Description
Book SynopsisWe are all swamped in debt. Households, corporations, governments...debt has become so ingrained in our culture, it is an unquestioned fact of life. However, there is another way of bankrolling our economic future, one that could lead to a much fairer society: equity There is increasing evidence that over reliance on debt finance is damaging both business and society. Debt leaves control and ownership in the hands of too few: it is a direct source of extreme inequality. Equity finance can redress the balance; by broadening direct ownership of assets through equity, we can make everyone better off - not just the few. There is value in equity way beyond what financiers, economists, investment bankers and many corporate CEOs will tell you. It is the value of aligned interests, of trust and fairness, of optimism and patience, of stability and simplicity, of shared endeavour. Only when we unleash this value will economic democracy secure the political democracy that we cherish.
Trade Review'In his short book Debtonator, [McNally] contends that the advantage of debt over equity conferred by most tax systems (that offer tax relief on debt interest), as a result favouring corporate financiers, is not only hugely destabilising but another of the sources of wealth inequality seemingly hard-wired into our financial system... So by incentivising debt over equity have we turned debt into not just a symptom of our system but one of its shaping forces? Indeed we have.' -- Merryn Somerset Webb, Financial Times; 'A brilliant analysis of current financial and social failures - why we must change the system before it's too late.' --Chris Gibson-Smith, Chairman of the London Stock Exchange. 'McNally advances a compelling argument for long lasting wealth creation through the use of equity as compared to the essentially nihilistic nature of debt. He uses some wonderful illustrations of how debt has got totally out of hand. I particularly liked his point that if you laid all of the world's debt in dollar bills from end to end it would stretch from Earth to Mars and back 50 times!' --RealBusiness.co.uk 'Andrew McNally has produced a readable and admirably short book arguing in favour of a much greater use of the other sort of funding - equity. Debtonator: How Debt Favours the Few and Equity Can Work For All of Us goes beyond simply recommending lower leverage because it makes a financial system more robust. He believes that wider use of equity is a path to greater prosperity for the many, not just the few.' -- Simon Taylor, University Lecturer in Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School; 'In this short book, the author pulls no punches about the level and consequences of the ever growing debt- mountain' - The Chartist
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 1. Debt and Equity 101 9 2. The Real Value of Equity Finance 15 3. Nobel Finance 33 4. The Rise and Rise of Debt 39 5. How Debt Favours the Few 55 6. The Social Value of Equity 71 7. A Sense of Urgency 77 8. Beyond the Debt Bias 83 Conclusion 97 Notes 99 Bibliography 111 Index 117
