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The Grip of Death: A Study of Modern Money, Debt Slavery and Destructive Economics [Paperback]

Michael Rowbotham
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Jon Carpenter (27 May 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1897766408
  • ISBN-13: 978-1897766408
  • Product Dimensions: 2.4 x 15.7 x 23 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 103,585 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Synopsis

In this study of modern money, debt slavery and destructive economics, Rowbotham shows the horrifying co nsequences of an economic system founded on money created by debt. '

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 38 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening and inspring 1 Nov 2000
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
If you ever wondered where money comes from, how it's created, and why it's created in the way it is, "The Grip of Death" is for you.

This book explains how the banking system is actually a form of institutionalised fraud, based on the original activities of goldsmiths who would lend more "money" than they actually had on deposit. The only reason we accept the system without a second thought seems to be that it has the weight of tradition behind it. But the weight of tradition is not enough to justify its validity, as the author shows.

This book explains how we have come to regard money--or more precisely, the absence or presence of it--as an indicator of what work can be done or "afforded". The government closes hospitals and schools down because of lack of money. Does that mean there are suddenly not sufficient people with sufficient ability and sufficient willingness to keep these hospitals and schools running? Of course not! All it means is that the government mistakenly believes that "lack of money" = "we can't do it". We have become slaves to the economy, when instead we should be its master. The author shows how we can achieve this.

This book explains how attempts by a government to reduce the national debt can be disastrous for the economy, and why those countries with the largest national debts are in fact those who have achieved the greatest economic success. Sounds paradoxical? It isn't at all, once you understand what the national debt is and how banks create money....

This book explains why projects in developing countries funded by the likes of the World Bank and the IMF are destined to fail, and how the only beneficiaries of interest payments made on third-world debt are commercial banks--commercial banks which created (out of nothing) the money that formed the original loans.

This book explains how the boom-and-bust cycle is a necessary consequence of the way in which the vast majority of money in a nation's economy is created (by banks) as a debt. One way to escape this cycle is to turn our economy from a debt-based to a credit-based one. How? A simple solution, involving the creation of debt-free money by the government, is suggested by the author. If anybody should question whether it is entirely "fair" that the government create such money, let them ask this question: Is it "fair" that we should let private institutions create, with no effort on their part, and then CHARGE US FOR USING (in the form of interest payments on debt) 97% of the money in our economy? The government has a right to create its own money debt-free, and it should exercise that right.

In short, this book is one of the most eye-opening, informative and inspiring books you could wish to read about money and its origins. I agree with the reviewer below: Buy it, read it, and send a copy to Number 10 (and Number 11)! Read more ›

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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant 30 Aug 2002
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is a must-read text. Get it, buy it, read it. It will reveal the subtle workings of the money economy and the heart of true power in the modern world. The writer rips off the veil of secrecy surrounding how money circulates in the modern economy and lays bare the cold enslavement that the vast majority must face in modern economic life.

If we are to provide our children a world worth living in, making real the recommendations of this book is essential. Nothing can be acheived without monetary reform. With it, everything can be.

The writer does not refer to eariler works of distinguished (but fringe) Austrian economists such as James Buchanan and Prof Rothbard. These are but minor criticisms. This is not a work by a academic economist and is perhaps a better work because of this. He speaks the truth.

Please read this important work.

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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Paradigm Shift 26 Sep 2004
By A Customer
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book has fundamentally affected the way I view the world, questioning why and how we work, what governments say - and then what they actually do. If you've ever thought that something wasn't quite right with the economic certainties that blare from PR ladened print and TV media then your time will be well spent reading this book.

For an idea of what this book contains here's the first chapter:
[...]

Believe me it's powerful stuff and is relevant whatever political persuasion you belong to.

The reviewer from Helsinki seems to have missed one of the chapters in the book dealing with the value of loans in an ever deflating system as this is well covered.

Get this book.

