Money for what matters
Many solutions to our social, ecological, and economic challenges run up against the same question: “How will we pay for it?” Have you hit this wall in your own work or community? What if there were a different way to look at that question, one that reveals a way to fund the solutions we need? Tonight we will be hosting Sam Hummel from the Money Justice Collaborative to tell us more about his research. When we have the resources, people, and know-how to solve important problems, why should we be stopped by a shortage of numbers, which is all money is? What is the role of money creation and what concrete steps does he suggest?
Together with Sam Hummel Researcher of money, banking, and wellbeing economics Anne Kervers Promovendus politieke theorie en sinds 2019 actief bij Extinction RebellionMore about the programme
Over 16 years helping universities, governments, and corporations implement sustainability programs, speaker Sam Hummel saw countless projects shelved for lack of funding. He also noticed that many of his peers were no longer working on implementing sustainability programs because they were instead trying to “find the money.” Despite their efforts in philanthropy, fiscal policy, social entrepreneurship, and socially responsible investing, available funding for sustainability solutions continued to fall far short of what was needed. Sam kept coming back to the same question: When we have the resources, people, and know-how to solve important problems, why should we be stopped by a shortage of numbers, which is all money is?
The 2008 financial crisis taught him that banks have special legal privileges that let them create new money when they lend. He began to ask: “If banks create money when they lend, why can’t we use that mechanism to pay for urgent social and ecological needs?” He was surprised to discover that this is absolutely possible, and used to be a common practice. In countries around the world, past social and political movements have tapped these legal privileges to channel huge amounts of finance into public purposes. Governments in some countries are starting to do this again. Come learn how citizens and advocacy groups can help accelerate this trend – and bring your elected officials with you!
In this talk, Sam will illuminate this funding mechanism in plain language. No prior experience with banking, finance, economics, or law is needed. The session is designed to provoke new thinking and spark concrete conversations about what’s politically and legally possible. The presentation will be followed by a discussion with scholar in banking and climate finance Anne Kervers.
Lees meer A missing conversation in climate financeThe Money Justice Collaborative interviewed 50 leaders in climate finance advocacy, monetary reform, and banking scholarship. Our goal was to find out why the three groups are not working together more to challenge the government-granted privileges that enable banks to newly create 100% of the money they lend, including the money they lend to fossil fuel companies.1 In fact, these privileges are the largest source of financing for fossil fuels.
