Money matters... but so does finance Starting with the link between money and economic activity, this study shows how today's financial systems have shaped the way that monetary policy is transmitted to the real economy. The information gathering and decisionmaking processes within the financial system play a key role in determining both how credit is allocated and how the risks implied by credit are borne. The study points to what went wrong during the credit boom of the 2000s, which was the counterpart to a huge accumulation of savings, concentrated mainly in emerging economies. This accumulation could well continue. Making better use of the coming savings is a challenge that authorities will have to meet if they want finance to better serve the real economy.

In 2013 economic crisis is marked by systemic and structural contradictions, exploding inequality, ecological overshoot and the erosion of trust, democracy and community. Trillions were given to Wall Street banks to avert financial collapse on the ground of "too big to fail." Private losses morphed into public losses. Taxpayers shouldered the losses from financial speculation and unbounded deregulation. Government acted as the "errand boy for the banks" (Bill Moyers). Economic problems are systemic and structural, not psychological and motivational. Risk-takers and job-creators have been unmasked. Risk-managers turned out to be risk-producers. The system must be changed because the systrem leads to stagnant wages over 30 years, totally inadequate creation of family-wage jobs paying into social security. Our clientele system confuses public and private, ignores long-term necessities (e.g. universal health care, free or affordable education and rights of nature) in favor of profit maximization and shareholder interests. We face system (collective and political) problems since lobbyists write legislation, corporations are treated as persons, money is regarded as speech (the disastrous 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United) and investment is confused with speculation. Financial investment eclipses real economy investment. Wall Street banks spend over $4 billion over 10 years for lobbying and campaign contributions. The myths of neoliberalism and shareholder value were and are the basis for the 2007-2008 financial crisis. The myths of the invisible hand (that self-interest leads to the public interest), corporate beneficence, money created out of thin air, the Enron-model, the Apple-Google model of billions in dummy corporations or tax havens, the investors-suing-states model and the myth of nature as a free good, external or sink must be deconstructed and abandoned. Cooperation and competition are not opposites but depend on one another. Education, health care, air waves, food, housing and information are public and must remain public. Otherwise they become privileges and we live in a plutocracy or 21st century feudalism. The time is right for alternative economics, reducing working hours, labor-intensive investment, person-related work, access not excess and enough not more. Unlike a chair, an idea can be shared by a whole people! The following articles by Swiss, Austrian and German critical economists could revitalize public debate and understanding. The present system is unsustainable and the future system is still being designed. Radical change is a necessity given the end of cheap oil, climate change and the need to redefine work, security, happiness and health. Only dead fish swim with the stream. You can make fish soup out of an aquarium but you can't make an aquarium out of fish soup. A public debate on job creation, shrinking the financial sector, market failure, motors, models and myths is imperative.

Financial Markets and the Real Economy reviews the current academic literature on the macroeconomics of finance.

The finance sector of Western economies is too large and attracts too many of the smartest college graduates. Financialization over the past three decades has created a structure that lacks resilience and supports absurd volumes of trading. The finance sector devotes too little attention to the search for new investment opportunities and the stewardship of existing ones, and far too much to secondary-market dealing in existing assets. Regulation has contributed more to the problems than the solutions. Why? What is finance for? John Kay, with wide practical and academic experience in the world of finance, understands the operation of the financial sector better than most. He believes in good banks and effective asset managers, but good banks and effective asset managers are not what he sees. In a dazzling and revelatory tour of the financial world as it has emerged from the wreckage of the 2008 crisis, Kay does not flinch in his criticism: we do need some of the things that Citigroup and Goldman Sachs do, but we do not need Citigroup and Goldman to do them. And many of the things done by Citigroup and Goldman do not need to be done at all. The finance sector needs to be reminded of its primary purpose: to manage other people's money for the benefit of businesses and households. It is an aberration when the some of the finest mathematical and scientific minds are tasked with devising algorithms for the sole purpose of exploiting the weakness of other algorithms for computerized trading in securities. To travel further down that road leads to ruin. A Financial Times Book of the Year, 2015 An Economist Best Book of the Year, 2015 A Bloomberg Best Book of the Year, 2015

Date of publication obtained from publisher website.

Debunking the myths around the current economic belief systems, this book reveals how mainstream perspectives work for the benefit of the organised money establishment, while causing all manner of destructions, inequalities and frauds, all conspiring against the common good. Focused on the realities of organisational systems, Pearson offers a practical alternative to economic dogma. Written from a distinctive perspective that combines practitioner and academic expertise, this book is structured as a simple model of business strategy and identifies necessary systems change in order to achieve a truly sustainable future.

Based on detailed research and consultation with experts, including the Bank of England, this book reviews theoretical and historical debates on the nature of money and banking and explains the role of the central bank, the Government and the European Union. Following a sell out first edition and reprint, this second edition includes new sections on Libor and quantitative easing in the UK and the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.