Debt or Democracy - Mary Mellor, Pluto Press

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.