A sincere apology

A government spokesperson, in the wake of the Queen’s Speech has declared that ‘money is finite,’ thus revealing a deep ignorance about how ‘money’ is created. Now, if he or she had said ‘credit is finite’ they would have been laughed out of court. In the grand scheme of things, money doesn’t grow on trees, it grows in credit. Credit then becomes an asset, and such assets are traded. Hence ‘quantitative easing,’ ‘derivatives,’ ‘debt swaps’ and the like. All these things keep our shambolic economic system on the road. A casino someone once called it, the kind of activity Jacob Rees-Mogg will know all about. Ministers are protesting how they’ve devoted £22 billion to easing the cost of living crisis. It wasn’t long ago that quantitative easing to the tune of over £400 billion was used to ease the pain of bankers, who went on (of course) to pay themselves handsome bonuses. Whilst not a banker himself, the spirit of Robert Maxwell lives on—the deeper you are in debt, the better chance you have of getting off scot-free, although in his case there remain some unanswered questions. So the government’s paltry £22 billion is as generous as the scent from a Skunk’s backside. Sorry, I couldn’t think of a better metaphor at this precise moment. I apologise to all Skunks.