initially, only the sovereign had the power to issue money. Eventually, banks arose to store people’s spare money. But by lending this spare cash at interest back to the public these banks (and later, building societies) usurped the power of the sovereign. Soon, the amount of money created by them far exceeded that created by the sovereign (or his treasury). To illustrate what this debt-based financial system actually means in practical and numerical terms, consider the Bank of England’s March 1997 statistical release. This gave the total extant UK money stock (ie the total of all the money in existence in the economy – coins, notes, banks building society deposits) as approximately £680 billion. The total of money created by the Treasury on behalf of the UK Government was a mere £25bn (notes and coins). This represents but 3 per cent of the total UK money stock. Where did the other £655bn of all the money in the UK come from? It had been created entirely by banks and building societies – ex nihilo! It is a cruel myth that banks lend only what they have in their vaults. We are now in the final stage of the total usurpation of the creation and management of money by the banks via the complete digitalisation of the entire financial system. Very soon plastic cards will be the sole means of paying for goods and services, and when that day dawns, the entire financial system will be in the hands of those few private banks. If you suspect a mistake has been made in your financial affairs then your only recourse will be to your plastic card!

DOUG CLARK Muir Wood Grove Currie, Midlothian