Interest-free Monetary System

The Rt Hon Michael Howard, QC, MP
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The House of Commons

28 November 2001

Dear Mr Howard

You may remember we met some time ago at No. 10.

If Labour has achieved success by building on Conservative foundations, the Tory Party would do well to consider some radical ideas to outdo what might become a stagnant Labour ideology.

A case in point is my idea of an interest-free monetary system that could become the "in" thing for the 21st century.

I enclose herewith correspondence with the Treasury and additional notes for your perusal, and would be happy to answer any queries on the subject.

Some of the billions of interest charges that the community will save can be channelled to pay for the NHS.

Yours sincerely

Naim Dangoor

3 December 2001

Dear Mr Dangoor

Many thanks for your letter of 28 November enclosing copies of your correspondence with the Treasury. In the Conservative Party we have embarked on a comprehensive review of our policies and I am grateful for your contribution to the debate. We are not, I’m afraid, in any position to pre-judge the outcome of that review at this stage, but your ideas will be carefully considered.

Thank you again for taking the trouble to write.

Michael Howard, QC., MP

His Excellency Mr Vicente Berasategui
Ambassador
Embassy of Argentina

Your Excellency

I am writing to offer my services in connection with solving the endemic monetary problems which Argentina is going through. I would be willing to travel to Buenos Aires if necessary. Of course there will be no charge for my help or expenses.

There is no point in linking a currency to gold that you do not possess, or to dollars that you do not have. In the age of barter, the source of money was the money lender or the central bank, who had the gold or the hard currency. We are now in the age of credit where paper money need no longer be linked to gold or to hard currency. The source of this promissory paper money (I promise to pay the bearer 100 Pesos) is the consumer. A switch to consumer money is the right solution for the monetary crisis that your country is going through. Promissory money must be issued, not in the name of the lender or the central bank, but in the name of the consumer as the borrower. This kind of money, issued in the name of the borrower, would automatically be free of interest, thus saving the community the heavy burden of interest charges. The allocation of interest-free credit money is a matter for discussion.

Yours sincerely

N E Dangoor