In the United States, money is created as credit and debt. The US Constitution1 allows the federal government to produce money directly, but that is not how the nation has chosen to operate for most of its money. In this post, we look at the various sources for issuing credit and debt that provide money to run the country.
From a photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash.
We hear much about the cancellation of student debt. While a worthy effort, not much thought has been given to its implications. And I do not mean economic implications alone. Let us start with a brief examination of a few social implications.
There is much wisdom in the Principle of Subsidiarity. See, e.g., Thomas C. Behr, Social Justice and Subsidiarity. This is a key principle of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church. Concordian economics offers the opportunity for an automatic application of this principle.
I have written about money woes issues separately in the past on a variety of venues, but consistently on Econintersect and Talk Markets. Let me now gather these thoughts together. A confluence of impelling crises requires this synthesis. Here I argue for the institution of a global currency – the Bancor – first proposed by John Maynard Keynes at Bretton Woods in 1944.
