I NOTE that the Royal Bank of Scotland has announced it is to close 30 branches (“RBS to close 30 branches and axe jobs”, The Herald, March 24). Originally, only the sovereign had the power to issue money. In time banks arose to store people's spare money. By lending this spare cash at interest back to the public these banks then usurped the power of the sovereign.
Over time the banks were joined by the building societies in this “at interest” money creation scam. 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 we need only consider the Bank of England's March 1997 statistical release. This gave the total extant UK money stock to be approximately £680 billion (that is, the total of all the money in existence in the economy – coins, notes, banks building society deposits). The total of money created by the Treasury on behalf of the UK Government was a mere £25bn (notes and coins). This represents but three of the total UK money stock. So, where did the other £655bn (the other 97 pe cent) of all the money in the UK come from? It had been created entirely by banks and building societies – ex nihilo. It is a myth that banks lend only what they have in their vaults.
We are now seeing the final stage in 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 – guess who? – those few private banks. If you suspect mistakes have been made in your financial affairs then your only recourse will be to – guess what? – your plastic card.
Doug Clark,
6 Muir Wood Grove,
Currie, Midlothian.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel