PMNZ February newsletter - Documentary on our campaign
Welcome to our February 2025 newsletter. Here is a link is a link to previous newsletters.
We are excited to announce the filming of a full length documentary by renowned documentary maker, and long-term supporter, Marcus Palmer. Marcus will be filming us as we approach mayors, councils, parliamentarians and others as we seek to have the Reserve Bank fund water infrastructure projects.
You may remember the excellent twelve-minute documentary Marcus compiled, called Wealth of Illusion that uncovered the “dirty little secret” around money creation by private banks.
Marcus will be filming as we build our campaign and make approaches to the various authorities. The documentary is planned to culminate with a council making an approach to the Government to fund some of their water infrastructure projects via Reserve Bank direct monetary financing.
Marcus will make a request for backing to New Zealand on Air but in the initial stage, funding will come from Marcus’s own pocket. As a gesture of goodwill and support we will provide Marcus with a small contribution to his expenses of $200. We ask those of you that can, to make a contribution via Internet Banking to our bank account Positive Money NZ Inc 38-9023-0211047-01 with “Documentary” in the narration. With data matching, please make sure you record our name correctly and use the 01 suffix
Presentation to the select committee on banking competition
We will be making an oral presentation to the Finance and Expenditure committee in support of our submission on banking competition. The submission will be on the 19th February from 11:55 to 12:05 pm .and will be filmed as part of the documentary. Supporters are welcome to attend and there will be a debrief at the Backbencher Pub afterwards.
The venue for our presentation will probably be Select Committee Meeting Room 2 in Bowen House. Please check on the Select Committee Schedule of meetings from the 14th February to confirm the venue. You can also watch it livestream or catch it on demand.
2025 Strategy meeting
We will be holding our annual strategy planning meeting on Saturday 15th February 2025 9am – 1:00pm at the New Lynn Community Centre, 45 Totara Avenue. Supporters are welcome to meet our team and introduce themselves during the last half hour of the meeting. Be aware that the meeting will be filmed as part of the documentary.
An interesting one-hour clip
We recommend watching Alice ™: The biggest untold story in the history of money, at least from the 5-minute mark to 30 minutes and things pick up around the 15-minute mark.
It talks of “the foolish contrivance” that governments need to fund fiscal deficits from the private market. While good controls would be required–our Local Water Financing Done Well proposal gives an example—governments are able to fund some spending through money creation.
It goes on to say that there is an imbalance in the amount of scrutiny between banking and fiscal policy. A great deal of money is created by private banks with minimal control and that money goes mostly into unproductive areas of the economy.
Government spending is however subject to strict fiscal control, with some choosing austerity measures to balance the books.
During December / January
We provided our response to the Infrastructure Commission’s invitation to test their thinking on developing a National Infrastructure Plan.
Wrote a letter to the editor on Direct Monetary Financing that was published in The New Zealand Herald
Nga mihi
Don Richards