Our Growth Economy: A System Designed to Crash (David Korten)

Created by : Francis Goodwin View profile

Why a money system dependent on constant growth can't last

Mar. 22, 2011 (YES! Magazine) -- The unrealistic expectation that money should grow effortlessly in perpetuity [see my last blog] is more than an issue of unrealizable expectations. It combines with a Wall Street controlled debt-based money system to create an imperative for the economy to grow the profits of bankers, and thereby the richest among us, to keep the financial system, and thereby the economy, from collapsing.

"For too long, we have put up with a money system designed to grow the financial assets of rich people at the expense of assuring continuing cycles of economic boom and bust, confining billions to lives of desperation, and reducing Earth to a toxic waste dump. We can do better." (Photo by Nick Ares)

It is odd that we experienced a financial collapse in 2008 because of a credit crunch, a shutdown on lending, at a time when the world was already awash in money. BusinessWeek’s July 11, 2005, cover story shouted “Too Much Money” and spoke of a savings glut. Its June 11, 2008, European issue reiterated the theme: “Too Much Money, Inflation Goes Global.”

Most discussion of the financial crisis focuses on the details and misses the big picture. First, much of the money was tied up in the Wall Street casinorather than facilitating productive activity in the real economy and was simply pumping up a phantom wealth bubble. Second, virtually every dollar in the system was borrowed, because in our money system, banks create money by lending it into existence. When this debt is used to inflate financial bubbles and support Ponzi schemes, eventual default is inevitable.

Third, Wall Street and the Federal Reserve are joined in an alliance to keep “wage inflation” below the level of growth in the real cost of living. This assures that the benefits of productivity gains all go to owners rather than being shared with workers. It also keeps inflation confined to financial bubbles that inflate the phantom wealth financial assets of the rich.