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars For all economists, politicians, business people 24 July 2001
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
If you take Popper's view that science can prove nothing- it can only disprove theories- then you'll like Rowbotham's debunking of the modern monetary system. He catalogues a list of expensive experiments using whole economies, including the world as laboratories, as his evidence. The redistributive left and monetarist right are likewise rejected as solutions to inequality, an unstable global economy, inflation, pollution and associated ills. The style is passionate,yet undogmatic. Rowbotham is readable,at times gripping. Fascinating historical background shows how we got where we are. He shows little understanding of the plight of a small advanced commodity trader such as New Zealand and his view of cars is archaic. However he does offer feasible solutions to many of the world's economic problems. Most readers will find its contents a revelation.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The Grip of Death is still with us ... 2 Jan 2009
Format:Paperback
This book will, as usual, show valid and viable solutions that can help avoid what is once again taking place (a worldwide recession in 2008 onwards). The author is a member of a British economic think-tank that the government inevitably ignores to satisfy its want to be re-elected. A blind American mindset, as to be expected, is reflected in the negative side of the polar ratings given in the Amazon.com (American) reviews.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Jim
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
`'The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented. Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin. Bankers own the earth; take it away from them, but leave them with the power to create credit, and with the stroke of a pen they will create enough money to buy it back again...If you want to be slaves of bankers, and pay the costs of your own slavery, then let the banks create money.''

Lord Josiah Stamp, former director of the Bank Of England, (quoted on p.35).

`The Grip of Death' is a highly readable and radical work that touches on many subjects in its attempt to explain the far-reaching malaise of the global financial system.

Rowbotham starts in Chapters 1 and 2 with an explanation of the debt-based financial system. For those, like myself, who erroneously imagined that the creation and supply of money is the domain of governments, these pages are quite simply revelatory. The author goes on to explain in Chapter 3 how debt-based finance distorts economies, driving `decadent growth' in such a way as to make the economy ever less responsive to the needs of real people and small businesses. This analysis is expanded in Chapter 4 `The Myth of the Consumer Society', which illustrates how economic servitude, and environmental degradation are the inevitable results of an `inherently unsupportive and unstable financial system'.

Further chapters discuss the latter's contribution to transportation and centralisation, `export warfare' between nations, the national debt, food and farming, Third World debt, the role of multinational companies and so on.
... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishingly good book, and still relevant in 2013
It's interesting that I'm sharing review space with some reviews that are now about 12 or 13 years old! It just shows that this book has stood the test of time. Read more
Published 3 months ago by M. W. Ellwood
5.0 out of 5 stars A rude awakening! This book should be compulsory reading on the school...
This book explains WHAT money is and where it comes from, how it is created and supplied and how it has enslaved 99% of the world population. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr. Jaspal S. Dev
5.0 out of 5 stars Gods ancient and modern
The ancients had their gods and the resulting hierarchies, cultures and economic structures. At the top of the hierachies they would have had their high priests issuing truths and... Read more
Published 20 months ago by dino
5.0 out of 5 stars great book
This was the first book I ever read about fiat money. The rabbit hole continues to deepen 6 years on; Rupert Sheldrake and mindlamps (I highly recommend checking out the Princeton... Read more
Published 20 months ago by uranian
5.0 out of 5 stars It was a revelation
This is a truly remarkable book. I never imagined that I would read a book on economics, but this book gripped me and I read it from cover to cover. Read more
Published 24 months ago by tomhorn
5.0 out of 5 stars THINK YOU KNOW HOW THE WORLD WORKS??? THINK AGAIN!!
So I thought I might try to find out a little about the current (just the most recent of several!!) economic disaster created by an unfeasably small number of unelected financial... Read more
Published on 19 Jun 2011 by Mr. S. Mcmurray
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for everybody
Almost all of us are victims of the economic system. How this system functions is for most of us veiled in mystery, giving the system even more power over us. Read more
Published on 29 July 2008 by Pablo
5.0 out of 5 stars A surprise all around
I wasn't expecting this book to be quite so good. First of all, there have been so many written on this subject and I had NO idea who Michael Rowbotham was or is. Read more
Published on 1 Jun 2008 by Sarah H.
3.0 out of 5 stars Engaging book but needed better data and references
Thought provoking book for those not intimately involved in the financial and banking industries. I suspect that most people outside of these industries are unaware of the basic... Read more
Published on 10 Dec 2006 by Graham Palmer
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