Despite the happy talk coming out of Washington and New York about the supposed economic recovery, the present economic and political order remains on course toward self-destruction. I’ve said it over and over again that the fundamental flaw is the compound interest that is built into the global debt-money regime. The fact that virtually all money is created by banks that “lend” it into circulation at interest causes debts to grow faster and faster with the passage of time. A quick glance at the timeline for public and private debt makes this obvious.
Prof. Richard Wolff, in the video below, does not mention this debt-growth imperative, but he does a good job of explaining how the governments and the central banks managed to temporarily forestall total collapse following the 2008 financial crisis, and why their actions are failing to solve the basic problem of slack demand.
We need to look beyond economic ideologies to find ways of defusing the debt bomb which grows bigger and more deadly with every passing day. A shift toward innovative, interest-free, approaches to the exchange of value and the financing of enterprise development provides the most promising route toward a soft landing. See The End of Money and the Future of Civilization.
Beyond Money 
Reblogged this on UZA – a people's courts court of conscience.
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Tom, interesting. On graph: Why all debts flat since the collapse, except federal?
Many see how their subsystem must be radically different if we are to survive/thrive. You identify a new subsystem for finance and economics; others offer new subsystems for their domains of concern. Yet, all these subsystems are deeply interdependent and none can be changed without all changing. “CHANGING”, the word, may contribute to our difficulty, with two meanings: (1) what we do today to be different tomorrow, and (2) what major difference in the whole system will be after significant transformation over time and integrated with changes (or non changes) in other systems.
Today, I believe, humankind lacks the tools and ability too use the tools we have required for us to successively participate in an evolving system of processes to overcome our blocks. I also believe our resources are enormous to achieve our objective and goals, once “we” recognize them.
“WE” is another confusing word. (1) everyone, or all those aware that we need significant “change”, and (2) just those, at any time, who are working with new tools and ideas – initially a small minority. One of our problems is trying to change everyone immediately. This engages our naive concept of “democracy”, where we want “everyone” to participate in Dialog & Deliberation, immediately.
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Larry, when the private sector cannot service any additional debt, when borrowing of lower levels of government is limited by law, the federal government becomes the “borrower of last resort.” If they fail to fulfill that role, the money supply will contract and make the depression even worse. That’s because of the debt-growth imperative that derives from the way money is created: banks create money by lending it into circulation and charging interest on those loans.
Yes, there are many subsystems and, as you say they are INTER-DEPENDENT, not independent of one another. They are all connected and there are many interactions. How does a physician cure a sick patient? He does not, the person’s own systems effect the cure. The physician can only try to identify substances, behaviors, and psycho-spiritual factors that are causing the sickness and points of intervention that might trigger the change—“Stop smoking, clean up your diet, get more exercise, avoid stress, change your attitude, forgive, etc.” All of these are more effective than the massive doses of toxic drugs that the medical establishment keeps pushing on people, drugs that serve mainly the companies’ narrow self-interests (profit). So it is with the body politic and western civilization.
Few people recognize how destructive the global debt-money system is to the health of society. If we do not transcend that money system, we cannot expect any significant improvement in other aspects of our collective situation. It is not necessary for everyone to agree on anything. It is the visionaries, entrepreneurs, and the “cultural creatives” who lead the way by introducing new ways of doing things. It’s not just technological innovation like computers, iphones, facebook, google, etc., it’s changing awareness, values, attitudes, and beliefs that can spread through the population and affect the collective consciousness and lead to behavioral shifts. These are natural processes that we know little or nothing about, but I must believe that “the better angels of our nature” are asserting themselves ever more strongly. Humanity is growing up.
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