Recently we stumbled upon a quote from the International Monetary Fund that shines a light on just how ridiculous the concept of money has become in recent decades. Once upon a time the concept of money was founded to enable farmers and skilled tradespeople to trade their foods, goods and services freely, and this has lasted to a greater and lesser extent for the past two millennia, but it seems that the intrinsic value of money has become stretched so far beyond its original idea, into the depths of just a few people’s imagination, that surely we need to all have a good long think about if this is what we all really want money to be.

“A stunning $12 trillion – almost 40 percent of all foreign direct investment positions globally – is completely artificial: it consists of financial investment passing through empty corporate shells with no real activity. These investments in empty corporate shells almost always pass-through well-known tax havens. The eight major pass-through economies – the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Hong Kong SAR, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Ireland, and Singapore – host more than 85 percent of the world’s investment in special purposes entities, which are often set up for tax reasons.” – “Piercing the Veil”, International Monetary Fund, June 2018.

Let’s say that again, 12 trillion dollars. With a global population of almost 8 billion, that works out at just over $1,500 per person. With a 3rd of the world’s population living on under $2 per day, this would be the equivalent to just over 2 years of salary for over 2.5 billion people! The global GDP was just over $80 trillion in 2017, so this is 15% of the total GDP. It is even more than the national debt of of the entire 27 countries of the EU (as of 4th Quarter Dec 2020), though not by much, showing that the world of money has many artificial oceans that contribute to the watering down of the value of money.

If that $12 trillion wasn’t allowed to be secretly moved around at tail’s length by the hoarding dragons of this world, just think of all the good that could be done with it. The World Economic Forum says the world needs 1.5% of global GDP to be invested to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 – using the 2017 $80 trillion guideline, we get the answer of $1.2 trillion - a mere 10% of the artificial money shifted through tax havens each year would sort out climate change. Or assuming the global GDP rises slowly, and say its another 30 years until 2050, $1.2 trillion per year would be $36 trillion – if we used all £12 trillion of this money, we could fix the financial part of the climate problem in just 3 years!

Let’s shame those tax havens once more - the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Hong Kong SAR, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Ireland, and Singapore. 3 situated in Europe, 3 in the Caribbean and 2 in South East Asia. Remember, these tax havens are where the money passes through, it certainly does not mean it’s where it came from, in fact as foreign investment it literally always came from somewhere else (which could include the other tax havens of course), so while they may not be responsible for it directly, they do all have the power to stop it. And maybe, just maybe, with nowhere to go, it might be put back into something that actually helps the whole planet.

If anyone ever says that the world does not have enough money to pay for a better world for all, and to save the earth from climate change, tell them the money is there tenfold. The problem is not whether there is enough money, or whether there are enough people to do the work (when a 3rd of the world are on under $2 per day) – the question is merely whether the money that is clearly there, is thrown from creature to creature like Golem’s ring, or actually put to some good use.