I just finished watching Paul Grignon’s 47 minute animated video, Money as Debt. The video is at least a year old, but has regained some popularity with Bush’s proposed 700 Billion dollar financial sector bailout dominating the news. The video describes, in very understandable terms, some of the underlying issues with our monetary systems. It describes the history of the current monetary system, describes how fractional reserve banking began, identifies the problems inherent in our debt-based credit system, and suggests several alternatives for monetary reform.
Sounds a bit boring? Actually, it was very interesting. I recommend the video, and as always, view with a critical mind.
Thanks for bring this to my attention. I watched it after I saw your Tweet about it. It inspired me to plan a quick lesson for my online class.
http://intrepidclassroom.edublogs.org/2008/09/28/lesson-one-money/
Stay tuned to see if anyone reacts, or chime in yourself. Thanks. You are always a source of great media on the web.
Kind of frightening to think that our monetary system is just a giant Ponzi scheme. Watching this in the context of the current financial system meltdown in the United States emphasizes just how big and shaky this house of cards might be. But I wonder if our monetary system in Canada is inherently as bad, or if it is just far too closely connected with the U.S. system? Either way, I’m going to start growing some vegetables and raising chickens in the back yard so that I have something with intrinsic value to barter with … just in case.
The descriptive part of the video is very entertaining and made a lot things clear to me that I at best only vaguely understood. But I can’t follow on the proposal that governmental “value money” would be lent without interest. Where would venture capital come from? Why would anyone want to take on the risk if they couldn’t charge interest? And where do we find the government that knows the best way to build infrastructure?