The Money Sham

The Money Sham is not just a theoretical exploration of “what money is.” It is a political-economic history of how misunderstandings about money have derailed all the well-intentioned attempts to solve the problems we face. The book reveals a persistent pattern in which flawed ideas about money, a child-like Piggynomics framework, have guided policy decisions across generations.

The book exposes a hidden continuity from Isaac Newton’s monetary framework through to Thatcher, New Labour, Conservative austerity after 2010, and to Labour 2024. The ascendancy of Currency School ideas over those of the Banking School and the eventual triumph of neo-liberal economics has driven the most consequential policy mistakes, contributing to crises, stagnation, instability, and avoidable social and economic pressures.

At a moment when the UK faces chronic under-investment, unaffordable housing, crumbling services, stagnant productivity and rising social stress and division, Labour has embraced the same failed assumptions that have constrained governments for decades: that the state must “find the money” before it can act; that markets must not be ‘spooked’; and that Public Purpose must always be subordinated to bond markets. The Money Sham dismantles these assumptions, exposing the flawed premises underlying the Bank of England’s public explanations of money, the austerity narrative, and the belief that the government must borrow its own money before it can spend.

The Money Sham offers a clear account of the country’s current crisis, alongside a concrete evidence-based programme for renewal, grounded in monetary realism, real-resource economics, and the practical realities of British institutions.