In the past few years I have read many books but ‘Web of Debt’ has by far been the most interesting. A must read although it does raise a lot of questions.
It is presented as revealing ‘the shocking truth about our money system’ and what it tells us is so contrary to what we have been taught that is….well,…. just very hard to believe! I feel a bit like the kid that has just been told that Santa Claus doesn’t exist. There seem to be a few things that the teachers left out in University. In fact, they weren’t even in the book.
After finishing the book this weekend two questions remained in my head:
1) Is this true?
2) And if it is true, is it also true for other countries than the USA (the book is mostly about the US banking system and the US Federal Reserve).
When I started looking around on the internet I was stuck with a third question:
3) Why is there so little debate (noise!) about this book and the story it tells?
That could be because it is simply not true. But then you would expect a whole load of authors pointing out all that is wrong with the book. There is some debate on Amazon that is interesting but it still doesn’t answer my questions above.
I have recommended the book to a couple of friends and invited them to a book discussion. Within our network we hope to find somebody (possibly somebody working at the Dutch Central Bank or an Economics Professor) to discuss the book.
Based on some of the (negative) reviews I think that what we will find is that most of the problem analysis of the book is uncontested. Even critics of the book state that the fractional banking system is seriously flawed. I am very curious about the truth regarding the alleged ability of banks to create money by ‘sleigh of hand’. The solution put forward by the author to have the government spend money into circulation could just be a matter of belief. We would have to test – do it – to know for sure.
The book is a must read because even if you don’t agree with the solutions, it is still a very good analysis what is wrong with our money system. After reading this book there is no doubt in my mind that we haven’t seen the worst of the financial crisis. It is time to seriously redesign our economic and financial system based on the reality of the world today.
More about that in my paper on Beconomics. At the moment it is still only in Dutch but I am working on the Beconomics Manifesto. In English. To be continued…
It is presented as revealing ‘the shocking truth about our money system’ and what it tells us is so contrary to what we have been taught that is….well,…. just very hard to believe! I feel a bit like the kid that has just been told that Santa Claus doesn’t exist. There seem to be a few things that the teachers left out in University. In fact, they weren’t even in the book.
After finishing the book this weekend two questions remained in my head:
1) Is this true?
2) And if it is true, is it also true for other countries than the USA (the book is mostly about the US banking system and the US Federal Reserve).
When I started looking around on the internet I was stuck with a third question:
3) Why is there so little debate (noise!) about this book and the story it tells?
That could be because it is simply not true. But then you would expect a whole load of authors pointing out all that is wrong with the book. There is some debate on Amazon that is interesting but it still doesn’t answer my questions above.
I have recommended the book to a couple of friends and invited them to a book discussion. Within our network we hope to find somebody (possibly somebody working at the Dutch Central Bank or an Economics Professor) to discuss the book.
Based on some of the (negative) reviews I think that what we will find is that most of the problem analysis of the book is uncontested. Even critics of the book state that the fractional banking system is seriously flawed. I am very curious about the truth regarding the alleged ability of banks to create money by ‘sleigh of hand’. The solution put forward by the author to have the government spend money into circulation could just be a matter of belief. We would have to test – do it – to know for sure.
The book is a must read because even if you don’t agree with the solutions, it is still a very good analysis what is wrong with our money system. After reading this book there is no doubt in my mind that we haven’t seen the worst of the financial crisis. It is time to seriously redesign our economic and financial system based on the reality of the world today.
More about that in my paper on Beconomics. At the moment it is still only in Dutch but I am working on the Beconomics Manifesto. In English. To be continued…
RSS Feed