Reconsidering the Privileged Powers of Banks

This book explores the privileged powers commercial banks hold, namely, their ability to create money out of nothing and then have that money grow in tune with a positive interest rate. Said powers defy, in an unnatural sense, the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The necessity of understanding the dual natures of money, wealth, and real capital, or, put differently, the reality that these three entities are simultaneously individual affluence and collective biophysical debt, is emphasized. The book culminates by proposing completely new foundations of money, wealth, and real capital for any society on a pathway of responsible development.

Questioning the privileged powers of banks can create money out of nothing and obtain interest payments over time Proposing a completely new foundation of money, wealth and real capital for sustainable and equitable societies Showing practical legal & institutional arrangements establish sovereign money system, democratically organized

Autorentext
Kozo Torasan Mayumi graduated from the Graduate School of Engineering at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Physics of Kyoto University. Between 1984 and 1988, he studied bioeconomics at the Department of Economics of Vanderbilt University under Prof. Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen's supervision. Mayumi has been working in the field of energy analysis, ecological economics and complexity/hierarchy theory. Having retired from Tokushima University, he now works at the Kyoto College of Graduate Studies for Informatics.

Ansel Renner graduated from the Department of Geography and School of Environment of McGill University and the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. As an academic researcher at the latter-mentioned institute, also as an independent contractor, Renner has been working on accounting methodology for processes of informed deliberation on the science-policy interface in relation to systemic issues of sustainability.

Inhalt
Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: The First Unnatural Power Given to Commercial Banks: Creation of Money Out of Nothing.- Chapter 3: The Second Unnatural Power Given to Commercial Banks: The Origin of Money Interest and Its Implication for Sustainability.- Chapter 4: Lucrative Financial Activities and Their Close Relation to the Solvency of Society.- Chapter 5: The Dual Nature of Money: Pecuniary Individualistic Perspectives Endanger Collectivistic Perspectives for Biophysical Sustainability.- Chapter 6: Expanding Debt Trap and Reviving the Biophysical View on Wealth for a More Sustainable and Equitable Future: The Buddhist Perspective on a Decent Life.- Chapter 7: Real Capital and its Relation to Sustainability: The Dual Nature of Real Capital as Biophysical Wealth.- Chapter 8: Sustainability and the Road to Sovereign Money.- Chapter 9: Conclusion: Toward a Pathway of Responsible Development.