Interest and Inflation Free Money: Creating an Exchange Medium That Works for Everybody and Protects the Earth [Hardcover]

Inflation is just another way of saying the government cannot pay the interest on its war debts and has to print more money to cover the payments, devaluing the federal reserve notes you earn.

Interest is a huge wealth transfering machine, from the suffering to the already obscenely wealthy.

All of America is laboring under some terrible delusions today.
And a host of evils fall upon our heads. Desperate, driven, unhappy unhealthy populations suffer to pay back imaginary money. Families suffer, society becomes unsafer, children are unloved because they have parents who have no time for them. The next generation is being trained to endure hardship, and work longer and longer hours only to give away the fruits of their labor. Minds are wasted and the wondrous inventions that they might have come up with are lost... Knowledge of life-saving and health promoting methods are repressed. Our lives have been stolen from us, and the existence were are permitted is miserable. We are walking abortions. Permitted to have our bodies, but denied our lives.

This tiny little book shows the way out. The systems in this book stimulate an economy so well that even artists flourish, and it even tends to redistribute land: the only real wealth. Towns like Utica NY have tried it and it works beautifully, And the best of it is that "the Big boys" get to keep theirs, so the system is no threat to them. In fact, instead of having to worry about their holdings being eaten by inflation, they pay only a very small holding fee (say, 2%/yr.) to the banks if they don't want to participate. Much less worry for them, too, because even their fortunes suffer from being eaten by 4-6%/yr inflation.

It is all the more imperative that we take just a few minutes to read this simple little book now, because, over the next few years, 90% of the workforce will become unnecessary (see Jeremy Rifkin, "The End OF Work"). About 350 people own as much of the world as 40% of the rest of the world population. How long do you think they will need you?

Besides, for the believers in the Bible and the Torah among us, "Woe be to him who sells money at interest, for he sells what Does Not Exist". Do you really think that God just meant to not sell money to "foreigners"? That was when he was talking to a few tribes that he had chosen to build a better world for themselves. We are all one world family now. That means you, too, if you have an interest bearing bank account, pay a mortgage, are buying a car, or use credit cards.

And even if you think you pay interest only if you borrow money, think again! There are interest costs in everything you do including paying for your trash collection.

There is an easier and better way. Margrit Kennedy explains it much more succinctly than I can write this review...

This book is a very precise and neutral description of the economic good called "money", and how it works and has worked throughout history. It is not about creating dreamworld that makes all economic problems disappear magically. It has also nothing to do whatsoever with taking away money from those who supposedly have "too much" and giving it to those who have "too little". This book has to be read with a very open mind, since from the viewpoint of our economy it is sometimes hard to imagine what money would be like without interest or inflation. Margrit Kennedy does an excellent job in describing what has happened repeatedly throughout history when, fortuitiously or upon insight and knowledge, money was used differently than today.

One main message of this book is that money has to circulate in order to be useful, the faster the better. I don't think that there are many economically educated people who would disagree with that, even in our present economy. One of Kennedy's arguments is that interests act as an incentive to save money, thus slowing circulation down immensely. Without interests, even a very small depreciation of money over time (that could be misinterpreted as "government-induced inflation") acts as a strong incentive to keep money in flow. Margrit Kennedy thoroughly describes how in the "Experiment of Worgl", the mayor of a small Austrian town in 1932/33 was able to lead the economy of his town from post-war bankruptcy to health and wealth within one year with such an emergency currency. The theory behind his experiment the mayor had read in Silvio Gesell's "The Natural Economic Order".

The knowledge about money presented in this book is not new. In many very old cultures it is simply forbidden to take interests. Margrit Kennedy describes how that is by no means an ethical issue but has very concrete economic foundations. Interests can, and do, ruin a flourishing economy in a very short time span. Inflation can only delay the inevitable economic crisis that must follow as soon as the value of money is allowed to increase exponentially, unlinking its value from the goods that it used to represent.

It may be to Kennedy's disadvantage that the her primary degree is in architecture and not economics. But even as a certified economist, she would not be able to predict exactly what would happen if the economic system were changed now. It is therefore only honest to present the future as a theory and speculation, and only history as fact. An interesting aspect of introducing interest-free money (very punny) is that nothing needs to be taken away from anyone supposedly rich. The alternative system allows for social differences. It only takes away the repeated escalation and economic crash. Margrit Kennedy gives ample references to "real" economists, and the principle is easy enough to be understood by everyone.

It is very enjoyable to understand money in a new way. great book.

Someday humanity will look back on this book and wonder why its methods were not put into practice generations sooner. Better late than never. Free yourself. Become part of the solution.