Phil Stevens: Imminent Global Economic Cashless Reset - Plan B for NZ & Alternative Currencies

GreenplanetFM Podcast

Are we also going to be a cashless society only, using digital currency that will all be tracked from all integrated banks to every person throughout NZ/Globally?

Phil opens up saying that had ‘we’ had the courage we would have had a reset back in 2008 when New York’s Wall St and City of London ‘Ponzi schemes’ started to fall apart - but the Federal Reserve cleverly manifested trillions of dollars to bail out the bankers instead of the ordinary people who needed it. Like 14 trillion dollars of liquidity kept them afloat. Which Phil states was the absolute wrong thing to do - we needed to have let them fail - clean up their messes and then given them strict new rules in which to operate under and to state that ‘you cannot continue to hang out pieces of paper and expect other people to buy them. That was the first mistake.

The 2nd mistake was thinking that the problem was solved. Because with all this financial liquidity injected into the market - a lot of Governments and central Banks thought ok - that is a good job done and everyone went back to business as usual. However, it basically sent all the ‘problem gamblers back into the casino - with a new bankroll.

Now Phil says, we have got the same set of problems - overvalued asset markets - and too many promises to pay - on debts that can never be repaid. Which essentially has set up so many economies around the world to basically fall over at the slightest whiff on any headwind - and now we are in this headwind. COVID.

Like building up climate-related problems, COVID, plus countries in unrest and civil disorder in so many other countries that the financial system was not ready for this because it was already ‘running pretty much on fumes.’ So we are up against the same sort of reckoning of 2008 - but this time we do not have the luxury of having to pump limitless amounts of credit into these markets to get them to inflate again. So what are we going to do?

Phil says that there are a good number of players who are saying let’s get back to work and open up our economies etc - get the money machines flowing and just leverage more things - sell more things and pretend this never happened (sounds familiar?) All Phil can say to this - is good luck with that.

Because the reality is that people especially now during COVID are reflecting on the present situation and recognise that this is totally unsustainable and realise that we can not just keep on plundering resources and use the oceans and atmosphere for sinks for all of our waste products and not expect it to catch up with us. That there is now no going back - there is now a growing number of people who know that what we have been doing has to change - that we have passed through a one-way gate.

Does this reset mean we go cashless?

Cashless Digital Countries - who are going to go first? Sweden, Australia, Norway or Denmark? Phil says that NZ is very close as we are a small country with a very well integrated banking system and that we have been practicing for some while having the first EFTpos card system on the planet - back in the 1990s we put this in place, and it was not that costly and it did not take very long to have it all mesh together with all banks using one EFTPOS machine all connected.

So NZ was the global guinea pig (like so many other technical test trials). Phil states that NZ is seen as being successful having a nationwide system that can essentially do away with cash using credit and Eftpos cards.

Phil then mentions that the New Zealand Reserve Bank a year ago sent out a survey form to ask what New Zealanders thought about cash.

With these questions:

• Do you use cash?
• How often do you use it?
• Do you wish you used it more or less?
• He says they asked a number of good questions.

And what the NZ Reserve Bank concluded was that getting rid of cash would be a bad idea.

But, if the big boys overseas said DO IT. The Reserve Bank would do as they are told?

Listen around 10 minutes in:

Phil says that though we may have in many ways a cashless society - and though the Reserve Bank is wanting it - they will watch the situation and see how it all unfolds.

Phil says that cash is the only form of money in our broader economy that is not created as private bank interest bearing debt. This is a larger thing that people tend to leave out of the conversation. That right now 98 and a half percent of the money that is circulating and changing hands and is in transactions every day in NZ was originally created out of thin air by a commercial trading bank as an interest’s bearing debt. He says that the cash is kind of interesting because it is the only money that does not have that pedigree. It is the only money that did not come into existence through that original sin … of a mortgage or some other sort of bank loan. The reason this is important is because right now NZ’s private debt to GDP ratio is getting close to 200% - which means that the amount of money that is owed to banks and financial institutions is about double the turnover of our entire economy in a single year. Phil says most of NZ’s money comes into existence when people take out mortgages.

(Note: I did not want to interrupt Phil - but this Labour Government and the previous National Government have been accepting around 80,000 new immigrants into NZ per year, and I wanted to ask - is this allowing the NZ Government to ride high on the influx of the many millions of dollars flowing into the country as a result of these new residents, bringing all their cash into our economy?

