Ponzi scheme, meet brick wall

Recent posts by blogger George Washington on money creation and fractional reserve banking are drawing much needed attention to the fact that the monetary system effectively functions as a state sanctioned ponzi scheme, a highly simplified version of which looks like this:

All money that comes into existence does so as an interest bearing loan. This activity takes place at private banks, which are authorized to create new money by extending credit to willing borrowers. That debt-money is then expunged as the borrower makes the final payment on the loan, but the interest is kept by the bank. The interest was not created, but "won" from the existing pool of money in the economy. This happens over and over again worldwide, millions upon millions of times, in a kind of tectonically-slow but tectonically-inexorable sucking up job, to money creating institutions, of all money in the economy. Over time more and more borrowers drown in debt as they compete amongst themselves to stay afloat financially, until there are not enough borrowers out there to keep the ponzi ballooning. This is debt saturation, and the data here shows very clearly that this has indeed happened.

Though I have probably the bloggosphere's tiniest readership, I urge you all to check that link out. It's very sobering ... for those still inebriated anyway.

Welcome to the end of the line. If we make it past this monumental challenge, the future might just be very wonderful indeed.