On 17 January, the Wetenschappelijke Raad voor Regeringsbeleid (Scientific Council for Government Policy) has published its 100th advice to the government: “Money and debt: The public role of banks”. The most important conclusions of the advice were presented to Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra by Casper de Vries, councilor of the WRR and Professor of Monetary Economics at Erasmus School of Economics.
“Money and Debt” is the result of a request for advice from the government on the functioning of the money system. A debate on this subject was held in response to the Dutch citizens' initiative 'Ons Geld' (Our Money). During this debate, a motion was adopted requesting the WRR to study the money system in more detail and to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of various forms of money creation.
Bank money has become increasingly important in our society, public payment and savings options have disappeared and the banking system has become more concentrated and uniform. This has destabilised the balance in the money system. There are too few brakes on money creation and lending, resulting in an undesirable high level of debt. The public character of the banking system is also insufficiently embedded. The WRR therefore advocates structural changes within our current money system. One of the recommendations is to enable a bank that only deals with payments and savings.
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The entire press release on the advice “Money and Debt” can be found on the website of the WRR (in Dutch).