Phil talks about the housing bubble as this is where most New Zealanders invest their money, and he asks - what will be the trigger when it pops? Because, he says - it’s on its way …

Hear about the stated policy of NZ’s Reserve Bank via ‘quantitative easing.’ They are able to print money ‘by offering it to trading banks’ as a backstop for all the lending that they want to do. The banks are very happy to do this - for by giving out loans this is how they make a profit - the interest on loans is the banks' income source (Note the 4 overseas major banks in NZ made over $10 billion in profits in 2018/19) So naturally, the top strata of the NZ Banks (Australian owned) want to keep this game going as long as they can.

Also mentioned in this interview

Learn that the Govt is acting as a hand brake on the NZ Economy.

Why do we not learn who the overseas Bankers are, that gives the NZ Govt loans? What bank? What are the terms? That the further you follow the money it has to go higher up the pyramid. Who are the people at the top? There have to be families that benefit from all this money ‘going uphill.’ Who are they? Why the muteness?

That NZ debt is continuing to increase. Why the silence from ordinary MPs about this? Because each Party will not allow an MP to break ranks and ask that type of question. The Parties control (muzzle) their members - this is why Parties and NZ politics are increasingly seen to be opaque, stagnant, and moribund.

That the NZ Government also does not invest its money where it would do the most good.

Not at the grassroots. Listen to what he says - our government is not consciously putting its money into areas where the community most needs it.

Digital exploitation is now rife on a planet that has already been exploited for its natural resources.

Phil says that we have gone into overshoot in terms of what we are doing to the environment - especially freshwater and topsoil, and pollution in general. That now the only frontiers able to be exploited are the ‘virtual ones’ by taking advantage of this digital space - the virtual world. This is where we also have to be alert. If you are not savvy with the latest technologies and monetary systems, get ‘professional’ advice.

Crypto Currencies and BlockChain technology - a lot are virtual ponzi schemes and pump and dump scams are in this realm.

BlockChain is a very useful tech - we just have clean out the abuses - so it can be used for the benefit of society

Can we prepare Locally and throughout NZ for a perturbation in the currency and cash realm?

If the Western world went suddenly cashless - would NZ follow?

Steve says keep some cash handy all the same - enough to get you by for a number of days just in case a bank did go down.

He says we are still in the Neoliberal lens and that there are bubbles that could collapse and affect us.

New Zealanders invest and own houses as their investment portfolio - not in new business and enterprises - where overseas that are more entrepreneurial.

Becoming Self-reliant and resilient.

It is very important for us to grow our own food where possible, especially organic because we know exactly what we are putting into our bodies. Plus, it is fresh and therefore our health is optimised and thus no visits to doctors

Tools to sustain us in case of breakdown or emergencies.How do we keep money or ‘currencies’ working when cash becomes unavailable?

Steve describes how a ‘Time Bank’ works to show how good and easy it is to implement. That a time bank is a ‘chit’ that has a number on it - that has a value of ‘one hour’ and you can trade these within your community if someone can mow lawns and another can cut someone's hair or paint a house and trades with repairing a machine or furniture - these chits can be traded. You can have a small computer run the whole local community and it can have up to a few thousand ‘locals’ engaged to work this way.

That you can download from the web programs like ‘Community Weaver’ a dedicated program - or Community Forge - or CES Community Exchange Solutions

A very good example of a community that is working with a Time Banks is Project Lyttelton in the South Island of NZ.

https://www.ourplanet.org/greenplanetfm/margaret-jefferies-project-lyttleton-sustainable-community-building-christchurch

To obtain more information on making your neighbourhood and local community more self-reliant and resilient go to:

https://livingeconomies.nz/

Links of interest:

Sweden is the most cashless society today.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/07/27/fact-check-cashless-society-isnt-imminent-wouldnt-eliminate-cash/5415027002/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q81d3cRK8SQ 4.12 into this short video of 12 minutes.

https://popularresistance.org/the-wall-street-crash-and-the-great-depression/

Could there be against all expectations a ‘Global Debt Jubilee’ - where all sovereign debt is forgiven?

I had that in my question list, but did not get around to asking for comment on this :(.

Next Week’s Interview:

To be announced.

Once it is recorded and edited and readied we will advise.

Thanking you, Tim