“Do not pass go, do not collect £200…” Monopoly it seems is somewhat like real life, the money is only worth something if everyone’s playing the game and of course if there are still properties left on the board to buy…Moreover, if you own Mayfair and Park Lane you may have few friends but will probably win the game by bankrupting everyone else, that’s what’s it’s about after all, isn’t it?… Let’s read that again, “DO NOT pass go, DO NOT collect £200”, well in the low interest, money printing era each year (read round of the board) your money is worth less, in effect you are paying £10 each time you pass GO, moreover, the banker, let’s call him Carl Marney, is printing more money all the time to give to Rakman Spiv (he’s the one who has Mayfair and Park Lane) by way of cheap loans so that he can put up more hotels and increase the rents. The third player, Paul Workman, used to hire a bit of pavement next to Park Lane so that he could run his shoe shining business, one of his customers was Carl Marney, but he booked in at the Mayfair hotel last week (a mistake you understand, it was all done on line!) and has now gone bankrupt. There are others like Paul still struggling round the board, those surviving have taken to not paying taxes, keeping their cash away from the bank and staying at friends’ hotels rent free, they have started using a loaded dice to avoid Rakman, the latter is starting to worry as no one stays at his hotel, no one rents his pavement and no one will shine his shoes. But hey, the other Pauls are thinking if the system’s fixed what’s wrong with cheating?… Rumours are circulating that Kelemy Jorbin will be elected prime minster and will confiscate all the money and redistribute it, no one will be allowed to leave the room, at least not with more than £25 (it only buys $20 these days anyway). 1970s memorabilia is back in fashion…
Welcome to the age of negative interest rates and quantitative easing (the Bank of England will have you believe it is a scheme for buying Government Debt from its existing balance sheet). The terminology may be confusing but essentially HM Government is cancelling its own debt and giving an equivalent amount of new money to banks and insurance companies so that they can buy / finance more real estate and stock market share purchases…This is what the economy needs surely?… higher asset values, a low exchange rate and a general population that no longer trusts the financial system…At present there is still a difference between ‘real’ ‘sovereign’ money and the monopoly version as the former has the Queen’s head on it and the chief cashier’s signed statement: “ I promise to pay the bearer…”, but what exactly is that promise now worth?
The mad hatter says in Alice and Wonderland: “If you want to get somewhere else you will have to run twice as fast as that.” However, perhaps it should be – If you want to support the economy you will need to print new money twice as fast as that…