Que tal um QE for the People?

Rendimento Básico Incondicional (RBI)

Experiências multiplicam-se na Holanda, Finlândia, Índia, Namíbia e Canadá. E em Portugal?

Em vez de um estado social falido, hipócrita, assistencial, prepotente e que humilha os cidadãos, precisamos de uma cidadania responsável que contemple o rendimento básico incondicional (RBI) como um ponto de partida realista para a cada vez urgente reforma social.

Em vez de derreter milhões de milhões de euros no sistema bancário e especulativo e nas burocracias insaciáveis. que tal criar e entregar diretamente o dinheiro às pessoas? Que tal um Quantitative Easing for the People — como propõe, ainda que com uma distorção burocrática indesejável no modo de implementação, Jeremy Corbyn, o novo líder trabalhista inglês?

Can the ECB create money for a universal basic income? 

Guest post by Teemu Muhonen, originally posted on taloussanomat.fi
Translation by Petri Flander, in BIEN—Basic Income  Earth Network 

[extract] 

The ECB to the rescue 

In recent years, the European Central Bank (ECB) has tried to support the eurozone’s lagging inflation through “quantitative easing” (QE), a measure used by other central banks as well. The ECB has been buying securities from institutional investors such as banks, using large amounts of fresh money. 

So far, national economies have not responded as hoped: despite the increase in the value of securities, consumer prices have stagnated. 

Last year the leader of the British Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn promoted the idea of ​​”People’s QE” in which the Bank of England would channel money directly to citizens, not banks. 

The proposal received wide support, and many people believe the ECB should follow suit. Even former IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard praised the idea. 

The expression that Corbyn used is misleading, however, because in his proposal the money is not channeled directly to the public, but to government, which then uses it to stimulate the economy through infrastructure projects and other measures. 

Another model was suggested by a group of 19 economists, who signed a letter published in the Financial Times (FT) in March last year. They proposed that the money should be given directly to citizens of the eurozone countries. The idea was to use ECB money to give 175 euros per month to each citizen for 19 months. 

Economist Milton Friedman once called this kind of payments “helicopter money”: it is as if the money is just thrown at people from the sky, with no strings attached. 

Effectively, what the FT letter proposed was a eurozone-wide unconditional basic income paid by the ECB.