Creating Sell-by Dates for Stranded Assets

Politicians can use their powers to tighten up on standards in market and their powers to oversee financial regulation to introduce a kind of pincer movement to direct the economy towards sustainability. This is what I have called introducing sell-by dates for stranded assets.

Banks create money by making loans and that they can only do this because governments (via their central bank) issue them a banking licence allowing them to do so. The banking licence is dependent on a number of conditions, including conditions about the volume and quality of assets they need to hold against which they make those loans.

As standards on environmental and social protection are tightened, the unsustainable activity will no longer attract investment – it will become stranded.