The ongoing global financial crisis, which originated in the United States, quickly spread to a number of countries around the world. Since it began to unravel in the summer of 2007, it has spread with an intensity rarely seen and claimed a great number of victims. The rise of a...

I elaborate on the structural causes of the global systemic crisis of 2007-9 to show that its ultimate origins lie in the still defective bookkeeping structure of national and international payment systems. As monetary circuit theory shows, banks are special, insofar as they can grant loans...