We invented money and can create more at will

Greece has a dilemma as to how it will pay its debts, as well as find monies to sustain vital services, infrastructure and incomes.

But the banks and speculators who went suddenly bankrupt in 2008 faced no such dilemma. In the few weeks after the crash of 2008, we quickly conjured up $17tn to rescue them.

The availability of money is entirely dependent on its creation ‘out of thin air’ by those who control the private banking system.

Money is a creation of the human mind, a construct. There is no money in nature and it obeys no natural laws.

Saying “there is not enough money” is like saying we can’t build any more houses, because there are no more feet and inches — we have run out of them.

These are concepts that we invented and that are useful and, just as we changed from feet and inches to centimetres and metres, we can decide, at any time, to change the concept of money to better suit our needs.

There is no good reason why new money should only enter the economy when it is issued as debt by private banks with interest due. It means we are forever indebted to a system that contributes nothing to the real economy.

In Germany, 70% of the banks are public.

The current EU crisis presents an ideal opportunity to fundamentally rethink how we organise the creation and control of money, and to reclaim the fruits of all our labours from the private banking elite.

Maeve Halpin

126, Ranelagh,

Dublin 6