Millions of words and thousands of pages are devoted to the subject of economics every year.
Yet we have…
financial meltdowns and crushing debt
staggering levels of inequality and economic injustice
and catastrophic environmental destruction.
Why?
Wouldn’t it be useful to have an economics that had something to do with solving our economic problems and creating a fair harmonious structure where people can live and co-exist?
Economics is typically defined in academic circles as a social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Notice that the definition doesn’t include the word money. Nor does it mention doing anything to solve our economic problems or create a workable system.
This website is here to suggest—and to demonstrate—that modern economics cannot reasonably be separated from money, and that many of the worst problems we’re facing today are tied to a very deep dysfunction in the money system itself, particularly in the way money is created.
Graph 1 shows the United States money supply compared to combined U.S. household, business, and government debt. It hasn’t always been this way, but it’s been moving in this direction for many years. Graph 2 shows the progress since 1960.
As a logical person, you might wonder how this could be possible. Since debt comes from borrowing money, it would be sensible to presume that some money would have to be there before anyone could borrow it. So how could there be more debt than money? It’s a good question. The simple answer to it is that our money system is not logical.
The reason for what you see in these graphs is not something commonly discussed in politics or mainstream media. The real reason is contained in the flawed structure of our money and banking system. And since this same system is used throughout the industrialized world, the same phenomenon is happening worldwide.
The basis of what’s wrong with the money and banking system lies in the nature of modern money and how it is created.
References:
Federal Reserve Statistical Release H6 Money Stock Measures
Federal Reserve Statistical Release Z1 Financial Accounts of the US
Last updated: October 27, 2022
Photo credits: Daniel Barnes on Unsplash; Jon Tyson on Unsplash; Naomi August on Unsplash; Ella Ivanescu on Unsplash; Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash; iStock.com/peshkov; iStock.com/Kyryl Gorlov