From Speculation to Sustainability: Reclaiming Finance for People and Planet According to Professor Robert C. Hockett (2024), our financial system has morphed into a "money-pump [...]
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Democratize money now!
We need a just money system that works for the people, not for the big banks. We are a global network of movements that collaborate with policymakers, the public and economists around the world to redesign money for social justice and a liveable planet. Want to get involved?
News
Article
Sovereign Monetary Reform: Re-establish the People’s Sovereignty over Its Own Currency
The following text outlines the urgent need to address the issue of monetary control in a constitutional state, highlighting the misconception that central banks or [...]
Interview, Webinar
AMI interview with Michael Hudson
Uncover the Ancient Secrets of ProsperityOur financial system is broken, fueling greed and extreme wealth inequality. The wealthy shape laws for their own gain, while [...]
IMMR
What are IMMR Forums?
Beginning this summer of 2024 we started hosting an online space for knowledge sharing and community building between members of our different organizations under the [...]
The problem
Did you know that more than 90 % of all money in the world has been created by big private banks?
As explained by various central banks all over the world [1], money in your bank accounts is not created by the Central Bank! It is created by private banks when they issue loans.
This means that how much money that enters the economy and where it is allocated is effectively controlled by the profit interests of private companies.
Due to their money-creating power, banks are so systemically important that no country can afford to let them default. Hence, we taxpayers have to foot the bill as soon as the banks take too large risks to make profits.
This has serious consequences. It leads to huge levels of debt, economic disparities and financial crisis. It is fueling money and resources into unproductive financial speculation and destruction of our environment and our planet.
Experts all over the world call for a change
“
"Of all the many ways of organising banking, the worst is the one we have today. Change is, I believe, inevitable. The question is only whether we can think our way through to a better outcome before the next generation is damaged by a future and bigger crisis."
Mervyn King
Previous governor of Banks of England
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[Sovereign Money] would bring huge advantages. It would be possible to increase the money supply without encouraging people to borrow to the hilt. It would end “too big to fail” in banking. It would also transfer seigniorage – the benefits from creating money – to the public.
Martin Wolf
Chief Economic Commentator, Financial times
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"The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but it is the Government's greatest creative opportunity. The taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest, discounts and exchanges. The people can and will be furnished with a currency as safe as their own government. Money will cease to be the master and become the servant of humanity.”
Abraham Lincoln
Previous president of the United States
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"Banks, in other words, will not be “special” anymore. By separating their lending function from their monetary function, the proposed reform will effectively “end banking,” as we know it. [...] In effect, it would force private finance to conform to its own self-narrative as the realm of pure “intermediation” between private suppliers and users of “scarce” capital. [It] would allow for a more transparent, fair, and socially beneficial delineation between the properly “private” and the legitimately “public” spheres"
Saul OMAROVA
Professor in Law and internationally renowned expert in financial regulation, Cornell University
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"We, the public, and our political representatives, are all accountable for this state of affairs. In short, it is not that private investments in fossil fuels continue despite our best efforts; it's that public policy choice [to delegate money creation to private banks, that] actively enable and incentivise this investment to continue."
Peter Dietsch
Professor of Practical Philosophy, University of Victoria
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"Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes the nations laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of parliament and of democracy is idle and futile"
W.L. Mackenzie Kings
Prime Minister of Kanda 1921-1930, 1935-1948
What is the solution?
To create a fair, democratic and sustainable economy, we need to put an end to bank's power over money creation. Newly created money should not go into the big bank's pockets or be used for destroying our planet. New money should be created by a public institution to benefit the society and its citizens.
Books
Read the latest books about how to reform the economy
Opinion pieces
Read the latest opinion pieces published in the subject area
Local proposals
Reform proposals from our member organizations
Papers
Read academical papers published by experts
Videos
Learn through watching pedagogical videos
Webinars
Watch webinars with international experts
Click the links to learn more...
Reasons to engage now
Everyone have to face the fact that we only live for around 80000 hours. What should you do with your limited time on earth? According to effective altruism movement, you should spend your time on creating a better world in the most efficient possible way. To do that, you should find a problem fulfilling three criterias:
1
Maximal impact
Identify and focus on a problem that have huge and serious consequences for as many as possible all over the world.
The current design of the monetary systems in modern countries is such and problem: it leads to social, economical and ecological crises all over the world.
2
Maximal neglectedness
Identify a neglected problem that few others try to solve. Your effort will then be a very important and meaningful contribution.
The design of our monetary system is one of the most neglected problem in the world. Even though the experts that really know the subject call for change, almost no one else understand the problem and works for solving it.
3
Realistic solutions
Identify a problem that has clear and realistic solutions that can be implemented without large costs or much effort.
The monetary system is such a problem, it is designed by humans, it is not a natural law. Multiple of examples through history show that other monetary systems are possible that benefits everyone - not just a financial elite.
We need you!
To reform money to work for the society, the planet and the people, we need you.
Our Achievements
Years of activism
Member organisations
Followers worldwide
International Movement for Monetary Reform (IMMR) consists of non-profit organizations that focus on the critical issue of our time - the creation and disappearance of money and its consequences for the development of society and our lives.
We are non-partisan and act only for this issue. Our vision is that the money system should be fair, sustainable and democratic and used for the benefit of society as a whole.