September 10, 2011

“Every economics textbook says the same thing: Money was invented to replace onerous and complicated barter system–to relieve ancient people from having to haul their goods to market. The problem with this version of history? There’s not a shred of evidence to support it.”

“Interest rates spiked and the indebted became slaves. And the system perpetuated itself with tremendously violent consequences, with only the rare intervention of kings and churches keeping the system from spiraling out of control.”

Chomsky describes this out of control spiral here and concludes, – ”By shredding the remnants of political democracy, the financial institutions lay the basis for carrying the lethal process forward — as long as their victims are willing to suffer in silence.”

As we saw from “The Lost Science of Money” most economists steadfastly refuse to learn anything from history, – which is all the more peculiar for a “discipline” claiming to be “scientific” and on the outlook for the optimal truth and not a cult worship.

David Graeber.
Debt The First 5,000 Years
Mad Max
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9,3% between deposit and lending rates (IMF)
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