Debt or Democracy: Public Money for Sustainability and Social Justice

This is a challenge to conventional thinking around money and the 'debt crisis'. By re-evaluating the source of money Mary Mellor presents a radical alternative to austerity and privatisation: public wealth or money used for sustainability sufficiency and social justice. Debt or Democracy debunks the received lessons of the financial crisis of 2007. Political elites shout about a house whose finances are in disarray; a 'yawning deficit' created by reckless spending in a bloated public sector. The answer to this 'debt crisis' has been harsh austerity measures - but this is a dangerously deceptive discourse. Turning against the prevalent narrative with its language of 'debt' and 'deficit' Mellor takes on the familiar question - 'where does money come from?'. The real solution is a return to the notion of public wealth and the public economy; of a monetary system owned by and operated in the interests of the majority.