Control of credit

Press, 4 March 1978, Page 14

Control of credit

Sir, —The Values Party emphasises that the economic system needs changing and that community control of the money supply is needed in New Zealand (“The Press,” February 12). I would like to ask Mr Kunowski What part of the community should control the money supply? The State, local bodies, or a community credit union? If the Values Party believes the State should control the finances.

it is just a very liberal version of the Social Credit Political League, and as such will only seive to split the financial system reformers’ vote. If the Values Party believes that local bodies or localised credit unions should control the money, it is promoting the growth (by investment) of cities at the expense of less populated areas, because there is more money in the cities.—Yours, etc., T. J. KAVANAGH. February 14, 1978. [The leader of the Values Party (Mr Tony Kunowski) replies: “In my address I referred to the principle of community control, but this part of my speech was not covered by “The Press” report on February 13. Briefly, the Values Party believes that our economic system has to be radically changed so that a. much economic activity as possible is carried out at the local level and in a co-operative manner. Those activities which must be large in scale and therefore centralised must operate within a democratically planned economy. Within such an economic framework the allocation and the cost of credit would be only a minor aspect of the over-all planned approach. This is in stark contrast to the Social Credit emphasis on State control of the money supply (which already xists) within the framework of a totally unplanned and undemocratic economy.”]