Eight Financial Postulates

Ok, I have lost the blog habit. It has been supplanted with a fascinating debate on the Green Party Economics list about money and how it is created. Faced with intractable complexity (which is where this debate always leads to), the scientist in me reaches for the facts, and tries to build from there. Here's where I have got so far:

EIGHT FINANCIAL POSTULATES 1. The amount of money in the world is increasing year on year.
The growth in the money supply has a doubling rate of 6-12 years. therefore- a) the system is unsustainable- b) money is being created somewhere 2. The power of Government to create money is limited to coins and notes,
about 3% of the total, therefore private loan agencies put 97% of the new money
into the system. 4. They do this by making loans (creating debt) which must be paid back with
interest. 5. The lenders have an ability to provide loans which are supported only
by the confidence that - not all their borrowers will default at the same time- not many of their creditors will want to withdraw their money at
the same time - which are not safe assumptions, - which leaves the economy vulnerable to periodic crashes. 6. The necessity of paying back loans and interest is an important driver of
economic growth, since a business that has interest and loans to pay off must work harder and produce more than a business that has no such obligations. 7. Economic growth is destroying the ecosphere. 8. Therefore it is incumbent on the Green Party economics community to - understand this process, - to help the Party and our electorate to understand the process, and - to generate alternative policies regarding the creation of money,
including consideration of the option that the Government should
take upon itself the role of creating some or all of the new money
for the benefit of the people it represents.