By Bo-Young Lim with Don Richards

Let’s re-consider how we talk about bank money creation with the general public. Let’s re-think how we do monetary reform awareness campaigns. Let’s re-imagine our approach to bridging this abstract topic of monetary reform to urgent concrete issues challenging us all.

We can learn from what other monetary groups within IMMR are doing. Positive Money New Zealand’s founder, Don Richards, sat with me for an interview to share about PMNZ’s current campaign efforts. Granted, New Zealand has a relatively small population and land size. But like everywhere else in the world, it is plagued by some of the same problems of growing inequality, crumbling infrastructure, and governments heavily burdened with high debt levels. Here are some highlights:

FRAMING THE MONETARY MESSAGE

Have you ever been told that listening to monetary reformers is like “drinking from a fire hose”? Or that monetary reformers speak a language that ordinary people cannot understand? Or, as monetary reformers, it feels like we can never be “expert” enough to go public with this information? Well, have a look at PMNZ’s two primer videos and you can decide for yourself about the effectiveness of their messaging without getting overly theoretical.

• Don and PMNZ appeared on a TV program called 7-Sharp in 2014. This 7-minute clip gives a good overview in language that anyone can understand.
  
  
• This twelve-minute document, A Wealth of Illusion, features leading economists who uncover the “dirty little secret” around money creation by private banks. The guy who produced it is also producing a documentary on PMNZ.

These videos are used to start meetings with policy makers in government. In this way, PMNZ’s workflow over time has a scaffolding effect, cumulatively building on past efforts, and setting things up well for future projects.

‘TROJAN HORSE’ APPROACH TO MONETARY REFORM

Something quite creative is PMNZ’s current ‘Trojan Horse’ approach. In Greek mythology, the Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. Don shared two examples of this:

(1) PMNZ’s strategy is to get municipal mayors and councillors on board with understanding that financial options are not just limited to increased taxation, service cuts, and selling off public assets and utilities during budget shortfalls. In fact, last week, two members of PMNZ recently did a 5-minute presentation to a government hearing on a water bill proposing that direct monetary financing could be used to pay for expensive upgrades and repairs to the legislative water bill. Sure, it’s not stopping banks from creating money, but it’s an interim step that could make other things possible including challenging bank money creation.

(2) How do we change minds? How do we get people to be interested? PMNZ’s approach is to appeal to the heart and the head, using the arts to trigger a cultural mind shift. A filmmaker has signed on to do a documentary about these four men in PMNZ who are incredibly different in many ways; the thing connecting them is their passionate commitment to monetary reform. This human story of trying to overcome their stark differences to work together on a shared cause may appeal to an audience, even if the monetary issue does not. You see, the exposure to the monetary information woven throughout the storytelling can plant potential seeds of curiosity in people’s consciousness.

One thing that stands out about PMNZ efforts over the years is that they experiment and try new things, going beyond academic papers and technical presentations to reach a wider audience. They take the time to build relationships with their parliamentarians and are not afraid to “go public”. Consider that some years ago, PMNZ fundraised to have some gamers create this: Boom Bust Money Game which is suitable for teaching even children.

Lastly, PMNZ is a small organization. They have four people who meet every week online for 30 minutes with each person expected to do two things every week to advance the campaign. Then, everyone reports back to the group (e.g., writing an op-ed, calling their elected representatives, meeting with community groups, doing presentations, sharing the campaign with a friend, and more). PMNZ members are urged to lead balanced lives. The strategy is focused and practical. They’ve got a captive audience with these municipal policy makers and mayors burdened with government debt, and they’re working with others, like economists outside the monetary movement, to gain support. Change seems within reach.

How can other monetary reform groups learn from PMNZ’s example?