Funny Money and the Real Economy

As Europeans face daily updates on the fate of their economies and of the Euro, public figures appear to disagree on the detail but agree on the broad framwork of how to respond to the crisis. The assumption from all quarters is that governments must in some way guarantee European currencies - whether through the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, sovereign loans or some other mechanism or combination of strategies.

This approach makes one assumption - rarely challenged - namely that the currency used by the large financial institutions must and should be the same currency used by individual citizens.

An alternative approach is that ordinary citizens use (or create) their own currencies for peer-to-peer trading, and leave the global finacial institutions to sort out their own mess. The global markets, of course, will never make this happen, as such alternative and micro-currencies necessarily undermine the power of large financial institutions.

Which is, of course, one of their appeals, at least in the real economy whch most of us live in.

 



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QuickQuid: 1734 Reasons to Avoid

Too much month left after the money? Need a quick cash loan?

QuickQuid can help - with instant loans of up to £1,000 for first-time applicants and money in your account within an hour of the loan being agreed.

The trouble is, the company (a UK subsidiary of American-owned Cash Euro Net) will charge you an eye-watering interest rate for the privilege.

How does a "representative APR" of 1734% sound?

Avoid, avoid - especially in light of some of the horror stories told by customers about the company's allegedly aggressive collection polices.

The company's original adverts in 2009 were banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for being misleading. The ASA judgement states that:

"because of the rate of the interest charged and the potential vulnerability of consumers likely to be attracted by the ad, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead consumers by omission of information concerning the rate of interest."

Furthermore, several individuals who have never taken out a loan with the company claim to have received intimidating letters from Cash Euo Net demanding payment of non-existent loans.

And, while we're at it, how about asking your MP why such an iniquitous rate of interest is permitted in the UK?

  

Follow up

In September 2011, Which Magazine reported Casheuronet UK, which operates Quick-payday.co.uk and Quickquid.co.uk, to the Information Commissioners' Office for alleged malpractice. 

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Car Scrappage Scheme

£900 million has been set aside by the UK government, apparently, to subsidise the car scrappage which pays owners £2,000 to trade in old cars when they buy new ones.

What a missed opportunity. Imagine if that amount of public money had been invested in green, local, micro-businesses rather than in an industry which is in serious decline anyway.

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Defining Capitalism

"[T]he combination of a Fed that can print money, deposit insurance, and a Congress that can authorize bailouts provides an extensive safety net for big financial firms. In such an environment, pursuing a policy of easy money plus deregulation doesn't amount to free market economics: it's a form of crony capitalism."

John Cassidy

"Perhaps we should try and think of a name for the new economic system, which certainly isn’t capitalism: that, remember, is all about ‘creative destruction’, and the freedom to fail. That’s exactly what we don’t have. The most accurate term would probably be ‘bankocracy’."

John Lanchester

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