So is Ann. Debt cancellation would be great idea. Mass civil disobedience to repudiate it would be

better. But who’s going to jump first?

don’t we learn from history? Durig the pre-war depression, FDR Roosevelt and even Hitler embarked on large infrastructure schemes that got

millions back to work and proved to be a valuable investment in the future of those coutries. I am sure we could find prgrammes that would be

useful in the future, in fact investment that might even be essential, especialy projects that would help the environment. My own particular

favourite would be to electrify every railway line in the country. Hitler built the autobahns and the German nation is thankful for that. However,

the rest of his political philosopy was completely unacceptable.

helping the majority understand, and accept the notion of debt-free money. Then we’ve done that, we have to persuade governments of the virtues of

debt-free money issued by governments. Henry Ford failed in this mission in the 30s – but that’s no reason why we should not try again.

Darling is like a doctor who prescribes whisky to an alcoholic with liver failure.

in the same way that a flame-thrower will fail to help with a house on fire. Government actions are simply ratcheting up the mountains of

unsustainable debt.

My proposal is also very simple and, I would argue, a natural extension of your solutions. But it does require a

paradigm shift, an understanding of the role and the functions of money and the ability to imagine a financial system completely free of debt.

Many commentators don’t seem to be able to distinguish between the financial system and the economy itslf. We also usually fail to

distinguish between the money system and the delivery mechanisms or secondaries (the financial institutions and intermediaries).

And most

frustratingly we seem unable to appreciate that a safe, secure and just money system can (and should) be completely free of debt (and interest

rates). We do not need any debt in our financial system. This is absolutely true, but very few of us can really imagine that money can exist

without a system of interest rates – without debt.

But the good news is that a failure of imagination can be overcome.

I propose a

30-year plan to phase out debt, which will ultimately result in a zero-based money system (whereby all transactions resolve to zero).
Stage

1:reduce all interest rates to 0% (including the LIBOR etc)
Stage 2: declare a moratorium on all further debt. Facilitate the repayments of

existing debt
Stage 3: Replace loans with money – issue money rather than debt

Too simple? I don’t think so. But if you think so, then

prove to me why a debt-free money system won’t work. I don’t think you can. After all there are plenty of examples of such financial sytems if

you look.